20 years ago I booked us and some friends into a very yummy reservation only, 6 or 8 table max type place and told the chef, who we knew well, that my friend was a vegetarian, he said no problem at all I’ll sort him out something wonderful (he was amazing so I was sure that he would!). When we got there we discovered he had ordered in a lovely fish for him ‘because fish isn’t meat’. I think he ended up with a mushroom omlette!
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I thought pulses were vegetarian 
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I am quite partial to eating vegetarians 
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Is that because they all have a lable ‘contains no meat’ ?
@Corona If my wife was a vegetarian, I reckon I would be too. 
OH struggles in restaurants, so we eat out much less than we would do as he prefers not to trust restaurant fish. Apart from in Paris, which now has some great veggie places!
More commonly he gets a plate with all the side veg from the meat/fish dishes so he’ll have a roast tomato, boiled potatoes, a few beans and maybe a couple of other veg with no unifying theme or sauce.
We try to limit fish to the populous species, so hake and mackerel.
I have to admit that there was a time when I thought ‘we can’t afford organic’ but then we moved into a gite on an industrial pig farm in Brittany. The owners really thought they were doing it right in terms of animal welfare and general standards but OMG, having seen tiny dead piglets in buckets, never, ever again. We also have a friend who owns a free range rare breeds pig farm and equally, having seen one of his sows organising and refereeing a game of football between her 12 piglets, I realised that pigs are no different to dogs. Probably more intelligent than my two dogs to be precise…
So these days I will only buy and eat properly free range meat and eggs. If you are not a member - join an AMAP! By cutting out the middleman, it makes eating free range ( and crap free) food totally affordable. And yes, the supermarkets offer their ‘foire au porc’ and bargain chickens at loss leading prices but do you really want to eat something that has never seen daylight and has been stuffed full of hormones.
Last night I picked up a 5 kilo box of organic veal. It was 14e a kilo so probably 2-4e more per kilo than special offer veal but I have never seen organic veal for sale in any case.
The bigger supermarkets near us are now doing free range pork that is entirely reasonably priced and the more people who opt for that, the more prices will come down. So please people, vote with our wallets, even if it means eating a bit less meat in the short term!
Rant over!
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One of the things we struggled with living in France! So much social life in rural France revolves around the chasse!
I am vegetarian, OH is vegan. “Eating out” for him meant chips or occasionally a wrap with felafel and salad from a kebab place.
It seems that all quizzes insist you buy a meal to participate and we have been disappointed to be served (having let them know some days in advance) basically a few veggies floating in water - having paid 12 euros! I think the chefs/cooks think it’s not worth taking any trouble with it if it doesn’t have meat in it!
He had a (preplanned) op last year and told them he was vegan on the admission forms.
Come supper time they came round and offered him meat. “Desole, je ne mange pas aucune produits des animaux”. Maybe not perfect French but surely understandable? “Poisson?” “Non, merci, pas des produits animaux”. Then offered eggs, cheese etc. Luckily I was able to shop and bring in some food. What they came up with eventually was a plate containing half white rice and half mashed potato, not exactly nutritious!
However, I do like the fact that for 10 euros they will put an extra bed in the room so you can stay with your partner. Cheaper than visiting every day and I was able to feed him “proper” (i.e. balanced diet) food!
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Eating out does have its problems, I agree, we normally just go for pasta or pizza.
We went out with the kids one night for pizza, when my margarita came, it had sliced sausage on it. I had said “sans viande”. I sent it back, only to find that when my other pizza arrived, it was the same pizza with the sausage taken off(you could see the imprint) I had to laugh
I have a relative with a nut allergy who has more than once got the same plate back with the nuts removed
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that’s just a bad pizzaria, margherita never has anything more than tomato, mozza and a bit of basilico 
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Like I said, it made me laugh 
we never will go back
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Can I suggest taking an hour to watch this interesting look into fish farming.
Not eaten meat or fish for over 35 yrs, we started off going to our local restaurant on a regular basis this summer - explaining that we are vegetarian and to start with the meals were good enough (with the owner explaining they had cooked chips etc in sunflower oil especially). after 10 weeks of regular visits Laure the chef de cuisine has taught herself a number of fantastic dishes and we are only charged the menu de jour price! She says she enjoys learning and trying vegetarian recipes out on us 
. Next week we have ordered a takeaway.
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Us too - milk and cheese, too, though cheese is rather more difficult. We probably eat less meat - and restaurants are a problem - but that’s not a bad thing.
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Please explain?
Haven’t eaten farmed salmon for 20 years…dreadful stuff. Might as well drink a glass of antibiotics, and assorted toxins.
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I’m happy to eat less meat.
I’d prefer to know that restaurants were serving high-welfare animal produce.
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Exactly the same should apply to anything else you consume.
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One of the reasons that people are turned off from moving toward more ethical consumption is that the subject can get too fundamental. Sometimes one gets the impression that death, doom and destruction is wished on anyone who consumes a morsel of animal flesh…
Surely the way forward is encouragement, positive pressure, offering palatable alternatives rather than condemnation?
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Oh dear.
You probably didn’t realise, but you seem a little presumptuous.