Imagine if she’d lived a normal life: a house, a son, a husband, a job in an indie bookshop. Not a very happy life, but a normal, boring, suburban life in a busy part of London. Père Reynaud pays Vianne a visit: it is Sunday, and he didn’t see Vianne or her daughter at church. Vianne explains, “We don’t attend, you know.” When the priest learns that Vianne is unmarried, his outrage turns to horror. Il burro e le uova dovrebbero essere a temperatura ambiente ma visto che mi decido sempre all’ultimo minuto e non mi va di aspettare fa lo stesso, anche per voi eh! The old baker whose bakeshop is now the location of Le Celesté Praline, Vianne’s chocolaterie, he had been dead four years prior to the story’s events. Narcisse

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. She has also written a DR WHO novella for the BBC, has scripted guest episodes for the game ZOMBIES, RUN!, and is currently engaged in a number of musical theatre projects as well as developing an original drama for television. A surprising yet fitting denouement caps this deftly told tale of lust, greed and love. Francophiles will be drawn to the evocative descriptions of daily village life, while gourmands revel in the mouth-watering descriptions of chocolate preparation. "Chocolat" is a heart warming and enjoyable story. The only downfall: the intense chocolate cravings the whole time you read! It was a good story. A struggle between good and evil in a tiny little villiage that did not take well to outsiders.Young widow Vianne Roche's mouthwatering bonbons, steaming mugs of liqueur-laced cocoa and flaky cream-filled patisserie don't earn her a warm welcome from the stern prelate of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. In Francis Reynaud's zeal to enforce strict Lenten vows of self-denial, he regards his sybaritic neighbor with suspicion and disdain. It is Lent, the priest has decreed abstinence, deprivation. Yet, Vianne's shop is a "red-and-gold confection," her window a proliferation of truffles, pralines, candied fruits, hazelnut clusters, candied rose petals, all there to tempt Reynaud's parishioners. He sees it as a disgrace, a degradation of the faith, and eventually preaches against Vianne from his pulpit. Armande, Vianne's elderly landlady, is one of her first allies. Armande's daughter Caroline will not let her see her grandson Luc, as she is a "bad influence". Vianne arranges for him and his grandmother to meet in the chocolaterie, where they bond. After finding out about their secret meetings, Caroline reveals her mother is diabetic, but she continues to eat the chocolate when visiting the shop. Nor is the book set at any particular time. I deliberately wanted to give it an old-fashioned feel, to suggest that this was a place where nothing had changed in many years, whilst retaining some elements of modern life. There are still many rural communities in France – especially in the south – where this remains a true depiction, but Chocolat was never intended to be an accurate representation of “today’s France”. It is a France seen through a very selective, very personal filter which has as much to do with nostalgia as with present-day realism. I had forgotten how the book was and the movie had imprinted itself in my thoughts. I didn’t know (or rather remember) both the stories were different. OH MY GOd!! WHYYY? I kept screaming in my head, ‘’ Joanne, follow the movie. FOLLOW the movie.’’ But yeah, nothing happened. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED the book. I kept reading searching for A’s party because it is one of the BEST scenes in the movie. Ah! It isn’t there in the book. Roux? I refuse to believe that the gypsy’s story turns out the way it does in the book. Movie please? Claire’s perfidious husband and absentee father to Luc, not much is mentioned about him in the novel save for him being an incorrigible flirt and incapable of keeping is hands off other women. Luc Clairmont

