Is vegetarian france possible? What about combining with a french course - am i asking too much?

[pooter]

Hi! Ive just enrolled on an OU french course and would like to get some proper practice in this year. I have found LOADS of residential french courses, but i have a 10month old who is still breastfeeding so that is out of the question. My ideal would be a gite complex where we could have self contained accommodation and i could toddle off for a few hours every morning, whilst my dh had ds. I would love not to cook and am fantasizing about having evening meals cooked - but am vegetarian. Am i living in a dream world???

dh is veggie and has no trouble.think amazing cheese bread, fresh juicy fruit, olives, ratatouille, spectacular choice of fresh seasonal veg from a daily market,onion tartes,and if you eat a bit of fish you're laughing

I've not been too impressed with French vegetarian food TBH. I've had the odd good meal but not as many as I'd hoped for considering the amount of times I've eaten out there.

If you like cheese, especially goats cheese, you'll be OK but I did find that was about it.

We ate out in one very exclusive restaurant that springs to mind and the main course was basically a few -different veg, drizzled in lots of oil , sprinkled with a lot of very coarse sea salt - I would have expected better considering the cost and their reputation.

If you're self-catering though you can pick up delicious ingredients to make some lovely meals

FISH!!! Bah! sorry cremola - thanks for replying - i just have a thing about so called veggies who eat fish. I should calm down! Im quite strict, no animal rennet in cheese, pastry cant contain animal fat etc. Yes, theres always bread...but on holiday i'd like to eat proper meals, preferably that i dont have to cook. [lazy emoticon]

Yes bettyspaghetti - thats what i expected really. Must teach dh to cook....

I am a fish eater who doesn't eat meat - we are piscaterians!!

but sometimes it's jsut easier to say veggie

But France really isn't good for very strict veggies, lots of the same stuff and very rarely somehting on a main course in a restaurant

Remind me why i want to learn the language

pooter honestly it can be done. of course you have to be careful , but many cheeses are made with vegetarian rennet or none at all.The good thing in France is - is you buy from a market you are most likely buying from the pperson who made it.I find that if you ask questions about food they are only too happy to talk to you about it.
There is no reason in hthe world why you can't just eat organic( bio )veg the way you do at home- only it will be fresher and more local.
Big supermarkets like leclerc have a good range of stuff these days for people with intolereances. i have a friend who lives in toulouse who is vegan and has a coeliac daughter and they have no probs considering they are right in the middle of fois gras country.

or mange le pizza

There are great ingredients to be found, nice cheeses, elaborate salads that can easily be main courses and not to be overlooked - the French pizza is always nice like Cremola said.

BUT, as a rule your average restaurant is not going to cater you a very interesting main course. Say to them you are vegetarian and most will say they can do you an omelette and green salad. It's still at that level I'm afraid in most parts.

With a blend of cooking in and eating out in carefully chosen places, you'll eat well.

Not sure i could manage a proper conversation with a real life french person!! Well, not at the moment anyway. I think im a bit scared of the reaction if i let it out that i dont eat meat. Thanks cremola for the encouragement. I will mange le pizza - bon idee (or something) and shop at le supermarket!!

Soz lilibet - didnt mean to offend - just one of the many bees i have buzzing around in a rather large bonnet. or chapeau! My son (has just bitten me on the bum! (am typing leant over the sofa so he cant press the buttons and he is not impressed!!))

Be aware that the French also see nothing odd about adding lardons (chunks of fatty bacon) to 'vegetarian' food.

pastry may also contain animal based fats.

Cheeses may also use rennet.

the French don't really do that much to cater for vegetarians, though as people have said, olives, bread and pizzas are all excellent. I'm not a vegetarian myself, but they do seem to have quite a negative attitude if you want to avoid meat and fish

IME the reaction you get when you explain that you don't eat meat or fish tends to be one of bemusement really. Its mot a concept they understand or have much experience of.

DP (of European parents, but not French ones) says that in his opinion the French worry that vegetarians do not understand or appreciate food, that they are putting their health at risk and are missing out on vital nutrients etc (but that might be DP just trying to wind me up as I'm veggie and hes not ).

Re:pizzas in France -we had the best pizza ever in Cherbourg when we stopped for a quick meal after getting off the ferry once. It was an aubergine one cooked in a wood oven . Delicious

www.tomlinsinfrance.com/

I have only just seen this, but the link is where I am going on my hols this year. The people who run it used to run a superb veggie resaurant in cardiff. The food was amazing.

by saying youd love not to cook,whos cooking?eating out do you mean?i wasnt impressed with veggie food.were off in june and im nervous as knowing its not great for veggie and now we have ds who is veggie and also intolerant to cows milk

Absolutely, MB. I did my university year abroad in France with a veggie friend. We were invited to a French friend's house for Sunday lunch, and despite telling his parents she didn't eat meat or fish we were given scallops ("not meat or fish!") and roast chicken ("she doesn't have to have much"). By the time we left France she was so fed up with omelettes and pizza that she was eating steak

If you self-cater it's fine, of course. But restaurants don't generally get it, apart from organic/wholefood ones. Be prepared for pizza and cheese omelettes ad nauseam

I lived in France many years ago as a veggie and it was dire. Their "sauce tomate" in pasta has meat in it and jambon is added EVERYWHERE! I've even had someone pick the ham off a pizza when I told them I didn't eat it. Also, they don't see ham and bacon as meat, so you're quite likely to find a lump of either plonked in your food even after you've told them that you don't mange viande. You just end up eating cheese and omelettes and come back quite fat.

Having said that, there was this Guardian travel guide a while ago on veggie B&Bs in various places in France. They were usually run by Brits or other non French but some of the places (and the food) sounded lovely. I'll see if I can dig it out for you.

Here it is

Agree with Brangelina - I've been served garden salad containing ham (and when I protested was met with complete incomprehension).

In my time I have been served a plate of peas, a plate of tomatoes and various things with ham. When I got the plate of tomatoes dh got a perfectly lovely ratatouille [sp] accompaniment with his lamb. It's not impossible but I used to say, I am a vegetarian, i dont eat meat, fish or ham.

I had the same problem when I moved to Spain and I must admit that I am no longer vegetarian, I eat fish and the odd bit of meat,. There is only so much tortilla that one can take