If you are planning a road trip in France and are worried that you won’t find any acceptable vegan products on your trip, this guide is for you.
France is famous for its amazing food scene but as a vegan, there are still reasons to worry about what you will be eating when traveling around. If you are just traveling to Paris or other big cities, you actually don’t have to worry anymore, there are now plenty of vegetarian and vegan restaurants, delis and vegan options in restaurants. But if you are planning a trip in other parts of France, you may still find it difficult to find vegan options.
In fact, in some parts of France, even being vegetarian is a challenge. In some places, they still believe fish and sometimes even chicken are a valid options for vegetarians! So even if after a bit of explanation, they understand that fishes and chicken are not vegetables, I don’t really trust them to not use butter or meat stock in their preparations. Things are changing, but the change can be slow in areas where the local specialty is based game or foie gras.
So what do you do? You cook yourself of course! But where do you buy your products?
Here is a list of places where you will most likely find what you need.
French Markets
Sunday morning markets are an institution all over France. These are heaven to find fresh vegetables. In many of them you will find organic products, locally sourced and if you are lucky, you may find a Chinese stand where they sell tofu. And maybe even a vegan stand but that would only be on an extremely lucky day!
Now those markets happen to not just be on Sunday mornings! They can be any day of the week really, so either you get lucky, either you ask people around, either you deal with the following site http://annuaire.marchesdefrance.fr being only in French to find when the nearest market is.
This site tells you:
- How often the markets are held: Hebdomadaire means every week
- Where it is: Lieu gives you the specific place in the town you selected
- The days of the week: you know lundi – mardi – mercredi – jeudi – vendredi – samedi – dimanche!
- The type of market: tous produits means there will probably also be clothes stands or other nicknacks.
- The number of stands:
Markets are usually in the morning and it’s always better to get there early. There will be smelly meat and fish stands, but they are usually gathered together, so you can avoid the corresponding aisle.
Bring your own bags!!
French Health Food Stores
Health Food stores are your next best bet to find organic and vegan products. There are a couple of names that you can look for, when traveling around.
But first, remember that the app HappyCow is your best friend in this quest! On such app, you can choose to see all vegan options, solely vegan restaurants or in our case here, health food stores. HappyCow is a vegan life saver!
So, in terms of health food stores, there are 4 big names that you can look for:
Naturalia +130 stores in France – Some specialized vegan ones in Paris – 45 years of experience
La Vie Claire +250 stores in France – 70 years of experience
BioCoop + 460 stores in France – 30 years of experience
BioMonde +200 stores in France – 30 years of experience
and last:
Bio C’Bon + 110 shops in France although a lot are in or around Paris. This means your chances of finding one elsewhere than Paris, are not as high as the other listed brands.
As you can tell, this is a lot of shops and they are well spread all over France. So you will most likely not be a starving vegan in France!
Those brands operate differently and can have common brands, their own brands, be franchised or not etc. Some shops are big, some are small. They all have their specificities but basically these are your best bet to find tofu, tempeh, lentils steaks, almond milk, coconut oil, chickpeas, falafel, quinoa pasta, vegan cheese, vegan sausages to grill 🙂 as well as sunscreen, shampoo, soaps, condoms, toothpaste, etc. etc.! And organic vegetables of course!!
There are a lot of vegan and mostly organic independent stores as well. It’s just impossible for me to list. So again HappyCow! This isn’t a sponsored post, I promise!
French supermarkets
Carrefour, Leclerc and Auchan are big supermarket in France, amongst other brands.
They can, sometimes, be useful as some have a ‘health food’ and organic section which may include some dairy free products and meat free products. But I wouldn’t hold my breath in the ones located in smaller towns. They usually just don’t have a high enough demand to stock vegan products.
I still had to mention because if you can’t find any of the health food store listed, maybe you’ll find something to eat in those regular supermarkets. You will always find vegetables there so that’s a start! And probably even quinoa! So you’ll survive!
That’s it, I hope this list will help you during your trip in France. If you think I forgot something, email me! I’d love to hear from you.
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