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!

Interesting split of answers here.

I think what might make it easier is the fact that I’ll be travelling with a fellow vegetarian; therefore if we pick somewhere with a couple of vegetarian restaurants we can stick to those, rather than having to try to find mainstream restaurants with vegetarian options.

Because you think fruits, vegs, pasta, rice, don't exist in France?

I am vegetarian and have never had any issues there...

It's easy enough if you are self catering but restaurants can definitely be tricky.

That said, OP, don't write off regular restaurants altogether. I'm just looking at the menu for the restaurant I went to yesterday for example. There was a choice of five starters and six main courses and one veggie option on each.

The veggie starter was green papaya amd julienne vegetable salad and the main course was roasted asparagus with green tahini, smoked paprika oil and roasted hazelnuts.

Just look up menus online in advance to make sure there's something you can eat.

Hope you like pain au chocolate and emmental @WomanStanleyWoman2 . For a country that is supposed to be obsessed with cheese, they seem to have a strange reliance on an inferior Swiss cheese!

I have also been offered something with ham as a vegetarian option in France. 😅.

I don't know where all the amazing culinary experiences are hiding in France, I've never been able to find them. The supermarkets always have a poor selection of fresh food too.

We have hosted a lot of French students over the last few years and we've actually had quite a few vegetarians, and as I eat vegetarian too, I've chatted with them about it quite a lot. I remember my mum being vegetarian in the 90s and having a real time of it in France, and she's a fluent French speaker so could explain and even then being given ham in sandwiches etc...
I would be pretty confident these days with it.

Yeah, I genuinely thought vegetables only exist as far south as Dover.

What did you get out of such a twattish post? Of course I fucking know they have vegetables in France. It’s whether I’ll be able to find meals made entirely from them that’s the issue - which literally everyone else managed to understand.

Couple of things here.

Firstly, French cuisine is heavily based on meat and cheese, and in certain areas, seafood. If you don't eat meat or fish then quite a lot of French cuisine is going to be inaccessible to you. That's not France's fault. The amazing culinary experiences aren't hiding. They're just largely based around food you don't eat.

Secondly, if you want good quality fruit and veg, you don't buy it at the supermarket. Buy your stuff at the market or at a greengrocers which only sells fruit and veg. Don't get your cheese or your bread at the supermarket either, you need to go to a fromagerie and a boulangerie.

Great French culinary experiences are mist certainly not hiding in the aisles of Carrefour. The supermarket is where you go for flour, milk, yoghurt and washing up liquid.

As a couple of pp have pointed out, the main problem is that hardly any French cheese is vegetarian, which limits choices massively.

Eating out is always a gamble in France for veggies I think (unless in a veggie restaurant) as vegetarianism just isn't well understood.

I'm vegan and we holidayed in France last year. The supermarkets were great on some things - plant milk, beyond meat products - but surprisingly really poor on others- fresh herbs, spices, pulses. We managed ok with self catering.

Eating out was harder, especially in the small town where we stayed where the only option was salade frites with absolutely no interest in producing anything else even though we booked in advance for a party of ten.

the onion bhaji were the most French thing ever served with a side of onion soup.

Made with a nice traditional beef stock?

I have a couple of (non French) friends here who are vegetarians. One of them does eat fish though

Then you have one vegetarian friend.

Came to say this!

Supermarkets aren’t bad but restaurant still not great in much of the country (and yes often they see chicken and dish as not meal - obviously fish isn’t - but they see that all as vegetarian). South seems to be somewhat better in big towns / cities where there’s more of a health kick type vegetarianism vibe.

France is ok for veggie food if everyone is veggie, cities and larger towns have vegetarian restaurants plus North African owned etc restaurants have a good selection of suitable food. What france is rubbish for is accommodating both meat and vegetarians at the same French style food restaurant in my experience and chefs can be so inflexible (can you leave the ham out of the ham and goat's cheese lentil salad, no! )

@WomanStanleyWoman2

Not a twattish post! I suspect that @Greenfairydust was replying to @FearTheWankingDead who said:

I find there’s no vegetarian food. I have to live off bread when I go

FWIW I live in rural France - I'm not a vegetarian but my children/grandchildren only drink oat/soya milk and it is never a problem.

