Based on my experience collecting unsold products from several artisan boulangeries several times a week in Nantes, although a croissant au chocolat may be uncommon in France, but the croissant noisette is common. It is a croissant filled with chocolate hazelnut sauce. Also the croissant au jambon is fairly common as well. The good French boulangeries have a wide variety of breads. Usually 3 or 4 types of baguette and at least 10 other breads. The quality of the products can be very high, but they are also rather expensive - 3€ for a 300g pain aux céréales or 5€ for a 500g speciality bread.
Are croissants au chocolate being made in France? For whom? Tourism? So who is ultimately responsible for this silly catastrophe? Perhaps it is the French attitude??
@@addisonhoffman9006 they are sold everywhere and eaten by the French by the millions, they're just called pain au chocolate, but guess what? that's made with croissant dough. Don't know why she's perpetuating these tropes
@@Marcel_Audubon I grew up in Belgium which isn't exactly the same as growing up in France! My experience with the French is that they can have very strong opinions- as can Americans, and many other personalities, so I view this claim of hers as more an aspect of her point of view. I will be moving to France in a couple of years, so I can personally test her assertion! I do expect to find delicious pastries made with chocolate. Who knows, perhaps a talented chef straight out of cooking school will cause a scandal by "inventing" croissants-au-chocolate!!
@@Marcel_Audubon For the French a pain au chocolat is not a croissant au chocolat because it is not crescent shaped. The word croissant means crescent and although the two products may contain the same ingredients a pain au chocolat and a croissant au chocolat are not the same thing to the French. I have never seen a croissant au chocolat in a French boulangerie.
@@PeterNiallLancaster that's cause they're called pain au chocolate, dullard - they're the same thing. This channel must have run out of content. p.s. you telling people croissant means crescent is like me telling people PeterNiallLancaster means mouthbreather: unnecessary
Didn’t know that about “je vais vous prendre.” Interesting way to say it- more personal in a way. Merci Geraldine! Can’t wait to go back to France. 🇫🇷🇺🇸
Wait... people from the north-east regions are as French as can be! "Croissant simple" and "Croissant au chocolat" (same chocolate bar than in a pain au chocolat) are timeless classics from our bakeries !😋
When I was in France, I stayed at a resort that served le pain au chocolat with breakfast every morning and I never asked what they were called; I just assumed based on the pastry texture that they were a chocolate filled croissant. Very interesting :)
a local bakery here in Colorado just started making jambon beurre, just like ones I had in France, and I can't stop eating it! so yummy . . . même s'il ne gagnera pas de prix de l'alimentation saine !
Of course, they exist, and are very popular! The point Géraldine made was that Americans visiting France translate "chocolate croissant", which is how they are commonly called in the US, as "croissant au chocolat" when they should be using the correct term "pain au chocolat" or "chocolatine."
In Québec they eat croissant au chocolate and it is the only type of croissant I love. Thé best I tried are made in Tim Hortons. You can eat on in every province in Canada where Tim Hortons is.If you are lucky to het it before it is sold out because they are super popular and go fast.
Coucou, ici en Lorraine, les croissants au chocolat existent bel et bien dans toutes les boulangeries ! des fois, les particularités régionales tu sais, faut pas chercher à comprendre ! les croissants au beurre sont donc arrondis et ceux au chocolat allongés, c'est comme ça qu'ils les différencient ! je suis issue du sud alors quand j'y ai déménagé j'ai été choquée mais en épousant un Lorrain, j'ai compris que les croissants au chocolat avaient modelés son enfance ! Merci pour tes vidéos 😘
Putting chocolate or almonds on a croissant is just gilding the lilly. A pain au chocolat, chasson aux pommes or palmier are all delicious options too.
I appreciate your time and effort making this for us. I never thought to put chocolate on a croissant. I've always thought of a croissant as a bread not a pastry.
I tried putting cheese on one once and a French girl I bearly knew who saw from across the room responded to it like I'd just beaten her mother to death.
