France and soya products

[finland]

I am taking my son who has dairy, egg and sesame allergy to Dordorgne,France. Does anyone know if soya yoghurt/cheese is widely available? And is it possible for French food to be made without dairy/egg or will restaurants not understand and better to take my own food?

Also any tips on what to feed your child while on holiday appreciated!

Hi - I'm recently back from France with my son who is allergic to dairy, egg, soya and wheat. I found France to be a great place to eat out with allergies. if you don't speak French, I'd recommend ordering an allergy card to show to restaurant staff tho. Mostly we found the children's menus to be very simple and containing no allergens. So...chicken breast and frites or rice, 100% beef burgers and frites or rice etc. All cooked in oil, not butter (and not soya or sesame oil). The only difficulty we had was finding a margarine which didn't contain soya - took 4 hypermarkets before we got one, so I'd recommend taking some with you if you think you'll need it. I certainly saw soya milk, but not sure about yoghurts or cheese I'm afraid. Anyway...hope that helps!!!

You can get soya desserts and milk. Look out for Sojasun and Bjorg brands. Often they are in the 'diet' aisle of the supermarket.

I've never found soy cheese but soy yoghurt and soy milk are widely available. I've always taken my own food to restaurants as too worried about cross-contamination and letting someone else take the responsibility really. But that depends how severe the allergy is I guess.

I found the French to be very understanding about my dd2's nut allergy - I speak enough French to make myself understood about nuts traces/oils etc. Allergies are on the rise in France too.
With my dd2 I'm afraid she ate mainly chips in restaurants, and other food was self catered from Supermarkets (which are fantastic in France - they have a huge range of yogurts etc, I'm not sure about soy cheese though). They have to label food under European law, so if you make sure you know the French for the items that he's allergic to then you can buy products that are labelled with confidence. You'll have to avoid all the lovely croissants though...A crying shame, but we managed it.