AU PETIT PRINCE - ARRADON

Chocolate is the centre of the case

Chocolate comes first at the Arradon boutique, and pastry follows close behind. Au Petit Prince opened here at the end of May 2023 as the brand’s seventh shop, extending a network that has stayed entirely inside Brittany since it began near Lorient. The named pieces make the regional attachment obvious: Huitres de la Ria, Oursons Guimauve and macarons sit alongside product names drawn from the Ria, St Goustan and Saint-Cado. Macarons act as the bridge between the two halves of the house, French in form and Breton in the naming. Maëlig Georgelin, the Breton pastry chef behind the brand, led the house team that won the professionals edition of Le Meilleur Pâtissier in 2019, which is the credential the shops are built on.

A polished boutique, built for choosing

The format is a boutique case rather than a room to sit in. The display is arranged for choosing and boxing, the positioning is deliberately premium, and the whole shop reads as pâtisserie and chocolaterie rather than a general bakery with a chocolate shelf.

The Breton commitment is stated rather than incidental: every boutique in the network is in Brittany, and the brand talks about developing locally and staying loyal to the territory. Arradon, on the Gulf of Morbihan, fits that map neatly.

Behind the retail side there is a production business. Au Petit Prince also supplies bakers, pâtissiers, caterers, restaurants and delicatessens, which explains the consistency of the chocolate line and the scale it is made at. What sits in the case is the retail face of something that runs considerably wider.

Order chocolate, then add from the case

Start with the chocolate selection. It is the strongest part of the house and the reason the brand describes itself as a luxury chocolate maker rather than a pastry shop with chocolates on the side. A boxed assortment is the clearest way in.

Then add macarons, or whichever pastry is in the case that day. The regionally named pieces are worth taking for what they are, sweets that carry Breton places in their names, and they make better gifts than a plain box. Macarons are the easiest thing to carry any distance and the sturdiest choice in a warm car. Come here for Georgelin’s competition record, a Brittany-only network that reached Arradon in 2023, and a chocolate programme run at production scale.