My boyfriend must be an exception to this. He’s from Paris and lives in Le Plessis Pate. Every week he takes de pain au chocolate et croissant de chocolat. 😂
There are many things that many other countries do that FR does not. For example, only one of the 5 major s/mkts in my town in Calvados opens on a Sunday and that only to 12:30. The others will get there in the end. That may or may not be a 'good thing' but it will happen. Peter Nial makes a good point. Bakery products from small, independent bakeries are 'artisanal'. The paper bags in which my two loaves were packed yesterday declared the baker to be 'un artisan extraordinaire'. Small output, high quality = high prices. This is why, despite what Geraldine declares, a very large quantity of bread - baguettes - are sold in s/ mkts because they have bakeries on the premises. The baguettes may be better at a small local bakery but they will be more expensive.
J'adore vos vidéos et je les recommande fréquemment à des amis non francophones (aux côtés de Français avec Fred) mais je dois souligner gentiment que, même si j'avoue que les habitudes changent avec le temps et sont différentes dans de nombreuses régions de France, ici dans le Finistère, notre local boulangers et les pâtissiers ont toujours des croissants au chocolat empilés tôt le matin qui sont tous partis à midi ! Ils proposent également des croissants aux amandes et des fourrés au jambon qui sont moins populaires mais toujours disponibles. J'avoue que je préfère largement les croissants au beurre ! Merci pour vos vidéos magnifiquement produites, complètes et informatives.
Well, there are secret pleasures even in France! But if you ARE actually French, you know perfectly well what IS FRENCh (dammit!) and not FRENCH. I thought just living in France, having a French family, dressing like a French man (Ugh! Back to Naples!!) would make me French. But it made me French* (note below). I think it is perfectly clear to en enfant no later than six months what the unwritten rules are, even if mother's milk is replaced by formula. Just to remind us, in defense of our non-French taste, we Francophiles occasionally recall that the croissant : A Viennese bakery in Paris However it was an Austrian artillery officer August Zang who founded a Viennese bakery at 92, rue du richelieu in Paris. It served Viennese specialties including kipferl and the Vienna loaf. This bakery inspired imitators and the French version of the kipferl was named after the shape given to it: a crescent - the French word being croissant. And of course, the word "viennoiserie" implies the glorious coffee and slackness of Vienna, warm, welcoming, and casual, in a formal way of course. We gringos always see things in either straight lines or logical coincidences which of course is fine for engineering, advertising and making money. But the subtlety of knowing that something from a rival is so good that is has to be quietly produced, adopted and then enjoyed under the Tricolor, say, is just too much. Americans always bastardize everything, often for the better, but that is not the object. I took a can of Spam to my family dans le Centre, just to show them where the email word came from. No one wanted to try it and there was a general disgust with the product. Oddly, Spam is more or less a cooked-in-the-can invention that stubbornly remains with us. Perhaps the nearest thing to Spam in France is (sorry, not that nearest) headcheese overcooked. Ugh... Yes, yes....I am not a Spam snob. My watch every penny Mom made sure she bought a few on sale way back when, so a fried spam on incomprehensible pillow bread was always a possibility some tired Saturday morning. When Burger King (not a misspelling) introduced 'Croissan'Wich on their menu (mid 1980's!) I decided that nothing could be more horrifying. I consulted the local Wiccan, and for her normal fee, she put a curse on Burger King and this awful lab-leak chimera, supposedly edible. Oh, and no butter. The ubiquitous soybean oil horror being cheap and sold in tank cars, was the main ingredient. The curse failed, this imitation food item continues on today with variations including eggs, bacon, green things, sausage, probably BBQ sauce....How do we do it??? So, of course, my first eating experience from a patisserie was the baguette, a Financier (I was, and more or less am, a financier), and le croissant. Yum...Yes, I applaud this little lesson, Madame Comme Une Francaise, as you do tell the whole truth. And so far, though I have seen odd croissant-like objects in the Flunch's on route 10. Ugh....NO I never yielded and tried one...
