Je Reviens...

D’accord...Why La Châtelaine? It is a commonly-asked question in my Frenchy chocolate shop (situated far away from France in the rugged mountains of Montana)? I am also asked (with a couple of winks) who the real Châtelaine is? Could I, indeed, be the mistress, mmmm-mmmgh? La Châtelaine, by the way, translates en francais to the mistress of a castle.

The answer, I suppose, is simple: I love books, especially classics. Anyone familiar with Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca, might agree with me that the Gothic heroine, Rebecca, is the quintessential La Châtelaine, non? She was haunting, mysterious, independent, beautiful, incorrigible, gutsy and much more. I needed courage to start a chocolate business, not unlike Vianne Rocher (another novel, Chocolat, by Joanne Harris). And I needed fictional Rebecca to imagine as my La Châtelaine of my imaginary château of chocolat.

(If I am ever to buy a sailboat similar to Rebecca’s, it will be called “Je Reviens”, bien sur.)