you are being optimistic Jocelyn. We travel fairly extensively through France and have found the amazing restaurants you would expect...but not a lot of veggie options...
18 months ago I conducted an experiment - I ate nothing but fatty meat for six months (with the odd salad, so as not to freak out fellow diners) My cholesterol was greatly improved - I reduced it to 2. My blood pressure went down and extensive blood tests proved I was deficient in no mineral or vitamin. I also lost 28 lbs with no hunger. The fact is, we ate nothing but meat for 2 million years before we changed our nomadic lifestyle and became farmers 10,100 years ago - it's the way the human body is designed to function. Animal fat is the most nutrient dense food known to man and I have no intention of giving it up. The real enemy is carbohydrate - alas, I've lapsed and am a carb eater again - and the weight came back
If anyone is interested in what is possible when eating out, here is a link to a restaurant close to us. Grange aux Oies What the "Grange aux Oies" provides is vegetarian "Cuisine" of the highest level. Search through their menu/cartes for the "Menu Découverte du potager" and have a peek at the images - yummy! If they do high end veggie food, I'm sure there must be others.....or am I being optimistic?!
I am not entirely sure they are so behind. What happened with us was firstly not a vegetarian thing but my ex-OH who is a type one diabetic of the type who has to sit in front of her plate and put in a shot immediately before eating. What she can eat is very controlled too, one of the reasons she lives in SE Asia. The chef was asked to come to the table and a very thorough explanation given. What she got looked (and probably tasted) as good as the rest of us got.
A couple of months later we had an Indian couple visit. Rather than wear their usual western stuff they put on the whole Indian rig out to go to the same restaurant. The chef saw us through through his little porthole and came to our table. He asked if the previous occasional had been OK and whether my ex had survived his food, hahaha... He then asked through us whether these guest had special needs and both being vegetarian would look forward to whatever he could surprise them with. They made it clear they like European food but weeks of omlettes on end gets tedious.
I am not entirely sure what you would call what he made for them, but there were aubergines and sheep cheese, some couscous and a nice potato thing and a far nicer salad than my OH and I got. The couple thoroughly enjoyed it and asked to thank him personally. He simply made the effort and I suspect that many more professionals who know about food could too with the right motivation.
I know it's a bit different in France, the social life is more-often centered around nice meals, apéro's or simply a good glas of wine.
In the first year after I moved to France I participated wholeheartedly in the local rural traditions. Meaning a good breakfast, a hot meal at noon, an apéro around 7 and a heavy dinner at 9. I gained almost 7 kilo's in one year. As with most people it was this excess weight that made me sluggish, took a lot of energy etc. So I picked up a more healthy attitude towards the food (still participating at all the courses, but eating a lot less)and most of all got back into sports, like the gym, rowing and rugby. As I'm past 50 this doesn't pose any problems with friends when I refuse to reserve myself another plate, pointing at a relatively flat belly and indicating that I want to keep it that way :-)
But the problem for a restaurant cook with vegetarian meals is the fact that he's probably raised in the omnivore tradition. The taste of grilled meat, fish etc. is an intricate part of a meal's composition and cannot be reproduced by grilling a soy burger. You can replace chicken or beef stock by the vegetable variety but the taste is different, more bland. I did a lot of courses and short internships with chefs because cooking is one of my passions. Some of them explained the the lack of vegetarian dishes by the fact that there aren't many customers demanding it whilst it still requires to stock produce. But they can do it when catering for something and people indicate an x-number of vegetarians in advance
We dont eat out that much, ie. I would like to eat out more but husband prefers to eat at home....I am a decent cook, have taken courses years ago and used to cater for dinner parties at one time as a business sideline. I decided about 10 years ago I was always tired, sluggish never had any energy and a friend suggested I tried a 'detox' as a nurse I dont set much faith in detoxing...that is what your liver's job is and it does that every day for you...however....I undertook a vegan diet for a month...also excluding coffee, tea, alcohol, wheat and all processed foods.
It wasnt difficult to buy fruit and veg,seeds, pulses and grains and whip up exciting meals. I enjoyed it so much I ended up on the 'diet' for over a year. During that time I lost 3 stone, gained a huge amount of energy, slept soundly every night, was ready for bed by 10pm and up by 6 every single day. Never felt fitter. Then I had some champagne on my husbands 55th birthday and my daughters 21st, then shortly after Xmas came and as I was slipping off the diet...I fell off completely and resumed my old diet. I just havent found the wherewithall to start again, its nigh on impossible to eat out, to accept dinner out invites...and at this stage in our lives, a lot of our socialising is centred around meals with friends or meals out.
I really do like this vegetarian "backwater" called France, not too much people trying to make you feel guilty when ordering a nice juicy rum-steak, no consideration for some poor Indian person when buying a free range chicken, excellent quality meat at very reasonable prices when knowing the right, trusted people etc.
