Chocolaterie Bellanger

Chocolate leads at the Laval boutique of Chocolaterie Bellanger, and the pastry follows a step behind: bonbons and boxed assortments in the case first, then entremets, macarons, travel cakes, flans and ice creams. The family are chocolatiers from the Pays de la Loire, and this Mayenne shop has been part of the city since 2004.

A family chocolate house, showing its work in the case

The Bellanger family took over the Le Mans chocolaterie Béline in 1988 and passed it to the next generation in 2017, and the house still leads with the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title it won in 1982. What that lineage buys the Laval customer is a case built around chocolate rather than bread: bonbons, confectionery, entremets, macarons, travel cakes, flans, ice creams and seasonal gift boxes. The house calls its own work original and gourmand, and it means that literally. Alongside the classic boxed assortments there are novelty pieces such as the Chaussure de Foot, a chocolate football boot. Organic flour is the quality marker on the pastry side.

A city-centre boutique in a small regional family

Laval sits in a compact network that also takes in Le Mans and Tours, and this branch is a boutique rather than a salon de thé: no savoury menu, no drinks programme behind the counter. The visit is a browse and a choice, whatever looks best in the display, boxed to carry out. Two decades here have made it more than a satellite of the Le Mans house, and the shop is a Relais Desserts member boutique, which puts it in the company French pastry keeps for its better chocolatiers. Seasonal collections keep the case moving through the year rather than fixing it in place.

Buy chocolate first, then whatever the case is proudest of

The strongest order is an assortment of bonbons, because that is the work the house has been judged on longest. From there, take what the pastry side has out that morning: a macaron or two, a flan, a travel cake built to survive the journey home. The summer collection leans on praline bites and coffrets of dark and milk chocolate, and gift boxes are a genuine part of the trade here rather than an afterthought at the till. If you want to see how any of it is done, the wider house also runs pastry courses.