Eaten: Pain au Chocolat @ Art-is-in, The French Baker and Dominique Saibron

(Petit déjeuner @ Dominique Saibron in Paris)

Last year the boyfriend and I went on a fantastic road trip through Germany, France and Italy - I drank at a brauhaus, drove on the Nurburgring, pretended to be a gladiator at the Coliseum and saw a lot of skeletons.  Out of all the things we saw and did the one thing I remember the most is waking up in Paris and going for our daily petit déjeuner at Dominique Saibron's boulangerie.  I always ordered a cappuccino and pain au chocolat while Dima would order a chocolat chaud and cycle through the pastry selection.  My cappuccino was always strong and covered with a thick layer of cinnamon while my pain au chocolat had a buttery crispness to the exterior and a soft, chocolately inside.  We would enjoy our pastries sitting, facing the streets of Paris watching the citizens start their day and contemplating how we would start ours.  Back in Ottawa I continued my love of cappuccinos and pain au chocolat but struggled finding something that resembeled the pain au chocolat I so loved in Paris.