A Paris Baguette - in America

Oh the strangeness of America!  All it takes is a quick trip to the all-important American mall to find this gem:

Paris Baguette?? As soon as I glimpsed the name of the store I had to go in....

Paris Baguette's vitrine...looks promising no?

My well-traveled, German-loving, American friend and I decided to take a closer look...

At first I was excited when I saw that they had some real French viennoiserie - my favorite pain au chocolat or chocolatine if you are from the Sud-Ouest. But my excitement quickly turned to horror when I saw the butchering of the French language that had taken place at this faux-Parisian establishment: 

 Pain Aux Chocolate???!!!! Blasphemy!

And then this - the poor feuilleté au chocolat:

Just when I thought things could not get any worse...

Sausage Pastry??!!!

I turned to my friend to share my horror, but she was happily trying the free samples that were sitting on the counter. The bowl of little morceaux in front of me advertised a sweet rice roll - comment? quoi? rice  roll at Paris Baguette? 

Oh mais oui mes amis, the cloudy confusion parted and the rays of clarity shown down as I noticed the  staff dressed in striped shirts and berets - clearly all of them were Vietnamese. 

Bien sur! I should have known! 

While I am still shocked by the lack of research put into the naming of the "Parisian" pastries, they get props for the free, very American samples that my friend and I shamelessly munched on after taking blog photos and running out the door!