Yesterday I went to brunch at Ladurée, on rue Royale by the Place de la Concorde, with my host and his friends visiting from Nantes. Overall the meal was excellent, but maybe a little too much to eat: orange juice, hot chocolate, viennoiserie, bread, yogurt, fruit salad, macaroons, scrambled eggs, and club sandwiches. Quite delicious.

At one point during the meal, I asked woman sitting next to me if she could please pass the pastry. (She spoke English.)

“What?” she asks back, and I point to one of the croissants. “I would like a croissant.” She looks at me, disappointed. Her shoulders drop.

“This is not pastry. Pastry is something completely different. This is viennoiserie.”

I apologized and thanked her for the correction, and then got the croissant.

I asked my friend about it later, and he explained that viennoiserie is typically pastry that you eat for breakfast.

So now I know. I think that the French people may have evolved as many words for bread as the Eskimos have for snow. Be aware.