This year’s pièce de résistance is a giant “Unidentified Flying Egg” inhabited by curious chocolaty creatures – yours for over a thousand dollars, if you please.

The Easter chocolate collection is serious business for Nicolas Cloiseau, Meilleur Ouvrier de France [Best Craftsman in France] and head chocolatier of La Maison du Chocolat.

This year he has chosen a space theme with, as its centrepiece, a giant egg – standing half a metre tall and just as wide – which takes the form of a flying saucer.

Inhabited by small beings, made from 39% pure milk chocolate from Peru and 66% pure dark chocolate from Ecuador, this UFO egg houses no less than 50 praliné eggs and has been crafted almost like lace, with over 650 handmade perforations.