Calling all vegetarians who have been to France in the last year or two......

[NorbertDentressangle]

Please tell me that the French have embraced vegetarianism since I last went 5 years ago.

OK, I realise that that's wishful thinking to the extreme but has it improved at all?

I've been many times before, the most recent was 5 years ago but we mainly self-catered on that occasion due to age of DC at the time. This time we're going to be eating out lots with extended family -I'm totally veggie (no meat or fish but will eat eggs,any cheese, doesn't have to be veggie cheese) and DS prefers veggie to meaty food.

Do restaurants have anything veggie on the menu these days or is it still a case of asking for a cheese omelette or goats cheese salad?

We'll be staying in Rouen en-route and then in a small town in the Vendee region .

Goats cheese salad mmm you're taking me back!
Drove round France for a summer with ex-P on a motorbike many years ago. It's a good thing I love goat's cheese as it was the only option, I think I must have had it most days.

DP went to France on a job the other week. He's vege, and pretty much survived on crisps for a few days, as there was nothing else to eat. He was sticking to the roads though, so was eating mainly in service stations / motels. It might be better in town.

I last went 3 years ago and it was no better then. I'm afraid they still looked at me like i had two heads when i asked for veggie!! I've always gone self-catering for that very reason.
Good luck and have a great time anyway - bon appetit!

It depends where you go - places like burgundy just love to use beef and any other meat they can get hold of in every meal!!

Vendee shouldn't be too bad - probably lots of seafood though - will you eat that?

Dd1 went last year and survived on chips and salad.

It will be omelette, frites and salad I'm afraid!

I actually eat fish, but often find even that is served with bits of bacon sprinkled over it or wrapped in ham or something

As I thought then

Alison -you're right about the restaurant staff looking at you as if you've got 2 heads!

Goats cheese it is then -a touch of deja vu (sorry, don't know how to type the accents) from about 10 years ago when I ate it every day for 2 weeks and then couldn't face it for about a year afterwards.

I really hoped that things had moved on.

Breton creperies can be OK for vegetarians - buckwheat pancakes with cheese, eggs, walnuts, tomatoes, salad, etc. Obviously easiest to find if you are going to Brittany, but most towns in France seem to have at least one creperie.

Not so useful for the OP, but for others near big towns we were given the tip of searching for kosher restaraunts-labelled halavi, milky. Since kosher Jews don't mix meat and milk these places had menus with no meat, and no seafood. We were in Paris and it wasn't fancy French cooking, but decent-pizza, pasta, salads, , veggie sushi, etc, and no ham sprinkled over the top!
Here's the link we used:
www.kosherinfrance.com/restaurant-cacher.php?Action=chercher&pageEncours=2&Nom=&Ville= &Arrondissement=&Departements=0&Regions=0&Specialites=0&Restaurations=0&ckdlait=lait&Certifications= 0&chercher2.x=35&chercher2.y=9

Thats interesting Naomi -I'll take a look at that link.

Actually, you reminded me that the best meals I've had in France (and Portugal 2 years ago ) were in Italian restaurants as I could go for a basic pizza or pasta dish. Strange really, as when I went to Italy many years ago I really struggled as they seemed to hide meat in everything .