The most popular word for this pâtisserie viennoises is ‘pain au chocolat’ but the term ‘chocolatine’ is used by a significant number of the French population, particularly in the South of France.
Pupils in the south-west town, Montauban have written to the government demanding that they order all dictionaries must include the word chocolatine.
While the odd dictionary already includes it – including the French version of Robert’s English-French dictionary which translates it as ‘chocolate croissant’ – many only include the more common term pain au chocolat.
One lycée student told La Dépêche du Midi: “It’s a word of our region, which includes a lot of people, and there’s no reason why the rest of the country shouldn’t know it. We’re proud to be from the south.”
Another said: “We’re not trying to change everyone’s way of speaking, we just want our way to be recognised, it seems only fair.”
One of the arguments put forward in the letter is that “it’s not bread anyway – it’s puff pastry”. Fair point!
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