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Presidential hopeful reckons a pain au chocolat is 10 cents

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Presidential hopeful reckons a pain au chocolat is 10 cents
Photo:Joy/Flickr

A French presidential hopeful was roundly ridiculed on Monday after estimating the cost of the nation's favourite pastry - the pain au chocolat was between 10 to 15 centimes.

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If Jean-François Copé was right France would probably be the world’s most obese nation.

The presidential hopeful, who is running to be the centre-right candidate for next year's race for the Elysée, was asked on live radio on Monday how much he thought a pain au chocolat cost.

His answer left him the laughing stock of the web.

"Around 10 to 15 centimes," he said.

In reality the price can be anything between one and two euros depending on which boulangerie you go to.

Red-faced Copé quickly recognized his gaffe and explained his error by the fact he hardly ever eats pain au cholocats or chocolatines as they are called in the south west..

“I don’t buy them very often. You have to be careful. They are too high in calories,” said Copé before tweeting out a pic of fruit and veg.

Naturally the Twittersphere enjoyed taking the pastry out of him. Indeed the name Copé was the top trend on Twitter after The Walking Dead.

One joker asked him if he could borrow ten euros to buy a house, while others demanded the address of his baker.

Some were quick to point out that it's hardly surprising then that Copé is caught up in a scandal, known as the "Bygmalion Affair" that saw his party miss the cap on Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 election campaign by several million euros.

Others however were less impressed with many pointing out that his answer showed just how much politicians were disconnected from reality of French life.

Some also concluded that Copé would have known better given that in 2012, during a rant about anti-white racism in France he said: "There are neighbourhoods in France where children can't eat their pain au chocolat because it's Ramadan."

Copé has been ridiculed before. Last June The Local reported how Copé lodged an official complaint after being called a "Bastard" by a parking meter. 

The incident had echoes of the time when former Paris mayoral candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said in an interview that a ticket for the Paris Metro cost €4. In fact it costs €1.80 for a single.

French pastry wars: Pain au chocolat versus Chocolatine

French pastry wars: Pain au chocolat versus chocolatine

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