Musée Les Secrets du Chocolat

Geispolsheim is a suburb of Strasbourg situated south of the city centre which grew up around a station on the railway to Mulhouse, opened in 1841. The museum of chocolate, sometimes called Les secrets du Chocolat musée, is situated close to a factory producing the Marquise de Sévigné brand of chocolate, which originated in the Auvergne in 1892 when August and Clémentine Rouzaud began to manufacture chocolate on a small scale. The brand name was established when Clémentine Rouzaud sent a box of chocolates to the dramatist Edmond Rostand (1868-1919) author of a play that was being performed at the Paviliono Sévigné at Vichy, the home in the seventeenth century of Marie de Rabutin-Chemtal, Marquise de Sévigné (1626-96). The company prospered in the first part of the twentieth century and opened a chain of shops in the principal cities of France. It was absorbed in 1970 by a much larger firm, which closed most of the shops, but failed to convert a luxury brand into one that could provide for mass markets. In 1973 the trademark was taken over by the Burrus family, makers of chocolate since 1911.

The museum provides a botanical and historical overview of the manufacture of chocolate from the growing of the beans to the finishing of luxury products. There are demonstrations by skilled chocolatiers, and children are able to make chocolate for themselves. There are, naturally, opportunities for tasting. The museum belongs to La Route du chocolate et des Douceurs d’Alsace, established in 2007, which links together similar sites within the region.