France as a vegetarian

[WomanStanleyWoman2]

I know there’s a holiday topic, but the traffic is pretty much nonexistent, so I hope I’m okay to post here.

I’m vegetarian, as is my closest friend. We’re looking at short breaks this summer, and France looks like a good bet. However, when I went as a child it was HELL as a vegetarian. I don’t want to go through that again.

I was looking at destinations with cheap flights and was surprised to find vegetarian/vegan restaurants in some fairly small cities. Obviously this is a plus point - but it got me wondering, am I generally dismissing France as being non veggie friendly on the basis of school trips many years ago? Has it got a lot better?

Looking forward to hearing from vegetarians who’ve enjoyed French holidays and who have eaten well whilst there!

I’m afraid that French love food.

That's a very common view - especially among the French themselves - but I don't think think they actually do. They may be mildly obsessed with it, but they don't love it. If they did, they would embrace a lot more diversity.

Whereas the British have quite the opposite reputation, but are culinary magpies. Any new dish, flavour or technique will be snaffled and incorporated (and probably twisted far beyond the recognition of the original owners). That enthusiasm has at least as much claim to be considered love. And it gives far more consideration to the people actually eating the food.

You will be ok in bigger towns as you can find a nice Italian restaurant but out in the rural sticks you will find pizza, crepes or salads. My dh keeps a look out for Italian restaurants and notes down where they are for another year in case we go near there again.

I’m a pescatarian who has visited France a lot.

In touristy areas you’re more likely to find a vegetarian option but rural areas are much harder. I ordered the one dish in a restaurant that didn’t have meat listed but it still arrived with lardons on top. The vegetarian options are quite limited in my experience - it will be a salad or omelette or similar, they don’t seem to really have many meat substitutes that I’ve come across. If you go to buy a pre-made sandwich, pretty much all of them will be meat-based.

It's probably best when eating out, to go against your instincts and look for non French restaurants, which should exist in large cities and some more popular coastal areas? There's got to be some Italian, North African or Asian restaurants around?

If you do that a few times, it will be easier to suck up the omelette, bread and salad when visiting French places.

I spent a couple of days in Paris last year, and for lunch we had a baguette from a sandwich shop where there was lots of choice and they were made fresh, so I'm sure they'd be able to do cheese and tomato or similar?

But I did read that it had become the law in France that school lunches had to be vegetarian once a week, so maybe the tide has turned?

Veggie family here - we can always find an Italian restaurant and there's the odd specifically vegetarian restaurant although these are often a bit 90s. Crepes are easy in the North.

Once had a wonderful curry - the onion bhaji were the most French thing ever served with a side of onion soup.

We don't go to France for the food but its manageable.

I've found it hard work being a veggie.

I can remember going to Europe as a veggie teen in the late 90s/early 2000s and vegetarian “options” often included ham because they didn’t class it as actual meat 😆🥴

I was vegetarian for years; France is very difficult. Mostly had to order regular meals and ask them to take out the meat as PP has said.

It’s a bit better now, but it’s mostly vegan options; vegetarian options still vanishingly rare.

It's better than it used to be, but still not great in rural areas. Most restaurants don't have a vegetarian option.

Cities are better, we live near la Rochelle which has a few vegetarian/vegan restaurants.

Supermarkets are much improved with plenty of vegetarian options and vegans are catered for with oat and almond milk.

We are vegetarians. We always go to Brittany as the creperies are brilliant (we also have one person who needs gluten free, and you can get buckwheat crepes). Also pop up pizza places when we went last summer. Fantastic food.

Crepes and pizza basically. We always do self catering and eat out at lunchtime which is easier.

Did you not travel much as a child? Every country was terrible for vegetarians 😂

France was pretty good last time I went a few years ago. Lots of fresh pastries, crepes with goats cheese and mixed veg, fresh baguettes with cheese and salad, washed down with reasonably priced but delicious coffee and wine. I'm not saying it's perfect but as long as you like carbs and cheese and wine you should be absolutely fine. I'd aim for the south of France as it's hot so lighter meals which tend to be easier to tweak veggie.

If you’re a veggie doing self-catering and you rely a lot on meat substitutes such as Quorn, Linda McCartney, Cauldron etc, I have not found anything like these in French supermarkets I’ve been to. The larger Super Us seem to have the odd veggie burger but there was nothing in Intermarché or any of the others I tried.

My brother and family have gone to France for years, one is vegi and another vegan, they have managed. They go camping but do eat out.

I've not been to France for years but I have found if you ask, preferably in French, for any special dietary needs they can usually find you something.

Paris is fine these days, they have all different cuisines anyway.
can’t speak for the rest of the country but I think in tourist spots there wouldn’t be an issue.

Do you eat fish or are you properly veggie veggie?

I live in France and I have a couple of (non French) friends here who are vegetarians. One of them does eat fish though which makes things a LOT easier. And when we eat out together it tends to be non French food such as Korean or Thai, which slightly defeats the point of coming to France as a culinary destination IMO.

If you're in a big city like Paris then there are plenty of restaurants which will have meat free options. (In Paris you can also get great falafel in the Marais area.) Most large ish towns will have vegan cafes and stuff now. And any creperie will have plenty of vegetarian options.

If you eat fish it's very doable. Otherwise it's not impossible and you can still enjoy lots of French cheese and wine and bread and pastries. But I would expect it to be a bit limiting. Don’t expect there to be a vegetarian option on the menu in every restaurant, because there won't be. And don't ask a waiter in a regular restaurant if they will make a vegetarian meal for you. They might say yes and then just present you with a plate of salad or beans, or they might give you a vegetable based dish covered in bacon lardons because they think being vegetarian means you prefer to eat more vegetables, not that you literally don't eat meat at all.

As someone who lives in France, I'd love to know where you were finding delicious coffee!! 😅

OP - if you go to Paris send me a PM and I'll ask my veggie friend for some restaurant recommendations.

I can't imagine going on holiday and eating just to exist rather than enjoying it my food. For me, part of a holiday is the food and trying new cuisines. Lingering over a bottle of wine while waiting for a delicious meal to be served.

Also, I doubt very much that the wine is vegetarian either (wine is often fined using isinglass and gelatine. Vegetarian wine is fined using casein or albumen).

So, even cheese and wine is likely not to be vegetarian. Traditional cheeses with AOC designation use animal rennet.

These websites may be helpful:

https://vegetarianandveganfrance.com/2009/03/26/how-to-find-vegetarian-cheese-in-france/

https://www.marcellathecheesemonger.com/2021/05/19/vegetarian-suitable-cheese-database/

Sounds very like Italy now - lots of choice in cities, more limited in rural areas. I suppose it depends on the level of tourism? There are still places in the UK where you’d rely on eggs and cheese, even though vegetarians are well catered for now

We visited France last year (vegan family). The vegan options in supermarkets were sparse but we made the best of it. Couldn't find oat milk anywhere, even in a Hyper U. You'd probably be okay as a vegetarian (even the houmous had cows milk in it). Basically couldn't eat out or drink alcohol though. Ate a lot of bread!

Happy Cow app.

My veggie dd is on a gap year in South of France. She eats a lot of pasta, pizza, falafel, omelettes, salads. She likes the food there because it tastes fresher than UK.

I suspect this is very location dependent because my local Carrefour City (about the size of a Tesco Express) has all the various plant based milks, from several different brands (Alpro, Carrefour own brand, and I think at least one other.)

Did you not travel much as a child? Every country was terrible for vegetarians 😂

We travelled a lot and yes, it was difficult everywhere, but France stuck out as an extreme.