NYU Paris Students Explore the City, One Croissant at a Time

During NYU Paris orientation, NYU Abu Dhabi sophomores Naser Mansour, Muhammad Ali Aldribi, and Cătălin Botezat became inspired to revamp The Croissant, a club which had started the previous semester. “We decided to take over the club and improve upon it by making it much more ambitious in its teams, opportunity creation, and number of trips,” says Naser. Muhammad adds, “The idea of celebrating Parisian culture through croissants and building a community around it was exciting.”

While discussing plans for The Croissant, a classmate offered his coding skills to build a club website. The site would provide a space where members could rate, review, and track the croissants they tried. “This led us to a grand idea,” says Naser. “Instead of the club being just a mode of taking students out to eat, we can also provide multiple student opportunities for those who wish to help us.” 

Soon the club established a technology team for managing the website and a critique team for reviewing croissants, as well as a social media team and a photography team. “This creates a way for people with different passions and skills to get involved in a meaningful way,” says Muhammad.

Members of The Croissant venture out on two weekly excursions to explore boulangeries—or bakeries—across Paris. Students meet on the NYU Paris campus, walking or taking public transport to their destinations. What’s more, the club organizes special residential trips, allowing members to explore the bakeries surrounding their residences. 

“Paris is so famous for its croissants, and I wanted to seize the opportunity to have as much experience with them as I could,” says Charlene Chen. She’s a sophomore at NYU Steinhardt studying Music Technology. “Walking to boulangeries has also been a great chance to get to know the neighborhood around our campus.” 

After visiting a boulangerie, members give the croissants a rating out of five stars. Then, a student writer produces a review for the club’s website. Naser, Muhammad, and Charlene each name La Maison d’Isabelle—a boulangerie a block from campus—as their favorite croissant yet. The club’s online review echoes this: “I could tell the layers of dough and butter must’ve been expertly folded as the outer shell puffed out the most crispy little bits, while the inside had an absolutely beautiful honeycomb-like web,” writes Andrea Lui, a junior at NYU Stern.

Marcus Neeld, assistant director of student life at NYU Paris, has enjoyed seeing students working together to grow The Croissant. He notes how students from different academic backgrounds have brought the skills developed in their coursework to the club. For example, journalism students offer support by writing reviews and overseeing social media, while computer science students manage the website. “The Croissant is a wonderful example of NYU students from across the global network collaborating to develop a program that benefits students in multiple ways,” says Marcus.

As one of NYU’s largest global sites, NYU Paris offers students numerous opportunities to immerse themselves in French culture. Site administrators prepare local activities for students all semester long. These include visits to the theater, museums, and the ballet plus weekend trips to nearby cities. Students can also participate in clubs, like The Croissant, that foster friendships and introduce new ways of exploring the city.

“The Croissant has been a great opportunity to build a strong bond between the members and the city,” says Charlene. “As a study away student, it takes time to get familiar with the city and find my way living here. The Croissant offered great help in this process.”

“The Croissant is some of the most fun I’ve had being in a club,” shares Naser. “This is the first exploration-based club I’ve been in, and the amount of creativity we allowed ourselves to inject into this project made for extremely fulfilling work.”