National bread celebration week!

<Picture of a French 'baguettine au chocolat' - a chocolate roll in English>“>On reflection, I should have taken this photo from a different angle. Too late now, so let me tell you what it is and why I’m writing about it. First of all, it’s a double-chocolate bread roll. But more on that in a minute.</p>
<p>Today, the 14th May, signals the start of <em>La Fête du Pain</em> (a festival of bread) here in France. The celebrations began back in 1996 when the then French minister of commerce, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, inaugurated the event. So, why May? Because the 16th May is the Saint Honoré day. ‘What saint is that?’ you ask? He’s the patron saint of bakers, of course! The lucky guy even has a <a href=cake named after him. It too looks quite tasty. If I’m honest, I’d prefer to have a cake named after me than to be a saint. Hint hint…

Back to bread. French bakeries will celebrate for a week, so I decided to celebrate too — by sampling something I’d never tried before. This double-chocolate bread roll, called a baguettine au chocolat in French, is chocolate bread with chocolate chips added. It’s chewy, sweet and chocolatey. More filling than a chocolate bar, this thing is the perfect indulgent snack between meals.

For those seeking something healthier, I can recommend the baguettine aux fruits. Okay, it’s probably just as calorific as the baguettine au chocolat but surely a lot less than a standard croissant. What will you be sampling?

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

4 Comments on “National bread celebration week!

  1. Ha Ha! The photo, I’m sure, doesn’t do it justice for the taste. It does look like a giant poo! If it really is chocolate bread then I need to try it. So far I haven’t seen it in the bakery in our town. I guess I will have to wait just to be sure you aren’t fooling us and it really is a giant poo 🙂
    Ashley

  2. I didn’t even know it was National Bread Week! I’ll have to see if they’re doing anything about it in the bakeries here – particularly those on rue Saint Honoré such as Julien and Gosselin. I do have the excuse that I make my own bread and didn’t set foot out of the house yesterday …

  3. We usually have a local village that holds a fete du pain, but haven’t seen anything advertised this year. Never seen a choco(poo) bread before – it must taste great to get away with looking like that!!!

  4. Ashley, it’s a terrible photo, isn’t it! I’d already eaten the giant poo-shaped treat by the time I wrote the entry about it. Oops!

    Aussie IF, that website I linked to lists the bakeries participating. This treat didn’t come from one of them in my region since there are so few around anyway.

    Jacqui, it really does taste great. I started on the baguettine aux fruits and then saw this new addition more recently. I thought they were only available at Le Panier chain here in Haute Savoie but I saw another poo-look baguettine in Annecy the other day too. I hope you find one!