Magical and scrumptious, Chocolat is a thrilling delight for the senses. When Vianne Rocher and her imaginative daughter, Anouk, establish themselves and their chocolaterie in the small, French-Catholic town of Lansquenet, they are met with guarded curiosity and veiled hostility. As Vianne slowly begins to attract the townspeople with her winning combination of tantalizing chocolate creations and her warm friendship and unprejudiced acceptance, she sparks the wrath of the self-righteous and judgmental priest, Père Reynaud. Determined to rid the town of both the river gypsies as well as the influence of Vianne Rocher, Père Reynaud readies himself and his church for the battle between what he considers good versus evil. But, there is something quite incongruous and disturbing in his convictions. He loathes the members of his congregation: "Sheep are not the docile, pleasant creatures of the pastoral idyll. Any countryman will tell you that. They are sly, occasionally vicious, pathologically stupid." He is arrogant and overly confident: "When Vianne Rocher sees the power of the church - my influence over every single soul in the community - then she will know she has lost." Can Vianne and Père Reynaud exist side by side in this small community? Chocolat was exactly the kind of novel I needed at the moment. I discarded books left and right, I was in the mood for something literary and after re-watching the movie - I settled on this one. I decided to savor it as one would a piece of chocolate, slowly, letting it melt into my mouth so that I could absorb the flavor better. reikia ne tik tinkamos aplinkos, tinkamos temperatūros ir tinkamo recepto. Jam reikia tiek tinkamo ragautojo, tiek tinkamo šefo. Tokio, kaip Vijana Roše. Šokolado alchemikė, pranašė, bėganti nuo to, ką mato ateityje – kaip bėgo jos mama ir mamos mama. Nes kartais bėgimas irgi yra recepto dalis. Kartais šokoladui reikia net papildomo kartumo. Tokio, kurio prideda kunigas Fransis Reno. Nusidėjėlių kolekcionierius, kantriai laukiantis dar vienos paklydusios sielos, kurią galėtų priimti į mylinčias rankas, krikščioniškai kukliai nuleista galva. Bet rankos, nors ir mylinčios, myli ne besąlygiškai. Tik pritaikant griežtas atrankos ir patikros taisykles – dar griežtesnes nei gaminant patį sudėtingiausią patiekalą. Myli tik po pažadų, priesaikų, visą gyvenimą trunkančių įsipareigojimų ir dviveidiškų maldų Damoklo kardu virš galvos.When he realizes that Vianne intends to open a chocolate shop in place of the old bakery, thereby tempting the churchgoers to over-indulgence, Reynaud’s disapproval increases. I believe that being happy is the only important thing. Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive." pagine che si alternano tra avvenimenti e ricordi, smosse da un vento magico, quasi esotico, che sembra dirottare la vita dei personaggi, e sembra quasi voler suggerire una risposta al pindarico quesito: The closest Harris approaches to recognizing that Christianity might not all be self-importance and self-aggrandisement is a rather patronising statement by Vianne that “fairy tales should make one happy”. This pathetic attempt to mollify Christians however is severely undercut by the fact that Vianne has magic of her own, albeit magic with a rather diffuse origin, making me wonder what is or is not a fairy tale. Similarly, while several sources (including Harris herself), vaguely mention “pagan beliefs” in connection with Vianne, there was none of the intensive spirituality or even ties to basic beliefs associated with paganism, indeed the only vaguely pagan thing in the book was Vianne’s category mistake in assuming the origin and meaning of Easter were the same thing. Indeed, like many atheists, Harris talks quite freely of religious faith without once discussing actual spirituality, indeed it's notable that God (or even his Pagan equivalent), is almost never mentioned. It may be the season of Lent, but newcomer Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk arrive with the change of the winds on Shrove Tuesday; opening a chocolate boutique nonetheless. And despite it being the season of abstinence, the locals soon find they can’t stay away…before long Vianne’s shop becomes the talk of the community - both good and bad. I often felt sorry for Vianne as she was only trying to do good, not only for her more likeable customers, but for the whole community.

Chocolat is a contemporary novel with a few fantasy elements. I really liked the setting, which is one of most beautiful and immersive settings I've read about lately. This is the second time I have read the book. It was worth rereading, but not amazing enough for me to read it a third time, most likely. The main problem with the book’s pacing however, is that of the second perspective the book is told from, that of Père Reynaud the priest. Where Vianne’s perspective is told in a richly descriptive first person, Reynaud is represented as quite literally complaining to a catatonic older priest, constantly bemoaning the sins of his parishioners and fearing the satanic influence of Vianne and her infernal chocolates. As the book began, Harris seemed to represent Reynaud as basically harmless, a breast beating pompous buffoon who I was sure would come around before the end of the book (indeed I gather this is what happens to Reynaud’s analogue in the film).