I remember to this day when I moved to American, the first time I saw a sandwich made with a croissant. I literally couldn't believe anyone would consider such a thing to be appetising. Mind you the croissant used is heavy and bready although still sweet but nothing like the true original. J'ai hate de retourner en France pour manger les vrai croissants et baguettes - mian, miam!
You're right. In America, you'll find many pastries that look like croissants and are called "croissants," that don't taste anything like croissants. (This is very common in most supermarkets.) They are much simpler rolls that, I think, are made without the same butter content or lamination process. They go stale very quickly.
Je vais vous prendre..... This is new to me and really helpful. Do you use vouloir frequently when shopping, please, which seems to be just about the 'same' for this scenario? On a separate subject, many years ago my French teacher (whose mother was French) returned from a stay with family. She said the Academy was suggesting that 'toast' would erode French/French lifestyle and that the word and the food must be banned!
Wish I knew this before. I also wish I had known French people don't have a glass of wine at a bar in the middle of the afternoon. Oh, well. Live and learn.
J'ai de la chance car bien que j'habite aux États-Unis, ma ville (Washington D.C.) a beaucoup de pâtisseries et boulangeries françaises. Je mange du pain au chocolat presque tous les jours 🙈
Dans ma ville c'est difficile de trouver le croissant sans chocolat ou les autres remplissages. Et mes amis se plaindrent, qu'ils ne pouvaient pas trouver des croissants au chocolat en France 🤷♀️
It sounds like the croissant au chocolat is Frances equivalent to soda in the the US. One side says it’s « Pop » the other says it’s « soda » and a small portion calls all of them « coke » no matter what
Yes the soda vs pop situation in the USA is very interesting; I think the way it works is that people on the coasts say "soda". From Pittsburg to Denver, people say "pop" and in the South it's "coke" or "orange" meaning Mountain Dew, Sprite and 7 up are "cokes" but fruit flavoured sodas are called the fruit the flavour is based on. So, orange soda would never be a coke.
En l'Etats-Unis, tous les "pains au chocolat" que nous pouvons acheter s'appellent "chocolate croissant" en anglais, donc les gens traduisent naturellement cela par "croissant au chocolat". Nous ne parlons pas vraiment d'un croissant beurre avec du chocolat sur le dessus (généralement...)
What? A pain au chocolat is literally a croissant (without the half-moon shape) with chocolate. It’s quite literally the same thing. And the French do eat crêpes with toppings. Have you ever been to Brittany?
@@minamur Oui, it's a question of terminology, the point is that you can't ask for a "croissant au chocolat" in a pâtisserie, but for a "pain au chocolat" (or chocolatine, depending on the region, bien sûr.) The shape is different, though, not a crescent, but just a long bread thingee.
Au début, je pensais qu'elle parlait du pain au chocolat! Mais elle parlait seulement des croissants au chocolat. Parce que je peux trouver des pains au chocolat faits en France vendus à Aldi. = At first, I thought that she was talking about pain au chocolat! But she was only talking about chocolate croissants. Because I can find pain au chocolat made in France sold at Aldi.
_Je vais _*_vous_*_ prendre [deux pains au chocolat]…_ I assume that the _vous_ in that phrase is optional and that it adds a bit of formality to the request? Is that correct?
What happened to ‘Je voudrais quelque chose’. I thought that was more polite but I’m guessing the colloquial spoken language has changed in the last 30 years. How I dream to go back.
"croissant au chocolat" is a direct translation from the English (at least in the US) "chocolate croissant", and this term is not used in France. "Pain au chocolat" is the same thing as "chocolate croissant", the name is different. So, oui, ask for "un pain au chocolat" or "une chocolatine" depending on the region, to avoid a linguistic faux-pas.