My kids however do have problems with the meat served in their school canteens every now and then, but generally because of the extremely poor quality.
If being 30 years behind on vegetarianism in eating out restaurants, would be the largest problem of a country........ :-) But it's true that the "alternative scene" is less developed then in let's say Australia, the big cities of the UK or the USA. Being an apt cook I have nevertheless no problem at all to provide equally satisfying and varied dishes to a vegetarian than the regular stuff to your average omnivore. So if the restaurants aren't up to the task, my suggestion would be to eat less out and cook more at home with all the excellent produce you can find all year through....
Well, I must say, by turning vegetarian, I never felt or looked better! I am at that age when one begins to feel the years. As an American, I was noticing my weight, and such, was getting harder to control. Since most meat in the USA is full of hormones and modifications, I decided to forego my meat intake as a "test". Sure enough, as soon as I went vege, my weight and 'aging' problems went away. My energy is up and my migraines have decreased considerably! I fit back into my vintage wardrobe (my waist has decreased to 1950's fit) :))) My skin is radiant...health in general has improved....
One bad side effect: most meats make me ill and sluggish and my diet is harder to maintain out in the public sector...
and, I can smell 'meat' on avid carnivores....a 'fermenting flesh' odor....strange but true...(sorry, if this is not PC)
Because of French laws concerning GM and hormones, I find it is easier to maintain a great vegetarian diet here than in the USA.
If one wants to improve their health and 'de-age', go vegetarian. You'll be amazed. And there are so many new protein food stuffs that are available, It is not a diet hardship.... :)
Good to hear you have managed to maintain your chosen diet.....have you come across many French people in your part of the world who are vegetarians as well? Have you introduced any local friends to foods and recipe's you have brought from home? We started serving the same finger food that our French neighbours served with drinks but then one of the husbands asked what we normally served...so I started introducing recipes from the UK...which amazingly have gone down famously. Mushroom pate was taken for a meat pate...not something I've found available in my part of France.
This is a short response to your question (I could write a book about our vegetarian experiences over the last 18 years in France) but in short we came here as vegetarians and are still vegetarians with no intention of changing. Things have improved greatly for vegetarians in terms of eating out and we seem to be very lucky in our part of rural France where the people in the village respect our views and accept that we don't eat anything with meat/fish in it. It helps that we know about local food in that we produce our own honey, grow our own veg, keep hens, collect chestnuts and drink the local wine & pineau. A good understanding & respect for local food/ingredients seems to go down well with people and even resulted in my homemade Walnut Pâté being specially asked for at village meals. Finally, as our French language skills have improved, the misunderstandings about food have reduced and we are more able to explain our situation without offending people.
haha...thus the vegetarian option being chicken I suppose. I can understand why you changed your diet Joanna, I have a great friend who holidayed in France every year for 20 odd years...he started as a carnivore...became a veggie then a vegan. When he used to come to France as a vegan he brought his food with him in the car. Now he is finding it easier....but still doesn't and cant really eat out at all...something you take for granted in the US/UK/Australia etc...as there are plenty of veggie and vegan places around...am sure there will be in the future, but still playing catch up here...I do wish though that the scientific ideas would catch up with reality though...my two nephews of 33 and 35 have never eaten meat and they are healthy and strapping lads.
When I moved here I was a vegetarian, brought up by a vegetarian to boot. But there was no way I could stay vegetarian and not offend everyone who invited me to eat. Meat was the basis of French village cuisine and hospitality, preferably something you’d killed yourself. I have lived here for over 35 years and in that time only one person has ever asked me whether I ate meat 'We thought since you make animals perhaps you don’t eat them!
When I tried to ‘force’ vegetarianism on my kids I was told I was putting their lives in danger by the doctor!
Things have come a long way, there’s a huge amount of ‘alternative’ food about now compared with the overpriced lentils in the healthfood shops of the seventies but meat is still omnipresent and people will still tell you they don’t eat meat at all, just poultry and ham.
gulp. Now then!
sadly no Ron...the modelling came a bit later....I was only 11 when I was wearing the vest.....!
any photos Carol?
Oh lordy...! I had a vest with a camphor pocket and a little camphor square....which I loved with a vengence! So no planned reduction in meat eating...it just happened? We too reduced our meat intake because of the cost and the fact I dont find it so good....
It’s quite simple. Since moving to France, we have, for no ideological or dietary reason reduced our meat intake by 50%. We have altenate meat days replacing our previous meat days with pasta meals or pulse meals with an Indian orientation. (thank you Madhur Jaffrey; We have also taken to knitting our own liberty bodices (and who remembers them complete with little pocket for camphor tablets,)