Moutarlier les artisans du goût - Chexbres

The counter where the house began

This is the original Moutarlier address, opened in December 1985 and still the anchor of a pâtisserie-chocolaterie family whose boutiques now reach Lutry, Lausanne and Montreux. Lucien Moutarlier set it up in Chexbres as more than a sales counter: shop, working laboratory and salon de thé together, in a village perched on the Vaud wine terraces above Lake Geneva. The founding aim was put simply, to work at a high level and to faire plaisir, and the house has stayed with it. In 2001 Lucien Moutarlier joined Relais Desserts, the international association of artisan pâtissiers built around fine raw materials and continued invention, and the next generation of the family followed into it in 2013. Chexbres remains the historical heart of the maison rather than a satellite of the newer shops.

Boutique, salon de thé and a terrace

The Chexbres shop still works in three parts. The display side carries pâtisseries, chocolates, biscuits, pâte de fruits and small apéritif pieces. The salon de thé gives the address its seated, afternoon character, and the terrace adds warm-weather tables. The apéritif pieces are the savoury exception on a counter otherwise given over to sugar. Choose from the cases, then sit inside or out, or take the box away. Nothing here is preserved as a period piece: the shop was renovated in 2009, then moved slightly, enlarged and modernised again in July 2021, so the founding address is also the current one. Since 2019 the heavy production has happened at Noville, where pastry, traiteur work and chocolate were brought under one roof.

Pâtisserie first, then the chocolate

Come for the pâtisserie and let the chocolate follow. The Chexbres selection draws on the full house range, so a visit can be a single cake with tea or a box assembled from biscuits, pâte de fruits and chocolates. Pastries can also be ordered in advance and collected here, which makes the branch a pickup point for the wider programme as much as a village tea room. The chocolate is the part worth slowing down for. Cacao Facture is the house bean-to-bar line, taking cocoa from the bean through to the finished tablette and on into gift boxes for the boutiques. The register throughout is traditional French-Swiss, weighted toward pastry and confectionery rather than a café kitchen, and tea is the natural partner at the table.