If anyone has witnessed abhorrent or dangerous behaviour… I do hope they have reported such to the correct authorities.
To keep on killing things Stella. Though I don’t regret an sangliers they blow away. Horrible arrogant creatures. They’re a big problem in other countries too.
Hi Steve,
I’m an immigrant wanna-be, currently with expat status trapped in the US under the lockdown. Regarding vegan-friendly areas. I agree with Stella that towns (pre-Covid) were gaining much in the way of vegan lifestyle support in local groceries and even larger supermarkets like Carrefour. I’ve lived in Paris, Nice, Cap d’Ail, Aix-en-Provence and Vence and visited various smaller towns on daytrips (along the coast, around Bordeaux and the Dordogne, in Normandie, in the Loire, Lyon and outside Paris) and I’ve seen plenty of restaurants with vegan offerings (again, pre-Covid). I hope they survive the current state of things and have been able to transition to delivery service.
I have vegan and vegetarian friends, my youngest son is vegetarian, my elder son was vegetarian now pescatarian. Many in the “liberal” circles of the US have special dietary preferences – gluten-free, peanut-free, etc. I lived with a French family in lycée and they were vegetarian, thus, I was, too. I found myself drooling over the dog’s tuna-fish dinners, but that’s another story. :0)
In terms of culture, veganism in, say, the US, has various levels of devotion. Some do so quietly, others are out to change the world to their belief. What I would like to speak to is French culture as I have experienced it.
My French family was avant-garde in their politics and favored organic/vegetarian lifestyle when it was uncommon or just a “hippie thing” in the US. My French dad was a medical doctor at a prestigious hospital and his wife was an activist and homemaker who raised four children. For all their devotion to vegetarianism, sustainable living and all the rest, they would on occasion revisit their French roots for a home-cooked meal. Think of it like treating yourself to a soy-based ice cream every so often :0).
Their version of old-time “comfort food” included rabbit stew, boudin (blood sausage) and home-made organic apple sauce, tripe, calf’s brains, and octopus salad (they lived near the coast). You get the picture. Food of the ancestors. Traditional dishes. The following meal would be all veg again and so we’d stay on the vegetarian bandwagon for months at a time until we had another “bender” with traditional vittles.
I lived and worked at a horse stable outside Aix-en-Provence in exchange for food and lodging. On occasion they served horse meat including the heart. The family that owned and ran the place had over 90 head of horses and every single one was as familiar as a family member from birth, had a unique name and personality, was lovingly shod, had a clean box stall, his or her own tack, etc. But horse meat was a traditional dish.
When I have visited French friends in Paris, a city known more for its glamour and sophistication than its rural roots, my friends went all-out to welcome my family and me. They prepared rabbit stew. French life, French food and wine have a connection with the earth the way native Americans or other indigenous connect with the earth’s bounty. It’s one of gratitude not exploitation, I feel. (This isn’t to say there aren’t schmucks – we all have some in the family, right? some ancestor who was a horse thief perhaps?)
I’m just throwing this out there as something to consider if you are considering moving to France. For all of our global awareness and the ubiquity of advertisements for Coca-Cola or IRN BRU, Guinness or what have you, France has a unique culture with distinctive regional flavors, traditions and evolutions in culture through immigration. For example, in my years of junior high school (C.E.S.), collège, in Aix-en-Provence, the school cafeteria regularly served couscous, a traditional Algerian dish.
Paris has its own little India, China town, little Africa and plenty of Vietnamese, Iranian, Algerian, Thai and Tibetan markets – France continues to grow and evolve, to embrace and yet maintain connection with a sense of her own unique history.
I wouldn’t interpret a lack of knowledge of or resistance to veganism as a personal affront, but rather as an aspect of “otherness” or difference to be explored and understood without compromising your own culinary, ethical and nutritional priorities. In that way, you become an ambassador, not only of your nation of origin, but also of your lifestyle choices.
