MBTI Type: ESFP

Vianne is a wandering nomad who moves into a town temporarily to introduce decadent sweets to its inhabitants, then packs up her bags and moves on, in search of another sensory experience. She takes great joy in decorating the shop to her taste and in the hard work involved in opening up a business. She knows the delicate tastes and smells of her chocolate and prides herself in reading people from their mannerisms and the conclusions they draw from looking into her spin-plate. She believes she’s good at “knowing” what each person’s favorite dessert is, and is often right. Vianne pays attention to the world outside her. She notices things about people, and finds ways to bring them together, such as using a child’s interest in art to get him to come into her shop and spend time with her grandmother. She’s such a free spirit, she gives little thought to settling down or establishing roots, relying on her low Ni to give her flashes of insight into people’s tastes rather than their motives. “I don’t go to church, but thank you.” Vianne instinctively understands herself and how she differs from others, but makes no great strides to in any way conform to the society around her. They are doing Lent. She is making chocolate. They are going to celebrate Easter. She wants to bring dancers into the main square for a pagan festival the same day. The townspeople ignore the marginalized outsiders, so she befriends them. Vianne does not care if she’s included, but she doesn’t like to be persecuted. She has an attitude of “as long as you are harming no one, you can decide what you want to do and live how you want.” She doesn’t realize being honest about herself (“Oh, I have never married”) will have consequences for her business (that woman is immoral!) in a small, traditional community. Her Te shows in her ability to organize her store, set her prices, sell her wares, and in the brutal smack-downs she occasionally lays on people.

Enneagram: 7w8 so/sx

Vianne has adopted her mother’s “free spirit” lifestyle of staying for a little while, then packing up and moving on. Though she knows her daughter hates it, she continues to run away whenever things become too stifling or difficult. In the process of the story, she learns to stop hiding from her problems and to put down lasting roots in a community. She is a bright-spirited, cheerful woman who quickly recovers from difficulties through humor and forgiveness. She brings delicious treats and trifles to the town, hoping to tempt them into sweet indulgences. Her 8 wing shows in her occasional aggression and her defiance of the “authorities” (the mayor and his henchmen). Though she becomes angry, ultimately she makes everything okay, agrees to forgive, and keep others’ secrets, and finds pleasant ways to connect to others (her 7 idealism coming through).