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The first importers and suppliers of cocoa beans in France were Marrano Jews who settled near Bayonne.
Frederic Lewino And Gwendoline Dos Santos
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QMake no mistake about it, the most demanded drug, the most consumed nowadays, is not coke, nor cannabis, nor even tobacco or wine. It’s chocolate! With the advantage of being over the counter. This scandal, compared to which that of Bygmalion looks like a bluette, really began on May 28, 1659 when Louis XIV granted David Chaillou, first valet of the Count of Soissons, the privilege of making, selling and selling chocolate in the whole kingdom of France for 29 years. A unique and official dealer!
It took him two years in Chaillou to open his first boutique in Paris, rue de l’Arbre-Sec, where the bourgeois could soar while swallowing the sweet drink of the Aztec gods. Until then, only the aristocrats were shooting on the sly in their palaces…