Have you worked your way through the boulangerie yet?
I’ve discovered ‘pavé’ in LeClerc… delicious, loose crumbed, makes great toast, and doesn’t break my teeth to eat it!
Are you still enjoying ‘proper’ baguettes or have you found another favourite?
And what about croissants? Or have you switched to pain aux raisins, or chocolatines? Or gone back to porridge or cereal?! 
When I lived in SW France, everyone referred to them as chocolatines, but here in the SE, it’s always pain au chocolat. Don’t think much of them whatever you want to call them. The quality of baguettes varies enormously.
A third!!! OOOPS! I dread to think what my personal fave- the almond croissant contains!
Digression is good but, cripes… that’s expensive!
The café in my village has recently changed hands… and the new hands are of Italian origin so the coffee is superb! Previously, an espresso was E1,10. With new owner that’s the price for les touristes. He only charges us E1,00.
Sadly, price for a glass of wine hasn’t changed!
Oh and another thing - prices vary greatly…
On a menu in a restaurant (by a beach) near us…
"espresso, noisette, allongee: 1.50
apres 22.00: 2.70
All those desperate coffe drinkers…
oops I digressed again
Ah, this is France for you… 
I think they make it their standard joke. Here we have it with a “noisette” which is an espresso with a tiny touch of milk, going further away from the Cote d’Azur, you get funny looks…
What I really hate is that if you go into a boulangerie and ask for a chocolatine, they look look at you witheringly and say 'un pain au chocolat’
Go back the next day and ask for ‘pain au chocolat’ and they will say ‘ah, une chocolatine’…
I agree with Miles, a pain au chocolat best enjoyed still warm.
But I am surprised that bakers haven’t ventured as far as trying pain au chocolat with orange or hazelnuts, or other yummy combinations. Unfortunately quality does vary quite considerably, and the chocolate inside sometimes doesn’t even resemble chocolate…
Should I be pedantic? Well, it’s tuesday so why not… More usually they have a thin bar of chocolate running through, sometimes two. If it’s hot and you bite on the left bar encased in yummy baked goodness, you very frequently get a shiny spot of chocolate on your right cheek. By late afternoon, this may or may not have been pointed out a friend / Roman / countryman, but it’s always nice to find that extra taste of chocolate. Sorry I’ve digressed a bit. I think with enough chocolate chips, the effect could be as good or better…
It’s the regional name for a pain au chocolat… a sort of croissanty thing studded with chocolate chips. Not for me (I’m not a great chocolate fan) but I’m told they are delicious!
What is a chocolatine?
Has anyone managed to find granary flour mail order? We make a lot of bread and I love granary but we’ve never managed to source the flour.
Why does each baker seem to have his/her own name for the same types of bread? My local boulanger has a speciality he calls “la farondelle”; it’s basically just a curly, crusty baguette.
We probably ate croissants for the first 3 months of living in France ! The fat content is an issue, so now the novelty has worn off we have cereals for breakfast. I do enjoy a pain au raisin at the weekend, usually in the afternoon with a coffee.
We love the bread from our local boulangerie and get their speciality bread called Pain des halles. If I want a bacon or fried egg sandwich then I will get a pain mais as it is lovely and soft and stays that way for a couple of days. Don’t think I have had toast since we were in the UK. My son does like beans on toast however, so I usually get some wholemeal muffins and toast those instead.
Can’t do anything sweet in the mornings ( I don’t have a sweet tooth anyway) although I do like brioche with marmite or even better bovril - the sweet and sour taste seems to work!
Croissants for a treat but generally something that can be sliced and ideally gritty and grainy!
Definately on the pain au raisin train. Our boulangerie make a gorgeous crusty loaf they call a petrisane. Lasts 2-3 days and fits perfectly around a fried egg. BUT… if i’m in a grand espace, i may get a 6 pack of chocolatine. 3 might survive until I get home.
Life is tough…
Since I moved to France, things have changed dramatically. 20 years ago you could not find anything else but baguette, croissants or pain au chocolat.
Now the bakeries are more versatile, finally having cottoned on to the fact that there is more to baking than just those three things. Now (at least here on the Cote d’Azur) you can get grainy bread, dark bread, bread made from yeast dough, with various other additions such as cheese, nuts, raisins, figs, bacon. And with the arrival of all things organic, a lot of other varieties have been added.
Personally I am a pain au raisin person, since a croissant (albeit tasty) provides you already with a third of your daily fat intake… Yes, yes I know, I am a spoil sport.