Family chocolate house founded in Lyon in 1953 by Maurice Bernachon, who imported raw cocoa beans to Cours Franklin Roosevelt and roasted them in-house; still known for its Palet d'Or ganache made with Isigny creme fraiche.
Best for Palet d'or chocolates roasted in-house since 1953, Lyon's original bean-to-bar family
Maison Bernachon was founded in Lyon in 1953 by Maurice Bernachon, who broke with convention by importing raw cocoa beans directly and roasting them himself at the house's premises on Cours Franklin Roosevelt - a bean-to-bar practice decades before the term existed in specialty chocolate marketing. The house's best-known creation is the Palet d'Or, a ganache made with Isigny creme fraiche prized for its silky texture. In 1975, the Bernachon and Bocuse families were joined when Maurice's son married the daughter of chef Paul Bocuse, linking Lyon's two most prominent food names. The business has stayed in family hands since its founding, now run by a third generation who continue producing chocolate in-house rather than buying in couverture, as most confectioners do.
Lyon chocolate and coffee-roasting house founded in 1897 by Léon Voisin; its chocolatiers created the Coussin de Lyon — a silk-cushion-shaped confection with kirsch and almond praline — in 1960, inspired by a 17th-century Lyon religious tradition.
Best for Lyon's coussin de Lyon silk-pillow chocolates, a tradition since 1897
Léon Voisin opened his first shop in Lyon in 1897, building a business around imported cocoa and coffee at a time when both were still specialty goods for French consumers. The company expanded quickly, opening roughly ten shops across Lyon within its first five decades, and by 1915 employed around 25 master chocolate makers and roasters working out of a workshop on rue de Bonnel. The product now most associated with the house, the Coussin de Lyon, was not part of the original 1897 offering — it was created considerably later, in 1960, by Voisin's chocolatiers. The confection takes its name and shape from a local tradition dating to 1643, when the city's aldermen, seeking protection from the plague, placed a ceremonial wax candle and a gold shield resting on a silk cushion at the Fourvière basilica in honor of the Virgin Mary. Voisin's chocolatiers translated that cushion into a small square pillow of chocolate ganache flavored with curaçao or kirsch and almond praline, coated in a thin chocolate shell. The Coussin de Lyon remains Voisin's best-known product and one of the city's recognized culinary specialties, sold through the company's Lyon boutiques and gourmet retailers.
Lyon chocolatier-patissier operating since 1905, revived by Richard and Gaelle Seve in 1991; credited with inventing the tarte aux pralines and running Musco, a bean-to-bar chocolate museum since 2017.
Best for Bean-to-bar chocolate and Lyon's praline heritage.
Maison Seve traces its roots to a Lyon pastry-chocolate shop operating since 1905, in the Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or area of the city. Richard Seve, born in Lyon in 1968, earned his Master Chocolatier-Patissier qualification in 1991, the same year he and his wife Gaelle bought the house. While renovating, the couple rediscovered an old copper turbine in the cellar - a relic of the shop's earlier chocolate-making - and used it as a starting point for reviving traditional techniques. Maison Seve is closely associated with the praline tart (tarte aux pralines), a Lyonnais specialty said to have been invented at the original shop in the early 20th century. In 2017 the Seves opened Musco, a bean-to-bar chocolate museum and manufacture in Lyon.
Pralines Roses (formerly Saint Jean Delices) is a specialty shop in Old Lyon devoted to pink praline and its own pink-praline nougat made with Label Rouge lavender honey. Its boutique on rue Saint-Jean and online store sell pralines and nougat alongside other Lyon specialities.
Best for Praline, pink praline, nougat, Lyon specialties
Pralus sells single-origin chocolate bars, filled chocolates and the house’s pink praline brioche, the Praluline. Origin notes and cocoa percentage guide bar selection, while the brioche is the distinctive local purchase.
Best for The pink praluline and single-origin bars from François Pralus's own Madagascar plantation
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