France's 10-metre tall Christmas tree - made from chocolate

You have to hand it to France's chocolatiers. They really know how to grab the headlines with a feel-good story.

After the recent launch of a boat built entirely of chocolate, comes the seasonal tale of a 10-metre Christmas tree completely made from what else but chocolate.

A choco-holics delight!

Patrick Roger's 10-metre high chocolate Christmas tree (screenshot from YouTube video)

The difference this time around though is that it's not only an architectural masterpiece, it's also designed to be savoured as it'll be used in France's annual Téléthon on public television and radio next weekend which raises money for the muscular dystrophy charity, L’Association française contre les myopathies.

The creator of the tree is Patrick Roger who describes himself on his website as a "Chocolate artist, a sculptor of flavours" who treats chocolate like a raw material which he transforms into giant 80-kilogramme creations or wrapped sweets in metre-long boxes."

This time around though he has gone several tonnes better than his usual creations - four tonnes to be precise or around 800,000 bars of standard-sized chocolate as the national British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph helpfully puts it, for the 10-metre tree which took a month to build.

And unlike Georges Larnicol's boat which was made from "recycled decorative chocolate" past its sell-by date and consequently inedible, Roger's tree is definitely to be enjoyed...and devoured.

"In making the tree I also wanted it to serve a purpose," he said.

"People can make a donation - for example €50 - and they'll get an equivalent portion of chocolate," he explained.

"We'll gradually dismantle the tree according to the donations made and at the end of the 30 hours (of the Telethon) the goal is that nothing will be left over."

For those of you interested in getting their choppers around some of the delicious chocolate and contributing to a good cause to boot, you'll have to make your way along to Roger's factory in Sceaux in the southern suburbs of the French capital at some point during the Téléthon (from 6.00pm December 3 until midnight December 4).

Alternatively if you're looking for a mouthwatering Christmas present for your loved ones, you could always check out his website.

In the meantime here are a couple of videos the first from the Daily Telegraph reporting on the creation of the tree and the second, funkier version (in French) featuring a longer interview with Roger himself.




Patrick Roger crée un sapin de 10 mètres en chocolat pour le téléthon sur doctissimo.fr

Georges Larnicol sets sail - in a chocolate boat

At first sight it seems not only like a mad idea but also one that's pretty impossible to pull off; setting sail in a boat made entirely of chocolate.

But last weekend that's exactly what Georges Larnicol did in the port of Concarneau, a town in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.

Screenshot from Ouest-France video. Georges Larnicol and first mate Joël aboard the chocolate boat.

Not only did Larnicol manage successfully to launch his 3.5 metre chocolate delight, he also managed to clamber aboard and stay afloat for one and a half hours.

As you can see from the accompanying video (courtesy of the regional newspaper Ouest France) it wasn't all plain sailing for Larnicol and his first mate, Joël.

They needed the help of Larnicol's colleagues from the diving club at which he has been a member for the past 11 years to keep the boat afloat and prevent it from tipping over.

Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat - Ouest France
 Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat

Mots-clés : bateau chocolat concarneau larnicol

Video de ouestfrance

And there was a good deal of bailing out of water as the two men headed further out of port.

After one and a half hours though Larnicol once again made dry land to the applause of the one thousand odd spectators who had been present to witness his exploit.

It wasn't the 55-year-old's first attempt to set sail in a chocolate boat.

In August his plans were scuppered when his Chocolate boat Mark I broke into pieces.

But Mark II, which took more than 400 hours to construct, met with more success and pleased with the outcome, Larnicol is promising to build a bigger 12-metre boat complete with chocolate mask for 2012.

For killjoys who might be critical of the apparent waste (of chocolate) involved, Larnicol, not surprisingly perhaps a chocolatier by profession, points out that only "recycled decorative chocolate" was used in the construction of his boat.

In other words, chocolate that was past its sell-by date and could not be eaten.

As the BBC says in its piece on Larnicol's watery exploits, Chocs ahoy!