Eating gluten free in France

[Wordsmith]

We're going to the new Center Parcs resort near Laon in N.E. France in August and I was wondering if French MNers or regular visitors have any idea how clued up on GF foods French restaurants/shops are?

A friend of mine has just come back from there and said it's a great Center Parcs but they met with a blank when they asked on our behalf about GF food in the shop on site and when shopping in Laon.

We can take over bread and pasta with us but it would be great to know about supermarkets which stock GF foods and any family restaurant which are geared up for it. Any specific recommendations for Laon would be greatly appreciated as well!

MN was such a great help when DS2 was diagnosed with coeliac disease a few months ago it was the first place I thought of coming for advice.

Many thanks in advance!

Bump

It's a while since we've been - but I didn't see any gf foods in the shops. However if your child has a 'normal' diet (mine didn't at the time) then it's easy enough eating out and about.

bump

Information on gf in France generally on the coeliac supplementary board here:

coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=166&highlight=france

You could also ask here:

members2.boardhost.com/glutenfree/

if anyone has been at the specific resort.

I went to CP in Belgium, which appears to be the land of the bread eaters, however I managed to get a variety of foods in the site restaurants and the site shop. The staff all spoke pretty good english and were more than happy to help, so hopefully they will be the same in france.

I did a quick google, and found this site. You could print off a few of these little cards to take with you when eating out to explain.

quick hi to flaming toaster .

flamingtoaster says a quick hi back to lackaDAISYcal.

We went to France last year and had trouble finding GF stuff in supermarkets (ds has coeliac). We were sent off to the "health food" section which seemed only to stock wheat-laden crispbreads . We drove, so took our own bread, pasta, croissants and pizza bases.

I'm told CP in the UK are very good at coping with GF, so hope they are as good in France. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks for all your tips - I'll definitely look out for the Valpiform bread.

Tangarine - apparently CP in France isn't as switched on to CD as the CPs over here - I know they're good in the on-site shop at Longleat, for instance.

I suppose we'll be catering for ourselves most of the time but I should imagine that eating out may be easier in France than UK if there's less of the chicken nugget/fish finger selections for children. Plain chicken and chips would be fantastic for DS2 - but it's impossible to find that in a lot of UK 'chain' restaurants like Frankie & Benny's (which we used to love as a family) or even Nando's. DS2 doesn't like spicy stuff, unfortunately, and won't eat a plate of veggies (we've just managed to get him to eat carrots - it's quite a slow road back to a good diet for him).

lackadaisycal - those cards look great, we'll definitely print off a few!

Glutabye are a French company, if you e-mail them they will be able to tell you of places that stock their products or you can place an order and they will deliver to your hotel/apartment.

E-mail Edmond O'Donnell at glutabye, he is very helpful.

edmond.odonnell @ glutabye.com

www.glutabye.com/GlutaBye/WebPagesFR/listn.htm&&2CUBquLohXxo2NxBMpLoGxlofA2g4 VuaWXqa__Xa6a

Wordsmith,

We've found Cafe Rouge the best of the chains in the UK: they do have a GF menu, but you have to ask for it specially.

Shame about CP not being as switched on in France.