We have had visitors who are vegan and again it's not a problem finding suitable food to prepare.

As others have said upthread, the French don't really consider ham to be meat in the same way that they don't really class beer as alcohol :-)

I went camping in France with my cousin and DS in 1992 and there was literall no veggie food anywhere.
DS and I had to buy vegetables from the markets and make soup. We just had to risk the bread.
I'll be interested if things have progressed since then.

I know they have vegetables but I mean a meal - in England I could get a quiche, vege bake, vege pie I struggle to find anything like that 😊

I think France is better than Spain or Portugal..

As long as you like crepes and omelettes which I do

@Theelephantinthecastle

Spain is fine for vegetarians as long as you eat eggs, dd found plenty of options as tapas and no hidden meat, and plenty of meat free snacks. She isn't ultra fussy with cheese though, she asks no questions on holiday. Never taken her to Portugal.

France is the only country that the chef has stormed out of the kitchen because we had the audacity to request a minor change to a menu item to make it vegetarian despite my friend calling ahead and speaking to the owner (who wasn't in that night) my friend is from there but lives in the U.K. and was with us so no lost in translation issues.

All that said I was in Yorkshire 2 years ago and at a pub the only vegetarian option on a Sunday was the vegetables from the roast and they didn't even have a tub of veggie gravy to make up so mayo was offered. No stuffing even because there was sausage meat in there. Never thought to ask as never had an issue in the U.K. in 20 years.

@gogohmm I have had a terrible time in Spain. Loads more hidden ham than in France. Especially in salads.

Some tapas are ok but I guess I like cheese (am not fussy about rennet) more than patatas bravas

The South is easier as there are a lot more salads and vegetable based meals. Even better if you eat fish.

Last year in France we were right down near Montpelier and hardly ate meat all holiday (ate a LOT of fish though!)

One of the rare meat dishes we did have was a surprise. We ordered one of those great value fixed menus fancier restaurants offer at lunchtimes. I translated the main dish was stuffed tomatoes with wild Camargue rice and seasonal vegetables and was mildly surprised to see the only main was vegetarian.

Reader - the rice was a side dish and the stuffing was herby rare minced steak! Fine for us as meat eaters but I suspect an unpleasant surprise for a veggie!

Spent some time in rural central France last Summer and found vegetarian menu options very limited and sometimes there were none and you had to ask. Not an issue when in a city location.
I live in Portugal and generally find there are far more vegetarian options than in France.

Something I hate in both Spain and Portugal is the very cheap daily menus never seem to have anything vegetarian so you're paying twice as much for cheaper food

Most cheese for sale outside the U.K. is not suitable for vegetarians because it’s made with rennet from a calf’s stomach in fact there are some French cheeses which cannot have a vegetarian alternative by law! So I don’t eat the cheese baguettes and goats cheese salads others have mentioned. In addition I’m intolerant of eggs and as a result I tend to be largely vegan when travelling abroad. My younger son and his wife, he’s vegetarian and she’s vegan faired well in Paris eating in vegan establishments but I don’t think I’d cope because my meat eating husband wouldn’t be happy to be vegan for the duration of our trip. Self catering might be safer outside of big cities.

We find France quite hard for vegetarian food, we have had lots of issues where we have found out a supposedly vegetarian dish contains meat based stock once you ask the waiter about the meals ingredients.

Only my husband is a cheese eater, he doesn’t eat cheese in France as its so hard to find vegetarian cheese.

Where on earth have you been eating? Currently sitting on French beach after eating at a restaurant with fabulous french produce. DH had the cheese board with 3 good portions of local cheese.

Our supermarkets are crammed with fresh produce. This week we are gorging ourselves on locally grown strawberries.

@MargotBamborough it gets better near the Italian border 😂