Pain au Chocolat vs Chocolatine

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It’s a dispute that has divided France for centuries–what is the name of the chocolate-filled pastry treat?

While most of the nation, and foreigners to France, might say “pain au chocolat”, a stronghold in the southwest has withstood, pridefully, standing to the term “chocolatine”.

South-West France and South-East France are all bundled as “the South” and “Occitan culture” seen from abroad, but really both areas are quite different and are two separate cultures.

Now, the term “chocolatine” is actually the original term, and it most likely comes from Austria and German (in German, “pain au chocolat” is Schokoladenbrot, if you remove “brot” (bread) what remains is very close to chocolatine).

While croissants, chocolatines and such are worldly known as French pastries nowadays, they really come from Austria. The French call them “viennoiseries” (literally “things from Vienna”). And nobody really knows why the original term stuck in the South West while it was gradually replaced by a French term in the rest of the country.