‘It tasted better without the tear gas’: Critic films hilarious deadpan taste test of best croissants in Paris while surrounded by riot chaos, piles of rubbish and burning bins in protest-hit capital

• Fearless video reviewer Luis Sal braved riots and strikes to taste test croissants
• Italian found himself in the thick of protests against Macron’s pension reforms
• Hilarious footage showed him eating the flaky pastries in front of burning bins 

Paris may be on fire and full of stinking rubbish – but that should not prevent you from enjoying your morning croissant.

That’s the message from fearless video reviewer Luis Sal, who braved riots and strikes on a city-wide taste test of flaky pastries last Thursday.

The 25-year-old Italian found himself at the centre of a day of action against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote last month.

‘My name is Luis and today I’m in Paris to try the top five croissants, and we’re going to see which one is the best,’ he says in a YouTube video which had 650,000 views within a day of being posted.

Luis is immediately shoved in the back by a riot policeman, as La Rotonde – Mr Macron’s favourite Paris restaurant – burns in the background.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wp84sRpM1Js%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

Fearless video reviewer Luis Sal (pictured) braved riots and strikes to taste test croissants in Paris

Before he could even introduce himself, he was shoved in the back by a riot policeman, as La Rotonde – Macron’s favourite Paris restaurant – burns in the background

The 25-year-old Italian found himself at the centre of a day of action against President Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote

Youths in black cagoules swarm around, some of them picking up street furniture which is later thrown at officers.

READ MORE – Fire and fury in France: Battles on the streets of Paris as riot cops charge at protesters amid country’s biggest security operation in recent history

Super calm Luis marches on, however, despite telling Le Parisien newspaper: ‘The croissants tasted better without the tear gas.’

‘The idea of my video was to be as real and transparent as possible with the public so that they could taste the real experience of the croissant.’

Luis, who is from Bologna, asks some of the demonstrators around him how to pronounce certain French words as the sound of explosions fills the air.

He is clearly a committed foodie, who soon begins to ignore the rioting, as he praises ‘the perfect shape’ of certain croissants, and praises one of the boulangeries for ‘knowing what it’s doing’ and ‘flexing its achievements’.

But he is highly critical of some of the less salubrious areas of Paris, including around the Gare du Nord Eurostar hub, from where high-speed trains leave for London.

‘The area is not the best, I mean, there’s a Subway, there’s a pub right there, there’s a Popeye’s chicken, there’s a train station.

‘And usually in Europe, where there’s a train station and a McDonald’s, there’s no good people.

‘It’s very hard to find good quality in an area that’s this touristic.’

Nonetheless, Luis does find quality in Carton, a bakery just in front of Gare du Nord, which comes second in his Top Five. 

Luis somehow managed to wade through the crowds while also having time to taste test the croissants 

The food critic was testing out the best croissants in Paris, which included Tout Autour du Pain (behind him)

The 25-year-old Italian joked that the croissants ‘tasted better without tear gas’. Pictured: Protesters under tear gas on April 6

France has been engulfed in riots and strikes over President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reforms

President Emmanuel Macron’s decided to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote last month

As his review comes to an end, Luis attempts to have a nibble at the hugely upmarket Cédric Grolet, on Avenue Grolet, but the queue is too long, and it is out of croissants.

This forces Luis to put the boulangerie into fifth place, without a taste test.

Luis’s video comes as Mr Macron continues to face huge domestic problems, with more strikes and street demos planned for this week.

On Friday, France’s Constitutional Council will rule on whether Mr Macron’s decision to push his retirement plans through without a parliamentary vote was legal.

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