A photo of a large, eye-level billboard of different shop scenes (butcher, cheese shop, florist, café, etc.) in rue Cadet. It hides construction/renovation work being done on that particular building and the billboard was given over to this street artist “femmestabilo 2025”

“Let them eat …” Croissants!

By Louise Peloquin

In a world where the wild whirlwind of war blows needless destruction, it seems frivolous and callous to think about the pleasures of sampling food. This post, written by a “Nam generation” baby who participated in a Boston sit-in for peace in 1969, is respectfully dedicated to all of the battered peoples who cannot sample croissants and for whom we pray daily.

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Official statistics state that France has been the number one tourist destination for several years. Sights include the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre (1) and renovated Notre Dame cathedral (2) which, since its reopening last year, has taken the top spot away from Disneyland Paris.

April has come to Paris and, as the song goes, “chestnuts are in blossom” and tourists have arrived in droves to enjoy “the charm of spring.” (3)

     A myriad of tours offer visitors a myriad of experiences. They have their  pick of museum passes, river boat cruises, walking tours, private shopping sprees, beauty make-overs, spas, fitness challenges, rooftop terrace discoveries, you name it, it’s out there.

Of course, pleasures linked to the palate are synonymous with the French joie de vivre et qualité de vie. Consequently, café-hopping, cuisine classes, wine-tasting and cheese sampling are always popular. In the last couple of years, another epicurean activity has skyrocketed in popularity: viennoiserie sampling.

Croissants, pains au chocolat and pains aux raisins are traditional French breakfast staples. Why are they called viennoiseries? History embellishes everything under the sun just as lots of butter enhances a croissant.

 Viennoiseries are flaky dough baked goods made with eggs, milk, butter and, depending on the pastry, sugar and cream. Recipes date back to the 17th century, more precisely, to 1683 Vienna. While the Ottoman Empire was trying to attack the city, a local baker warned the Austrian soldiers about the unusual noises he was hearing, thus allowing them to thwart the attack.

To celebrate the Austrian victory, city bakers created a pâtissserie shaped like the crescent on the Turkish flag. How did it become part of French culinary tradition? Apparently, Marie-Antoinette of Austria, who was married to Louis XVI, introduced the croissant to the French court. Viennoiserie refers to any action or object related to the city of Vienna, pastries included.

To get off of the historical tangent and back to the increasingly popular Paris tour option, sampling viennoiseries in trendy boulangeries in touristy parts of town like Montmartre has become a must. Tour guides, often university students in search of extra income, need not be art history specialists to run these tours. On the contrary, required skills are simply mastery of English slang variables, a dose of enthusiasm and good humor.

Here’s a virtual viennoiserie tour illustrated with our own Paris boulangerie photos and comments gathered from eavesdropping tour groups.

The viennoiserie scene began with le croissant. Characteristics of a really good one are: a shiny, crispy outer crust, slightly chewy and moist texture inside and a strong buttery flavor. Le croissant is best enjoyed by eating with one’s fingers. When they become gloriously greasy, finger-licking is never frowned-upon.

Wooden board with 11 croissants

      Six months ago, a famous Paris pastry chef had the brilliant idea of opening a small viennoiserie shop on la rue de Steinkerque, the street leading up to Sacre Coeur Basilica on Montmartre hill. The small venue is now perpetually crowded by tourists lured in by the fragrance of oversized croissants sold for 30 euros apiece. (4)

Huge croissant with a small one on top

No tours patronize this particular shop because the sidewalk cannot accommodate the cafe tables and chairs necessary for comfortable sampling. Guides therefore opt for stopping at boulangeries with pavement space on Montmartre side streets.

The next favorite viennoiserie is le pain au chocolat, made with buttery flaky pastry rolled around a couple of dark chocolate sticks. The outside is crispy, the inside moist and the melted chocolate is deliciously tongue-coating.

An ongoing debate in France is this pastry’s name. Some insist on calling it une chocolatine and others un pain au chocolat. As the great Will wrote: “what’s in a name?” Tour guides insist that a pain au chocolat by any other name tastes as sweet. (5)

Pains au chocolat

Young woman placing pains au chocolat in a tray

     Next is le pain aux raisins, a puff pastry brioche with a bit of vanilla cream and raisins. Outer crispness and inner moistness combine with a bit of cream and scattered raisins to create a unique culinary delight.

Pain aux raisins

     Le chausson aux pommes is another classic viennoiserie. This is not your usual apple turnover. Its flaky pastry is light and its filling is pureed apple. Eating a chausson invariably makes a great deal of crumbs. Whether these dust the table or stick to one’s fingers, gathering them up for consumption is encouraged in order to prolong the pleasure.

Chaussons aux pommes

     One last pastry to close our virtual viennoiserie tour is le pain suisse, a variation of le pain au chocolat. Rectangular in shape, it contains crème pâtissière, a type of custard, and chocolate chips.

2 pains suisses

     All of the above have variations, modern takes on the traditional breakfast pastries. Today’s tourists will find croissants filled with, for example, almond paste, lemon curd, fruit jams and pistachio cream inspired by the Dubai chocolate fad.

Croissants amande & pistache

Tour guides certainly have an expanding selection of viennoiseries to offer their clients. Even so, the stars of the breakfast pastry show remain the classics.

Should future Paris visitors book a viennoiserie tour? Why not? But buttery wafts from simple boulangeries with alluring window displays suffice to trigger the urge to step inside and spend a couple of euros on  a warm, standard-sized croissant. Therefore, we choose not to list names of trendy places. Instead, leave it to serendipity, the best compass.

Paris now boasts of Krispy Kream franchises and, most recently, Dunkin Donut shops. Will Sorbonne students turned into culinary tour guides now tout American donut sampling tours? Nothing is unimaginable in Paris.

Selection of 3 different pastries

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1. Information about last winter’s spectacular robbery at the Louvre here: https://richardhowe.com/2025/12/02/louvre-update/

2) Details about the Notre Dame cathedral renovation here:

https://richardhowe.com/2025/05/16/notre-dame-revisited/

3) “April in Paris” – song written in 1932 for the Broadway musical “Walk a Little Faster.” Music by Vernon Duke and lyrics by Yip Harburg. Although Count Basie’s 1955 version is said to be the most famous, the lyrics Ella Fitzgerald sang stand out:

April in Paris

Chestnuts in blossom

Holiday tables under the trees

April in Paris

This is the feeling

No one can ever reprise

 4) Exchange rate on April 9, 2026: I euro = 1.169 US dollars.

5) In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II Juliet says: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”