Funny thing. Here I hear most American bakeries who serve French foods call "pain au chocolat" a chocolate croissant. I've never seen what you showed as a chocolate croissant at any French style Bakery here in the US. Thanks for the great video
Lol okay where I lived in France there were always pain au chocolat and I differ my saw people eating them. I lived in the sticks too, like hillbilly France mdr
I subscribed but I hope that you will make less videos on topoc MEVER SAY THAT. . I foumd so many videos about English language on this topic that are not true, at least not in every Englosh/American /New Zealand etc. city( (and I have a lot of experoemce with talking to people from English spoken countroes. Because a lot of people have their own way to say something, and besides it hardly ever brings any value. I mean, if I tried to learn English (whoch isy second language) with this type of videos, I would not find a job. I am interested in those videos, which can get me to the level of French when I can get a bilingual job . I like the fact that you explain things in English , because a lot of French tutors do not, but please, can we learn more about everyday French? Also thete are so many textnooks in the library that are oriented on tourists. I would not worry to gcan we hear from you anout vocabulary used at work and pn job interviews? I would not worry to visit Framce without a good lnowledhe of French. But to work or at least to talk to people as a froend, it is different.
In Germany you can get them plain (butter), chocolate (Nutella filling), or ham and cheese filled before baking. Every country interprets the food of other countries. The brits did this with Indian food. Other countries do the same . Ramen noodles don’t resemble their Italian origins. Long live pizza Hawaii !
If French people don't eat chocolate croissants why are they in the bakeries? Or, by chocolate croissant do you mean a croissant made with chocolate dough?
Pain au chocolat is basically a croissant in different shape with chocolate in it. Like a croissant, pain au chocolat is made with a yeasted dough that's been laminated with butter. As far as us foreigners are concerned, a pain au chocolat *is* a croissant with chocolate in it. I think the main point you should take away is that no French person would call it a croissant au chocolat, and that croissant-shaped puff pastry with chocolate in it isn't really a thing in France.
@@upstreamification I get that they're shaped differently, I'm just not sure what's so terrible about putting chocolate on a croissant when it's perfectly acceptable to have a pain au chocolat which is exactly the same thing but shaped differently.
@@Christian___ I think what she's saying is that calling a pain au chocolat a croissant au chocolat is advertising youself as an outsider. It would be like someone coming to the US and ordering a ground beef patty on square sandwich bread. Yes, we could probably understand what you meant, but that's a hamburger and it's supposed to be on a round bun. And in the same vein, in France the food that is made from yeasted, laminated dough with chocolate is called pain au chocolat and it's not supposed to be crescent shaped.
@@harmonybearML "Louis' Lunch" in New Haven, Connecticut, claims to be the oldest hamburger restaurant in the United States and the inventor of the hamburger; it serves it's ground beef patties on square sandwich bread. I get your point though.
To me it seems a little strange to visit a new country and then base your behavior on "what the natives never do". If it's there in the shop and looks amazing, I say enjoy it!
Once in a store I saw a very well-dressed older woman announce imperiously "Vous allez me donner . . . ". As for me, what I look forward to when I go to France is simply a real baguette slathered with cultured butter, preferably demi-sel. Fabuleux!
I've been to France many times, I've ordered plain croissants and chocolate croissants many times. No one cared. And they were everywhere, so I doubt only tourists were buying them. This stuff is really overblown of what French eat and don't eat.
the point was that, yes, of course they exist, and we eagerly eat both kinds -- but the chocolate treat is not called "croissant au chocolat", but pain au chocolat/chocolatine. Géraldine is trying to help visitors commit fewer linguistic faux-pas when visiting France.
Oui, it's OK. "Je voudrais" "Je vais vous prendre" "J'aimerais" "Pouvez-vous me donner" ... As someone else mentioned, maybe the more important thing is to greet the salesperson with at least a friendly "bonjour" before anything else.
Of course, they exist, and are very popular! The point Géraldine made was that Americans visiting France translate "chocolate croissant", which is how they are commonly called in the US, as "croissant au chocolat" when they should be using the correct term "pain au chocolat" or "chocolatine."
