I have never owned or worn much jewellery, but I have always loved the boxes that jewellery comes in. I used to collect the boxes my mum discarded and used them for other purposes. My all-time favourite was a little white box that once held a ring; it was lined with peach-coloured velvet and in it I kept all the teeth I ever lost or had extracted. My own ivory jewels, I suppose you could call them. (I also kept my appendix in a jar for eight years until I left home - one of the few treasures I couldn't store in a jewellery box.)
So when I was in Paris and armed with The Patisseries of Paris (one of a number of beautifully produced mini guides published by The Little Bookroom), I was struck by the fact that so many smart patissiers and chocolatiers these days are packaging their goods in what could easily pass for jewellery boxes. Which makes them doubly attractive to me: I can eat the treats and keep the boxes, whereas I have mostly only ever had empty (real) jewellery boxes.
Of course, this being Paris, the packaging is very posh, and the edible jewels very delicious. I bought macarons from Pain de Sucre, a fabulous jewellery shop patisserie in the Marais. (The bright pink and green macaron is cherry and pistachio flavour - or ruby and emerald.)
But the Tiffany of chocolates must be Patrick Roger, whose creations come in heavy, deep turquoise boxes, whose shop windows are magnificent, whose interiors have a reverential hush, whose goods are almost, but not quite, displayed on velvet pads.
The glowing, jewel-like fruit jellies even have a little magnetic closure on their box, like a precious compact. I half-expected them to come on a chain with a clasp so I could wear them round my neck before eating them.
And when we have eaten all our jewels, I shall have the fun of deciding what to keep in the boxes themselves. No teeth this time though, as I am hanging onto the ones I have. (Even though I am partial to sweet things, I am also very partial to teeth-cleaning. The teeth in my original box were unblemished - I simply had too many for my mouth so they had to come out. Or they were teeny-tiny first teeth, like little one carat diamonds.)