Vegan Practically

Before I travel I like to do some research. Starting Sunday, I am going to be on a photography tour of Brittany and Normandy in France that starts and ends in Paris. I’m tacking on a few days before that in Belgium (here now), but I’ll post separately about that. While Belgium has its own issues, the challenge of being vegan in France, a country known for a world-class cuisine that is laden with animal products, are really unique to France.

It’s not just that typical French cuisine is almost entirely designed around animal products. That alone wouldn’t really set it apart from the rest of Europe or, indeed, the world. It’s that there is a high level of cultural pride in that cuisine, verging on snobbery or at least a sense of culinary superiority and knowledge. Add to that my limited French — though it’s not bad and I’ve been working on my vocabulary for asking the right questions — and I confess that I am actually nervous. I’m not nervous that I will have trouble eating so much as I’m concerned that I will offend someone in the process.

While I believe I am going to end up on the right side of history on this issue — the arguments from animal suffering and environmental harm are solid and convincing — I am also a traveller who thinks it’s important to respect local culture. I recognize that food is a big part of travel. And while I am well aware that the French meat and dairy industries are as cruel as any other (if not more so — think about the force-feeding of geese to produce the fatty liver required for foie gras), I am also well aware that for French people, their cuisine is inseparable from their culture, and they are notoriously uncompromising on that front. For example, there was the oat-milk latte incident a couple of years ago where the Parisian waiter famously said, “Non” to a tourist who requested oatmilk in their café au lait. It’s also the French meat and dairy lobbies who have successfully secured a ban on plant-based products using “meat” and “milk” and such in their names.

And to be fair, if compartmentalizing, I used to love cheese as much as the next person, and it would be folly to say that there isn’t something distinctive and luxurious about les fromages francais. And I’ve already had more than one non-vegan tell me that, whatever my convictions, I “have to” have butter in Normandy (I am not likely to follow this order). “Compartmentalizing” is the operative concept here, and I’m not so great at doing that anymore with respect to the choices I make.

The only problem I will have in Paris is narrowing my options down. I’m only there at the start and end of the tour, and Paris is a vegan dream. I have my eye on a few restaurants already.

• Boneshaker Donuts and Coffee, the vegan bakery specializing in American-style donuts. I’ve blogged about the cookbook. I’m tempted because I’ve been following them on Instagram and their flavours look incredible. But I also can get really good vegan “American-style” donuts here.
• Alternatively, the vegan bakery Land & Monkeys has multiple locations throughout Paris and has the full range of French pastries, from croissants to pain au chocolat to brioche and about ten kinds of bread. Call this a definite.
• BrEAthe is a well-known vegan sushi bar that is just 14 minutes from my hotel and 13 minutes from the Centre Pompidou, which is going to be a stop along the way during my one full day in Paris. I have a feeling I’ll be stopping there for lunch that day.
• Wild & the Moon is another place with multiple locations and looks like an excellent spot for breakfast (if you like bowls or baked goods), lunch, coffee and dessert, or a snack. One look at the menu will tell you why it’s kind of exciting to me.
• Potager de Charlotte offers gourmet vegan food at two locations. My group is eating dinner somewhere else on the night before the tour starts, and to me fancy food is best enjoyed with people. So I’m not likely to go there but my I’ll walk by so I know where to go next time.
• Faubourg Diamant shows up on lots of lists as the best vegan restaurant in Paris. That’s got to be saying something. And it’s about a 15-minute walk from my hotel. Maybe some solo-fine dining isn’t so terrible an idea. It’ll give me something to blog about.

Like I said, Paris is not a worry. After that though, I am going to be doubly challenged. First, Brittany and Normandy aren’t known for their vegan options. Brittany is famous for seafood and cheese. Normandy is known for seafood, salted lamb, cheese, and blood sausage. Second, I’m not in charge of the food anyway. I’ll be on a photography tour with a group. It’s a small group and the organizer/leader, Jim, has gone above and beyond in trying to sort things out so that I can enjoy (or at least get) vegan meals. But there’s only so much he can do. I already alluded to the third challenge, which is that I am a little bit afraid of French chefs and servers. I see a lot of bread, salad, and ratatouille in my future.

On quite a few days we’re having picnic-style lunches, and that works for me. Other days we are on our own at lunch, which gives me more options. The first day we’re on our own for lunch is at Mont Saint Michel. I’m not feeling encouraged by what comes up on Happy Cow when I search this town for vegan options. Dinner is at a place called Restaurant Le Mouton Blanc. With an animal product in the very name, I’m imagining something like a plate of vegetable side dishes, but I guess we’ll see.

Next up is Saint Malo, and it looks a bit more promising. Lunch is scheduled at a place called Chateaubriand, again the meat figuring prominently in the name of the place. But Happy Cow suggests that they will have vegan options. Dinner we are on our own and there are some choices, including an Indian restaurant called Chapati and a veggie place called Annadata that has apparently many vegan dishes according to the reviews.

I’m not going to go through each destination and what it might offer, but you can see the route and I can tell you this part of the country is not the vegan paradise Paris promises to be.

Regardless, the reality may bear out better than the research suggests it will. My main goal is to have a great trip and not offend any French chefs.

If you have any recommendations, whether of particular places in Brittany and Normandy that would be worth my while, or of helpful French vocabulary for me to navigate my requests, please share!