November 14th, 2009 | 
Author: The Bovet chocolatiers in Terrasson, a town in the north of Dordogne, has proven a popular attraction to visitors and tourists throughout the region. In the busy peak holiday period of August alone nearly 5452 people crossed its doors.
In 2002 Valter Bovet opened his business, Chocolate Bovet, described by regional news service Sudouest.com as a ‘chocolate factory’, in Terrasson – the town commonly known as the “gateway to the Perigord”. Not only does Chocolate Bovet sell gourmet products such as chocolate, preserves and sweets, it also incorporates a production workshop with a public gallery and a museum about the art of the chocolatier. This traces the history of cocoa and shows how the industry has grown, improving its processes of harvesting, drying, tempering and producing chocolate over centuries.
Just four years after its opening, Chocolate Bovet had been visited by 30,000 people. Its owner says that the numbers have been growing ever since he went into business, and continues to perform even in the recession.
“Between July 2008 and 2009, we recorded an increase in attendance of 23%” he told local news service SudOuest.com. “In August 2009, we recorded 5295 entries – 5,452 this year.”
“Even in September, a calmer month, the trend was still upward – 897 visitors in 2008, 1152 in 2009″.
Local news service Sudouest.com describes Chocolate Bovet as an innovator of original chocolates, and some of Valter Bovet’s products could explain the fierce interest from tourists. In 1994, before establishing his factory, Bovet invented a machine that produced fully formed chocolate nails and tools. This industrial approach to his creations proved a success, with an order of 30,000 packets of chocolate nails for South Korea placed in 1996 through a Salon International Food event.
Though Bovet has expanded far beyond chocolate hardware, it produces an industrial amount of chocolate – between 200 and 250 tons per year. One of its most popular lines is a range of 100g tablets, which ironically were one of the products that Bovet says he was hesitant to introduce due to their common nature.
“To differentiate ourselves from competitors, we included tablets with flavours that contain things like spiced fruit, flowers or honey.” Bovet says, “currently our line has more than 140 kinds of chocolate bars in black, white and milk base flavours. We manufacture 1 million of them every year”.
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