With his “Atlas of the French of our regions”, a linguist has established a veritable map of France of the use of the terms “pain aux chocolat” and “chocolatine” to designate pastry. What’s the verdict?
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Pain au chocolat or chocolate? This is the question that for decades has divided France between the French of the south-west and… almost everyone else.
Each region has its own term, and when two versions oppose each other, it is difficult to find a valid argument in one or the other.
Originally, the word chocolatine appeared in the mid-19th century thanks to August Zang, who imported the baguette to France. The Austrian also brings back the croissant and a chocolate version from Vienna…
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Pain au chocolat or chocolatine, who wins?
To this day we still get stuck on the original name. To decide on the issue, a linguist and specialist in regional French from the Catholic University of Leuven, Mathieu Avanzi, circulated a survey among several thousand French people.
He later published a book entitled “Atlas of the French of our Regions” in which he drew a precise map of France of the use of the terms chocolatine and pain au chocolat to designate the same viennoiserie.
Armand Colin
And not only that, since he managed to isolate other denominations such as “chocolate couque” (in the Ardennes), “chocolate roll” (Hauts-de-France and Grand Est), and “chocolate croissant” (Grand Orient).
On the map we can see a sad reality for our friends from the South West, as the “chocolatine” is present only in their region, while the “pain au chocolat” reigns over most of France.
However, it must be recognized that the tenacity of southerners in keeping the debate alive has made it possible to use the term “chocolatine” in some departments where it had not been used at all until then.
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