pain au chocolat

This viennoiserie pastry with two narrow bars of dark chocolate in the middle is sold every morning in every boulangerie in France. They should be buttery and flaky. The cheap kinds in the supermarket are generally doughy and not very good.

There is no better way to divulge which part of France you live in than by what you call these morning goodies: pain au chocolat if you’re from the north, or chocolatine if you’re from the south.

In 9 July 2020, two holidaymakers from the north of France entered a bar in Mimizan in the Landes and asked for pains au chocolat. A 21-year old local asked them to repeat those three words from the north, then broke one’s jaw, and fractured the skull and knocked out several teeth of the other man, landed himself in jail for four months. When the judge asked the southerner why he did it, he said he had no idea. So be careful!