@@DominiqueB no. I mean actual croissants au chocolat. Crescent-shaped. In French bakeries. And when people ask for pains au chocolat, they answer: ici, on fait des croissants au chocolat.
@@fredd8556 Merci for the details. Interesting, I was born, raised, lived my first 30 years in France and travelled pretty extensively there, but like Géraldine (we're from the same city :-), I've never ever seen or heard of those -- but diversity is the spice of life, hé. :-)
I totally agree! A good buttery croissant should not be sulied by the addition of chocolate! The idea is as horrible as pineapple on a pizza. Having said that, I must admit to being fond of a croissant aux amandes sometimes. Je sais. J'ai honte.
it was a joke from the baker. There's a good-humored war of words in France between people who called the pastry "pain au chocolat" and people who call it "chocolatine". I assume the pastry shop was in the SW of France, and they were making a point that anybody asking for a (horror!) pain au chocolat would be assessed a Tourist tax. ;-)
I’m sorry. I live in rural France. First it is not a croissant au chocolat it’s a pain au chocolat. And my French neighbors and friends love pain au chocolat. I am a bit taken aback by your very myopic and ego centered portail of what French people do or eat. Not representative.
She is not critical.She is trying to explain french customs to prevent people from embarrassing themselves. Someone who doesn't want to learn or change should not travel.
Was thinking that too. There are sooo many different cultures who live and visit France. It sounds like a crime to eat something different. I guess the ham croissants are bait tourists so the shop owners and local patrons can snicker when they leave with the goods?
This is a typical response of peoples from a country that thinks their way is the only way because ‘freedom this or freedom that.’ Gimme a break! She’s explaining what the French do. If you want to eat your croissant with ketchup or mayo please knock yourself out.
Really? I'm sure you know, Ms. Lepere, that currently there are 1,485 McDonald's in France, and one of their most popular items is Pain Au Chocolat. Who do you think is eating all of that fast food? Mais oui, les français !
I enjoy this channel, I've watched it for years. However, her absolutes are a little annoying. " French people never" is a bit over board. That's like saying an american will never ... or an irish man will never... Maybe it isn't the usual thing, but that doesn't mean it never happens.
Completely agree! I'm not a fan of the "French people never ....." series because it mostly seems like things *she* doesn't like or *she* doesn't do. I swear, everytime I see a title of these "French people never ...." videos, I say to myself, "Wait a minute, I've lived in France for over 20 years and I've definitely seen French people do this or eat that A LOT ! That said, I do like this channel a lot and I wish Geraldine much success.
It's just called pain au chocolat and not chocolate croissant in France. The name is different because the shape is also different. There is not such a thing like croissant with chocolate on top.
@@montgomeryclift2480 Thank you, sir. Though I was referring to the pastry itself, not its name. As in, if no one in France buys that pastry, do they make it specifically for tourists?
Yes, you don't do this in English, but we do it in Spanish too. It sounds a little more personal and even playful if you say it like that, it sounds nicer to us. If you only say je vais prendre without the vous it sounds more cold and even a bit rude, like you want your service delivered now, it looses the human touch. But yeah, I guess in English it sounds weird if you say I am going to take from you a croissant, a simple I am going to have a croissant is good enough, although I must admit that to my ears it still sounds a bit too cold for me, but at the end of the day it's just a formule, a protocol, both in French and in English, nothing more.
I say "je souhaitez' ou Je voudrai, SVP..' ou 'cette croissant, svp...if I havent had my cafe...But, an American speaking 'acceptable French is always given a pass. I could have pointed and said: Je want cetter CWAW-SONT, see-vooo play... and would have received such. Nice people, usually...ALWAYS ALWAYS AWAyS sau" Bonjour Madame/Madamoiselle, Ca-va? or Commet t'aller vous, Madame? Very important...Even if you give Euros to a man sleeping in wet trousers in the Metro, always say, Bonjour Monsieur? Ca-va?
