Do you melt at the thought of chocolate? So do we! That’s why we headed to Samrée, near La Roche-en-Ardenne, to visit the Lemaire family: Yves, Anita, and their children Nathalie and Alexandre. The four of them run the family business: a traditional chocolate factory that has been around for 30 years.

So here we are, two greedy friends pushing open the doors of Cyril Chocolat to be among the first to try their brand-new experience: an escape room!

Our stomachs are already rumbling in anticipation. Anita welcomes us with a big smile and explains the concept to us, while her husband whispers a few tips on the sly. Shush, Yves! We want to try and get out on our own.

We won’t enter the first room without our little chocolate box, which we keep close throughout the game.

We push open the door and are pleasantly surprised! The atmosphere is chic, mysterious, and it’s very well thought-out. We find ourselves in the former workshop of the master chocolatier. We already open our boxes and wait for our first mission…

 

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But don’t expect us to give you the answers to the puzzles! What we can tell you is that this game is halfway between a museum and an escape room. From one room to the next, we travel through time as well as through continents. We learnt a lot about how chocolate is made, its evolution through the years, and how ganache is made as well as pralines, truffles, etc. Plus, we helped Cyril to find the 13 chocolate skulls.

The puzzles were easy at first, and became more difficult as we went on, but that didn’t stop us from eating all our chocolates. Mmm, what a treat!

And the advantage of this experience? The short educational films were recorded by the Lemaire family. Everyone played the game and it was a great success!

We came out of the last room a little disappointed not to have been able to solve the final puzzle by ourselves, but absolutely delighted to have had this original and unique experience in Belgium!

Since indulgence is not exactly a mortal sin, we ended our visit with a delicious, home-made hot chocolate: it will blow you away!

To conclude: we highly recommend that all foodies treat themselves to this experience in La Roche-en-Ardenne!

Psst: are you an Ardennes-étape customer who will soon be staying in La Roche-en-Ardenne? Come and enjoy this unique experience and receive a 10% discount on presentation of your Activity Pass. Then share your photos with us on Facebook and Instagram. We look forward to hearing about your experience.