The owners of Belle Fleur are not French, they are just north, from Belgium.  But the chocolate is so seriously good, they just had to be included in the safari.  


Belle Fleur is famous not only for its delicious cream laden chocolate made from exotically sourced cocoa beans but also its ingenious use of chocolate as a sculpture medium.

At the front of the Petersham store is a large glass walled room featuring lots of chocolate art or is that chocolart.

A model of a town hall in Belgium.

A  more earthy inspiration for art – our council rubbish bins.

In the photograph above is Jan Ter Heert’s orginal family store in Belgium.  Back in the day, chocolate wasn’t the only food they sold.  The store was a combined patisserie, cafe and catering business.


Speaking of origins, this is Belle Fleur’s selection of single origin chocolate.  The cocoa for each chocolate is sourced from a different country.  Just like single origin coffee, single origin chocolate appears to be the next big thing for an increasingly discerning market.

I love the sense of humour on the produce information cards.  Especially the suggestion to ‘upgrade your phone’ with a chocolate one.

We had a very generous tasting of 5 different chocolates.  Including these dark chocolate cooking buttons.  They tasted delicious just the way there were.

It may have been all the sugar, cocoa and cream but my eyes seemed to be playing tricks on me. It was a case of SSG and the Chocolate Factory.


Chocolate coffee sets on a glass shelf in front of me.

Chocolate champagne to the left of me.

A drawer of chocolate light bulbs, piglets and streudels.

Cannoli and the famed cream caramels (to the far right in the photo below).  The cream caramels are a bite sized piece of heaven.  There is a layer of cream and also caramel inside each one.  I like chocolates that deliver what their names suggest.

Single origin chocolate truffles and … macarons!  Jan sighed audibly as he admitted that ever since Masterchef it has been mandatory that every chocolatier in Sydney has to sell macarons or find themselves in chocolate Siberia (if that means being on your own with mountains of chocolate, that may not be such a bad thing….).

The macarons were even better than the ones I ate in Paris.  


I know it’s not the greatest photo, but here are the chocolates I bought home.