Chocolat

In the morning, Vianne looks out over the square’s shops and the towering white church (St. Jerome) with its elevated statue of the Virgin Mary. A crowd of people head to Mass. She spots some people she recognizes from the carnival, but everyone is closed off. She feels that the town needs magic. Later, she and Anouk play pretend as they clean the house. The priest visits, introducing himself as Francis Reynaud, the curé (priest). Vianne explains that they don’t attend church but thanks him for his welcome. Reynaud is disapproving of the cleaning chaos, the bread and salt placed in the doorway for luck, and Anouk, who is messy and energetic as she goes to play outside with Pantoufle.

The narrative switches to Reynaud’s point of view. He internally addresses his unresponsive père (father), whom he is visiting in an unspecified institution. He vents about the chaos of carnival and the immoral behavior of his unruly parishioners of which he hears in the confessional. His responsibilities weigh heavily on him. He describes the new arrival, Vianne, who is not local, as evidenced by her appearance, which he notes in detail. She has won over many of the villagers into helping her, but he finds her outgoing manner alien. He doesn’t expect that her business will last, as there’s already a bakery in the village. He tells his père that he has not been looking at her shop deliberately—it is just brightly colored and in his eyeline from the church. A nurse tries to catch Reynaud’s eye, as it’s time for him to go. He wonders how his père can bear being in such a stuffy world, with nurses who don’t regard him. To him, it seems like hell, yet he still goes there for guidance and hope.

Vianne’s first customer visits the shop; he is Guillaume, who had helped her with a delivery. He adores his dog, Charly. Vianne gifts him a box with a ribbon, saying that it contains his favorite. Two more villagers, Georges Clairmont and Narcisse, come in and help with tasks. She gifts them boxes, too. Some others venture in, but people are reserved about the new business. Eventually, a group of women enter, including Caroline “Caro” Clairmont and Joline Drou, giggling about the naughtiness of indulging. They exclude Josephine Muscat, who hangs back, looking through the window. When she does come in, she shoplifts a small packet. Once the ladies leave with their extravagant orders, Vianne gifts Josephine the same packet, her favorite.

Reynaud tells his père that the shop is in fact a chocolaterie, a chocolate shop. He finds it out of place in a small village and perverse since it opened during Lent. He describes in detail the lavish goods on display in the window. Caro Clairmont has broken her Lenten vow by eating the chocolate. In confessional, she talks about her figure, but he censures her, saying that Lent is about sacrifice, not vanity. He despises her and longs for past eras, in which religion was stronger, harsher, and clearer. He says that Vianne and her shop are not special, just part of his battle, but that he can always see the chocolaterie taunting him from the church. He resolves to continue preaching with severity.

Vianne wins over a group of schoolchildren by guessing their order and gifting them sugar mice. She is learning more about Reynaud, including that he trained at a Paris seminary. Because of his city background and zealotry, he has also argued with Narcisse over church attendance during harvest. Vianne and Anouk walk to Les Marauds, a small, run-down area with informal housing at the village edge and by the river. Vianne is overwhelmed with love watching her “little stranger” play and can almost see Pantoufle. They dance around a black cat in a ritual for luck. An old woman watches and introduces herself as Armande Voizin, Caro’s mother. She identifies Vianne as a fellow witch, though Vianne feels that the word isn’t quite right. Armande suggests that there is more to the chocolate shop than it seems. She appears to see Pantoufle, asking what animal he is. The doctor and Caro, whom Armande sees as foolish, won’t let her eat chocolate for her health, but she questions the point of living at the expense of everything enjoyable. She says that she might visit the shop anyway to annoy Reynaud, who already has it in for Vianne. Vianne compares Reynaud to a lynchpin holding a clock (the village) together, but she notes that if the pin is damaged, the whole clock stops working.

Armande reminds Vianne of her mother, who considered herself a witch. She reminisces about her childhood: She and her mother were itinerant outsiders, forging their documents and working odd jobs. Her mother practiced various rituals, including tarot card readings. She hated the idea of hospitals and tried to flee her cancer by traveling even more, but she was instead killed by a New York cab. Anouk was born about nine months after, and Vianne has never cared to try to work out who her father was. Vianne isn’t sure that she wants the same itinerant life for Anouk.

Vianne opens the shop for the morning, with her door cracked so that the scent wafts out. The villagers going to Mass don’t come in, despite the grim weather. She and Anouk drink hot chocolate to cheer themselves up and imagine customers arriving. Anouk almost turns this into a spell; Vianne says that they mustn’t do that, as it would set them apart. Reynaud comes in. Vianne realizes that his disapproval is the reason no one has come. She surreptitiously performs forked hand gestures toward him. She remembers a priest in black like him who censured her mother for her lifestyle and almost pressured her into leaving Vianne with the church. Her mother was thrown into turmoil and self-doubt but clung to Vianne. The “Black Man” haunted her mother in the tarot cards as they fled from place to place. Vianne is determined that this time, she will not be driven away. She gifts Reynaud a packet of oyster-shaped chocolates, and he leaves in the rain. She wonders if he will eat them or even look at them.

Despite Reynaud’s sermons on abstinence, more customers visit. Vianne knows all their favorites without them telling her. She sees this as a type of magic, granting people small joys. In the shop one day, Guillaume tells her that Charly is dying due to a tumor, accounting for his sadness and guilt. He cannot bear the idea of having him put down, but Reynaud says that animals don’t have souls and he should end Charly’s suffering now. Guillaume asks Charly, “What would I do without you?” (69). Vianne’s mother whispered this to her after her experience with the Black Man. She fears that Anouk will slip away from her if she doesn’t settle in one place. She hugs Guillaume in consolation.

Anouk is upset one day after school—her friend’s mother, the schoolteacher, forbade her friend from playing with her, an experience that she has had before on their travels. This is because they don’t go to church and because Vianne opened the shop on a Sunday. Vianne feels Anouk’s resentment toward her. She is terrified of losing her as she grows up and again thinks, “What would I do without you?” (71). At night, she creeps into Anouk’s room to turn off the light once she’s asleep. She finds a stick doll that Anouk has drawn on in a ritual to get her friend to like her. Later, Anouk crawls into Vianne’s bed and hugs her, saying that she loves her and won’t leave her. Vianne dreams about taking Anouk and fleeing from the Black Man, whom she imagines telling her and Anouk to forget their small dreams. However, when she wakes, she thinks that she, her mother, and Anouk have fled too many times and that this time, she will hold on to her dreams.