I’ve enjoyed perusing “The Bonjour Effect” – there are loads of other books about unique aspects of French culture. As the old saying goes “wherever you go, there you are.” And within the hexagon, I would add that in addition to you, you will find la France as well. It’s a fascinating and complex place coupled with a simple ethos of joie de vivre. I do so hope you enjoy wherever you settle. And I can only imagine that given French culinary tradition and the tastiness of local produce, vegan fare would be only that much more delightful.
Places with multiple yoga and Buddhist organizations might be a good areas to find kindred spirits who share your dietary preferences and hence create a larger demand pocket for those sorts of goods. Such places are to be found throughout France.
best regards,
Pamela
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Algeria was a département of France like any other for over a century, couscous is as French as it is Algerian 
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Thank you, Véronique! My example was to show aspects of assimilation, even though bigotry remains toward Algerians as opposed to say, Pieds-Noirs, n’est-ce pas? France continues to evolve beyond old traditions was my point and as you so well put it, then claims those very assimilations as her own. I think of France’s roots as extended to ancient Greece and Rome, if not the prehistoric era.
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I’ve never heard the expression Pieds-Noirs… obviously you have… but in what context??
We studied the American Civil War at school… would have done better to study French history… 
I don’t agree with the chasse, what gets me is they sit at the side of the roads with the guns ready to fire, also no respect of public footpaths so they shoot over them. The mairies don’t care probably get free meat from them.
It just means whilst they are on you can’t venture out walking ir cycling into the woods/ lanes where they are.
Rural France is probably the best place to be during the covid 19 but think about it as it’s also very very quiet and you have to travel everywhere.
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Got some catching up to do Stella. Big part of recent French colonial history and the ongoing difficulties that France has with reconciling its colonial past.
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sounds just like UK… 
Have your read Camus’s La Peste? Highly appropriate right now in so many ways, but as a child of Pied-Noirs Camus gives an insight into this piece of history.
I’m dealing with La Peste right now… history will have to wait… 
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A very long time ago. Camus was one of the authors I had to read at A-level. My French teacher (who was indeed French) and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on why I thought Camus’ main characters were perfectly normal people in my view at the time. 
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Hi Pamela,
Thank you for your informative and interesting response. I do know vegans and vegetarians do already exist in France and like in the UK there are more of us in the towns and cities, where we are more easily catered for and accepted.
I take your point that France like the UK is multicultural and has benefited from this mix especially in its cuisine, and veganism is yet another ingredient, so to speak.
Country folk the world over tend to be more conservative and traditional in how they live their lives and closer to the land and animals that live upon it. And I can see some merit in La Chasse. At least the animals they hunt live a wild and natural life until just before their demise, unlike the prolonged suffering endured by most farm animals.
There is a farmed animal rescue and hospice at Chateauponsac called the Big V Sanctuary that I hope visit and eventually help out at as a volunteer should we be able to settle in France so I know veganism has reached some of the French countryside.
I have much to learn and what an adventure awaits!
Cordialement
Steve
I couldn’t agree more, @JaneJones. That’s been our approach wherever we’ve travelled and it works wonders.
From the Oxford dictionary:
expatriate - a person living in a country that is not their own
immigrant - a person who has come to live permanently in a country that is not their own
As said in post no 8 at top of this thread, 4 days ago…
Hi Stella,
Per the Oxford dictionary a pied noir is “a person of European origin who lived in Algeria during
French rule, especially one who returned to Europe after Algeria was granted independence.” Camus, for example was a pied noir. It’s not the same as indigenous Algerian. Algeria, of course, had its own culture before France arrived as a colonizer. Hence couscous,
now considered “French” was originally native to Algeria even before the French arrived. That’s all I meant. But now it’s considered “French” by assimilation via colonization and one might hope, also, due to integration.
xx
Pam
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We seem to have a right mixed bunch in my area… but, as I say, I’ve never heard that expression…the only ones to get “picked-out” are the “Parisiens” because they drive like maniacs … 
supposedly…