Our French Daughter brought us a couple of gifts, much to our surprise. (We really didn’t have expectations along these lines. We thought it would be a treat simply to get to know someone new. French Daughter is a real delight.) We were given a photo book of France, which is called “Colours of France” and very aptly named.

French Daughter, at the suggestion of her mother, also brought us a giant box of chocolates. A couple of pictures of the box before we cracked it open:

Jeff de Bruges les Chocolats

Jeff de Bruges les Chocolats - label

(My goodness. I see I’m not very good at taking a straight picture, am I?)

The chocolatier is Jeff de Bruges and les chocolats are made in France and Belgium for the company. The label on the box says, en français:

“Je craque un peu, beaucoup, à la folie.  Je craque pour lui, pour elle, pour toi, pour moi.  Je craque le matin, le midi, le soir pour les Chocolats.”

Google Translate tells me that this says:  “I crack a little, many, the madness. I loves him for it, for you, for me. I cracks in the morning, midday, evening for Chocolate.”

That’s not quite right.  I think it means, “I crack a little, a lot, the madness.  I crack for him, for her, for you, for me.  I crack in the morning, the midday, the evening, for chocolate.”  Of course, the basic gist of it all is that I crack the box open, no matter what the reason, because who needs a reason to eat chocolate, right?

And this chocolate is to die for.  Pick your favorite creamy American chocolate and it won’t touch the yummy mouth-feel of this chocolate.  When we opened the box, we were enthralled by the many beautiful shapes.  There were two pieces that looked like cameos, a couple of Egyptian heads, and a couple of ice cream cone-shaped chocolates, along with more traditional round and square shapes that were decorated with white chocolate designs and fluting.  If I had been thinking straight, I would have taken pictures before we ate them, but I could hardly ask my family to stop mid-bite, could I?

We have a few left that we are going to share with our extended family this afternoon.  Someone (Daughter, I think) keeps taping the box shut so we have to work to reopen them.  Sly girl!