A whirlwind romance began in a Brussels chocolate shop. It turned into a love story spanning nearly 40 years

20.07.2023 - 12:15 / edition.cnn.com

When American traveler Marty Kovalsky walked into the Brussels chocolate shop in the summer of 1986, he fell in love with Belgian chocolate.

American chocolate, he quickly realized, was no match for the silky goodness on offer in Brussels. It was flavorful and moreish. He was quickly obsessed.

The store he’d stumbled upon was beautiful too, on the edge of Brussels’ Grand Place with its imposing baroque buildings, spired 15th-century city hall centerpiece and surrounding picturesque cobbled streets. Inside, the shop had floor-to-ceiling delicious chocolate offerings.

Over the next two days, Marty went back to the Grand Place chocolate shop a grand total of five times. Each time, he became more and more enamored.

But it wasn’t just the allure of the chocolate calling him back – it was Myriam Van Zeebroeck.

Myriam was a skilled linguist and part time model who’d taken the job at the chocolate shop after she’d failed to secure a longed-for teaching role.

“I was disappointed that I had not landed my first teaching position, and wanted to work,” Myriam tells CNN Travel. “I liked the job because I was able to use my foreign language skills talking to customers and the place was beautiful and the coworkers were nice.”

Myriam and Marty’s first interaction was, on the surface, simply about chocolate. But there was immediately, obviously, something else bubbling under the surface. When Marty walked out the door, 100 grams of chocolate in hand, he was smiling ear to ear.

“I kept going back to the same chocolate shop and talking to her and flirting,” he tells CNN Travel today.

Myriam’s coworkers were convinced the American tourists was going to ask her out. Myriam brushed their comments off, but still spent each shift wondering if and when Marty might walk through the store door.

On Marty’s fifth visit to the store, Myriam and Marty talked a little less about chocolate and a little more about themselves. Myriam was 21 and had lived in Brussels her whole life, she’d grown up in a Dutch-speaking household and was fluent in multiple languages. Marty was 23, a recent college graduate on his first ever trip outside the United States. He told Myriam he was loving Brussels so far, but knew he’d only skimmed the surface of the city.

“Then I got up the nerve and I said, ‘How would you like to show me around Brussels?’” recalls Marty.

Myriam suggested Marty come back at 6 p.m., and meet her around the back of the store. The two of them walked through the Grand Place together and then ducked into a local bar.

The chemistry they’d felt in the chocolate shop was even more acute when they were sitting across from one another.

“She kissed me in the tavern,” recalls Marty. “There were butterflies for