La Parisienne

For a club rather explicitly dedicated to croissants, it seems peculiar that the vast majority of participants (7 out of 8), chose the pain au chocolat instead. Being the strong willed, independently minded reviewer that I am, I of course went with crowd. Not that it makes much of a difference, really: both croissants and, en Quebecois, chocolatines are practically identical. Both are examples of viennoiserie, which is to say that they are said to stem from the Viennese tradition of baking, as introduced by Austrian August Zang with the Boulangerie Viennoise in 1839. Thin layers of pastry are covered in butter and then layered atop one another, leading to the flakiness and crunchiness we know and love. And yet, the chocolate makes a difference. The bakery we went to, La Parisienne, offered a modest amount within each pastry, leading to an outcry that a nearby bakery was more generous. I didn't mind: the sweetness was paired well with the crunch, and I wasn't left feeling as if I was deprived in any way. What irked me more was the fact that the chocolatines were cool by the time we got them, meaning that the chocolate inside was harder than I would've liked. Then again, perhaps that is the way it is supposed to be: there is much in Paris that an American must learn of. All things considered, I've reflected on the experience and have come to disagree with the majority opinion. A 6 out of 10 is simply too low for an experience so inoffensive. The serving size was good, and the taste was predictably delicious, if not unremarkably so. My rating: a 7 out of 10 (3.5 / 5), perhaps verging on 7 and a half on a sunny day.