Chocolaterie Bellanger

A Le Mans maison, one door in Tours

Everything in the Chocolaterie Bellanger cases in Tours is made in Le Mans. Bellanger produces at its atelier there and sends the finished work down, which makes this shop a boutique in the strict sense: a place to choose from things already brought to their final state, not a kitchen you are standing outside of. The house opened the Tours address in November 2023, extending a family maison built on chocolate, confectionery and fine pastry rather than on bread or café service. Jacques Bellanger, who founded it and took the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title in 1982, works with his son Vianney as co-director, and the family language of a maison de famille covers the pâtissiers, chocolatiers and counter staff held to the same standard. It is a Relais Desserts member boutique.

Chocolate and macarons, not a bread counter

The categories tell you what to expect: chocolats fins, macarons, entremets, gâteaux de voyage, flans, glaces and sorbets, and confiserie. There are no baguettes, no croissants and no pain au chocolat, so this is not a boulangerie with a chocolate shelf beside the till. The pastry work uses organic flour, and the ranges are structured as families rather than as one rotating case, so the decision is a comparison: a box of bonbons against a tray of macarons against a flan or an entremets, chosen by occasion rather than by appetite. Seasonal collections come through in colour, and the summer set brings bouchées praliné alongside boxes of dark and milk chocolate candies.

The named ranges, and how to choose

Several lines tie the house back to its Le Mans roots. Les 24 Heures du Mans, Les Pépites and La Cité Plantagenêt each borrow from the city's own iconography, and the sculptural side of the work extends to moulded pieces such as a chocolate Chaussure de Foot. For a first visit, the honest test of a chocolatier is the plain bonbon, so start with a small assortment of chocolats fins and judge the ganaches before anything decorative. Macarons come next, since they show whether shell and filling are being made to the same standard. If the purchase is for a table rather than a pocket, take an entremets or a flan. If it has to travel, the gâteaux de voyage exist for exactly that.