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 generally are doughy and not very good.

Nothing gives away what 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 the jaw of one, and fractured the skull and knocked out several teeth of the other, and landed himself in jail for four months. When the judge asked the local why he did it, he said he had no idea. So be careful!