Shouldn't all great love stories start with chocolate? Not the rubbish stuff, but really good Belgian chocolate...
The romance between American Marty Kovalsky and Belgian chocolatier Myriam Van Zeebroeck kicked off that way in 1986 when the traveler with a sweet tooth moseyed into Art du Chocolat, the Brussels chocolate shop where Van Zeebroeck worked. And, as Forrest Gump famously said: 'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get'.
The first time they met, Kovalsky left with 100 grams of chocolate and a major crush. Five visits later, after a kiss and a brief tour of Brussels, Kovalsky scribbled his American address on a US dollar and promised to write.
Distance kept them apart for years, and both started seeing other people in their respective countries. Nearly a decade after meeting and years of sending each other letters, the then-friends decided to give a romantic relationship a real shot.
Love motivated Van Zeebroeck to leave her life in Brussels to follow Kovalsky to California. They married within months of her arrival, and 30 years later, the pair are still just as smitten with each other and with the Belgian chocolate that brought them together.
They recently visited the Brussels chocolate shop together, which is still enchanting tourists all these years later. “You never know where you might meet the love of your life," Van Zeebroeck told CNN.