A pretzel is a pretzel is a pretzel.

Except when you're in France and it's called a "Bretzel". Those crazy French, always having to be different. Yesterday afternoon, I headed over to La Défense (the business district) in order to meet up with Crystal at the mall out there. And what a mall it was - it was huge and very American, with a great food court. I will definitely be going back there.

But the reason of our visit was this : Bretzel Love. It's a new pretzel chain that opened in early January, and they offer (duh) American-style pretzels. I had a bit of trouble finding it at first, and my attempts at asking at the information desk were met with complete and utter disdain. "But Madame, this does not exist! Look at the map! There is no "Bretzel" anywhere on the list!" Luckily I am now skilled in dealing with your standard unhelpful French woman (I wonder if I could put that on my CV....), and I was finally able to convince her to look on a newer list, and oh! what do ya know! there it was. I was bestowed with a "Second floor" and a hand gesture that seemed to indicate it was somewhere off to the left, so off I went. Though it did make me wonder about all the signage in the mall, and how they deal with all the stores that come and go...

On to Bretzel Love. It was indeed a very American-looking pretzel stand:
The guy wasn't too happy with me taking pictures, so sorry about the glare. The sweet flavors: pretzel stick, sugar, cinnamon & praline.And the savory: pretzel hotdog, plain, salted, parmesan & onion:I had a cinnamon pretzel with caramel sauce, and to be honest, I was kind of disappointed. The pretzel was a bit tough & dry, though maybe they're made that way on purpose to cater to the French market. The caramel sauce was also very French, ie runny & slightly burnt tasting (think the caramel that's in the flan au caramel you buy at the supermarket), and not rich & creamy like I was expecting. I've heard good things about their pretzels though & Crystal said that the previous one she'd had had been a lot better, so I think I'll give them a second chance.

And I had to laugh when Crystal pointed out the table next to us. You can't really see because of the glare, but the little sticker on the table is of a person in a wheelchair, indicating it's the handicapped table. But what exactly makes it handicapped? It was exactly the same as all the other tables in the eating area....Anyways, check it out if you're ever in the area. Next on my list is a parmesan pretzel with pizza sauce!