Vegetarianism?

[marie519]

I'm a vegetarian with vegan-ish leanings (I generally don't buy dairy and eggs for my house although sometimes I'll eat them when I'm out, and I encourage my boyfriend to buy organics for us to share). I've heard that France isn't the easiest place for vegetarians... so I was wondering:

Any vegetarians out there? How hard has it been? Has your health suffered?
Is there anything that you can't find anywhere, that you wish you'd brought a good supply of from home?
I've been assigned to Rennes; do you have any region-specific tips?

[AIMTeacher]

If you are self-catering you should be fine. There is less choice I have found in things like soy products. There are some but just less choice than I found in Australia. Less "fake" meat products if that's your thing. Tofu...again less. I came to France in 2001 and at that stage I was vegetarian...not anymore... however, I was living with a host family and yes that was hard.

You would find it hard eating in the school cantine (depending on the day), or just for the fact that you'd pay the same price as everyone else but be asking for a plate of hot vegies without the meat.

Organic (bio) food is becoming quite popular here. The only problem is it costs significantly more. I'm an assistant with a small wage, I buy the cheap store brands and shop at Leader Price (discount supermarket).
Vegetarianism is possible...just a little difficult. Veganism...harder. Think of all the national cheeses!

(ALSO the number of French people who just couldn't UNDERSTAND why someone would be vegetarian...!)

Have only passed through Rennes, so don't really know about the area and it's vege-availability.

[lcdaniels]

I think vegetarianism is becoming more popular but still not that mainstream. I filled in for a teacher once who left me a listening exercise to do with the class about being a vegetarian and the class of students just couldn't understand why you would want to be a vegetarian and when I talked about what it means to be a vegan they thought it was crazy! So it is possible to be a veggie if you cater for yourself but you may come across a few people who might think you're a bit mad! There are a few veggie restaurants around as well (at least there was in Grenoble) because I went with the German assistant from my school who was a veggie so I guess in the cities you could eat out more easily.

[mary kate]

Cooking for yourself you'll be fine, grocery stores in even little towns have decent selections of vegetables, pasta, etc. ... retaurants is another story. In a large city you may be able to find places that can cater to your diet, but speaking from experience as a vegetarian in a small town in Normandy, my options were very limited. I pretty much had an omelette and fries every time I went out to dinner, so perhaps you should resign yourself to eating eggs.

[angela marie]

Last year I lived in Caen as a vegetarian- but I stayed with a host family of French vegetarians- so that made it much easier. Organic food is easy to come by, and there are usually markets where you can buy fresh produce, but as for eating out, there is not much you can find that doesn't have cheese or eggs in it. Also, when you tell someone in France that you are a vegetarian, they generally expect that you still eat fish. Finding veggie friendly restaurants was harder for me in France than it is here in Texas, if that gives you any idea But my host mom made tofu from scratch, so I didn't suffer If you are okay with eating dairy and/or eggs occasionally, you should be fine eating out (but you might get tired of having to order the same type of dish every time). One thing I am worried about is the school cantine- the one at the university where I studied had absolutely no choices without meat of some sort. Once in a while they would have a salad du jour , which you could order without the meat (if they had not already assembled all of them), but for lunch I would usually have to walk down to a boulangerie and order a sandwich. So I wonder what the situation will be like in the schools where we are placed. I have eaten in a collège once before, and they had enough side veggies that I just requested a plate of those and was fine. But I guess it is too soon to know whether it will be necessary to eat in the school cafeteria or not....

[shocker and awe]

I've been assigned to Rennes; do you have any region-specific tips?

Hey Marie, I hate to tell you but until you know which town you're assigned to nobody can tell you if it's gonna be easy or hard for you! The size of your town and how far you'll be from a hypermarché or an organic store will determine everything. At the hypermarché I always buy soy burgers and there are three different brands and several flavors to choose from. But beyond that they don't have stuff like fake bacon or sausage links or any of the stuff i love at home. if you're into soy milk, it has become widely available. tofu is expensive but not impossible to find in larger towns.

The cool thing is the variety of seasonal vegetables here. I've ended up trying all sorts of new stuff (esp in the tuber family!)

keep in touch and once you know where you'll be, i might be able to tell you more!

yuri (ex vegan, ex vegetarian)

[marie519]

Thanks, everyone! I'm a little less worried now. I do have one more question... do the places that sell soy milk generally sell rice milk (or almond milk), or is that stuff totally unheard-of?

I am a huge health freak in addition to being a vegetarian... I eat a lot of "weird" stuff.

[shocker and awe]

Rice milk - yes. almond milk - i think so but i'm not sure... i'll take a quick look next time i go to the grocery store and let you know.

[skylar]

France actually turned me vegetarian. The meats were really fresh in France, so I didn't want to eat American meats anymore. For example, I went to a teacher's house for dinner once and the chicken had been grown by their neighbor and slaughtered that day. No hormones, no steroids, none of that junk. It really made me think about all the chemicals in American meats, so I went veggie. I started about two months before I left France, and it worked pretty well. No fake meats in my small town, so I'm just now discovering them! I ate lots of rice/pasta dishes (no kitchen, just one plaque and one pan) and canned/fresh veggies. The different sauces made by Uncle Ben's were awesome. I'd usually fix some basmati rice, sauce, and throw in some fresh/canned veggies and usually some red beans (couldn't find black beans anywhere either...).

As an aside, you might be invited out to dinner at teachers' houses less if you're vegetarian. When I arrived, my teachers were delighted that I wasn't vegetarian because the last two or so assistants were, and they lamented that it was such a hassle! Yes, French people will think you're crazy. However, I did a lesson on obesity with my students (two articles, American obesity is stabilizing, while it's rising in Europe), and told them about the chemicals in American meats, etc, and then they said I was very smart to be going vegetarian! They seem to understand those reasons much more than the "moral" reasons, so maybe play up the health benefits of it when they ask (because they WILL ask!). I found they were much more accepting this way.

Bon chance!

[cosmic_autumn]

I am a vegetarian and I've studied in France twice and never had any problems. There was always good produce available, although eating at restaurants or at others' houses was hard. It's also hard to avoid all the cholesterol, like with cheese and eggs, but you can do it.

[soleil]

I'm not a vegetarian but my favorite thing to eat in France (at a restaurant) was a warm goat cheese salad. No meat there and it was available at a lot of cafes. It didn't seem to me that it was hard to avoid meat, but, I wasn't actually trying to avoid it so maybe it was there all along and I just never realized...

[marie519]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, that's too bad about the teachers... I really would like to become friends with them. Hopefully I won't come off like a total hassle/nutcase. Maybe if I'm really adamant about how I don't want anybody to prepare anything special for me it'll be ok.

[joan_was_quizzical]

I'm in Paris so it wasn't too hard at all, although your options will always be a little limited.

One thing that I find pretty unescapable (and that most people don't think about) is the rennet in all the cheeses. That stuff is everywhere!

[marie519]

One thing that I find pretty unescapable (and that most people don't think about) is the rennet in all the cheeses. That stuff is everywhere!

Damn! I was afraid of that. This is going to be torture, haha.

[skylar]

What's rennet?