What's with the Chocolate?

We have some chocolatiers in San Francisco. We have some in NY too. But here, it seems like every block in Paris has one. High falootin', low falootin' (well, not that low), they're just about everywhere.

Look on a menu at any bistro or brasserie...Mousse au Chocolat.

Look in any boulangerie (bread bakery)...Croissants au Chocolat.

Stop at any crêpe stand...Crêpes avec Chocolat ou Chocolat et Banane.

But those I expected. Those I knew well both from the States and from my previous experiences in France. I've never actually lived in France before, though, so I never really went to grocery stores. There are local specialist shops with meats, with fish, or with cheese...with pastries, with breads, or with prepared foods, but there are also general grocery stores. These tend to be small versions of our supermarkets, tucked into smaller urban spaces in this dense city than would be available to a typical Safeway or Whole Foods or Gristedes.

It was in one of these supermarchés that I found my most surprising indicator of the French passion for chocolate. This picture shows a set of breakfast cereals on a rack of shelves. If you look closely, you can see that just about every different cereal here has chocolate in it. All Bran with Chocolate. Special K with Chocolate.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself "but this is only one rack of cereal - what about the others?" Well, this was one of just two racks...and several of the cereals in the other rack had chocolate as well. Wow - a couple of more research studies proving chocolate's health benefits and the French will be dancing in the streets...no...wait...they already do that.