Sciogliete insieme burro e cioccolato a bagnomaria, nel frattempo ( che bello questo vocabolo in cucina, mi sono sempre immaginata come la dea Khalì, peccato che sia un tantino lontana) dicevamo, nel frattempo unite zucchero e tuorli d’uovo girando fino a far diventare una crema spumosa ( se non viene aggiungete un goccio di latte). I bianchi d’uovo vanno montati a neve a parte. Una volta sciolto tutto sul fuoco aggiungete la composta allo zucchero e le uova e girate lentamente. Aggiungete farina, cacao e lievito che sono stati precedentemente setacciati. Ringrazio il setaccio Ikea che fa un lavoro splendido a proposito. Quando tutto è perfettamente amalgamato aggiungete con cura i bianchi d’uovo girando da sotto verso sopra lentamente altrimenti si smontano. Ecco, ci siamo. Avete oliato e imburrato una teglia e nel frattempo riscaldato il forno? Se si proseguite infornando tutto, altrimenti aspettate :- ) . La cottura varia da forno a forno. Imparate a conoscere il vostro. Ma ricordatevi che solo dopo 20 minuti potrete aprire lo sportello per la prima volta altrimenti non lievita più. Saggiate la consistenza che più vi piace con uno stecchino. Once Armande’s daughter comes to Vianne and having a talk with her, tells that her mother has the serious problems with her health, and her mother must follow the special diet, where the sweeties are not allowed. Vianne talks about it with Armande, but she is a willful woman and says that she’ll do what she wants to do, and eat what she wants to eat. Once the old woman says that there will be her birthday soon and she wants to celebrate it well: to make a party with a lot of guests: she invites not only the citizens, but some of the gypsies as well. The party was a success: the atmosphere was fun and pleasant. Armande is happy to spend her birthday in this company. At the end Vianne and Roux stay alone to clean everything after the party. They spend a night together. The next day Armande dies.

gr di cacao ma io ne metto sempre 75 così faccio fuori il pacco (sempre per il principio di cui sopra, dark è dark!) I saw the movie years ago before I read the book, which also first happened years ago. This is my first GR-era reading, though, and it was triggered by hearing my husband tell me about seeing the movie playing on a cable channel he gets. He thought it looked interesting so he settled down to watch, but promptly fell asleep. This is nothing new, but without me there to keep nudging him awake he missed the movie. The cantankerous owner of the plant nursery, he is typically grumpy to everyone else in the community save for Vianne. Guy Chocolat ( French pronunciation: [ʃɔkɔla]) is a 2000 romance film, based on the 1999 novel Chocolat by the English author, Joanne Harris, directed by Lasse Hallström. Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat tells the story of Vianne Rocher, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives in the fictional French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the beginning of Lent with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk. She opens a small chocolaterie. Soon, she and her chocolate influence the lives of the townspeople of this repressed French community in different and interesting ways. Francis Reynaud, village priest who is in his thirties. He tries to make Vianne and her daughter leave as he believes her shop is inappropriate and better suited for the cities. He comes to believe that she is Satan's helper. He is fanatical and puritanical in his beliefs, due to the inspiration of Père Michel, his predecessor, and his troubled childhood. He has a strong sense of dignity, which might be mistaken for pride sometimes, an obsession with following the rules and believes himself superior in terms of moral strength and intellect as he observes with chagrined disdain in one of his confessions.Filming took place between May and August 2000 in the medieval village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in the region of Burgundy and on the Rue De L'ancienne Poste in Beynac-et-Cazenac in Dordogne. The river scenes were filmed at Fonthill Lake at Fonthill Bishop in Wiltshire and interior scenes at Shepperton Studios, England. [2] Gourmand Harris’s tale of sin and guilt embodies a fond familiarity with things French that will doubtless prove irresistible to many readers.”— Publishers Weekly(starred review) Places all have their characters, and returning to a city you've lived before is like coming home to an old friend. No, places do not lose their identity, however far one travels. It is the heart that begins to erode after a time." Writers Guild Awards Winners". WGA. 2010. Archived from the original on May 25, 2012 . Retrieved March 7, 2019.