Summer is approaching! Do you have any plans in mind yet? If France is the destination that you’re dreaming about, then follow this month’s blog posts for some great tips to make traveling vegan in France a dream. Being well-prepared is the best way to avoid confusion and unexpected situations traveling as a vegan in a non-vegan world.
1. Learn vegan-related French words and phases
Learning some local words and phrases will be very helpful to communicate with local people about what will and won’t eat. Google Translate is your language assistant! However, you can note down some of these typical words, questions that you might need to use quite often:
Egg: Oeuf Meat: la viande
Is there meat in this dish?: Y a-t-il de la viande dans ce plat?
In addition, when you choose to subscribe to our newsletter here, you will receive a language guide monthly, with a lot of useful words and phrases that you might need when traveling as a vegan. Keep it in your travel bag to help you communicate your lifestyle choices to those around you.
1. Find vegan community in the city you are travelling to:
Lookup on Facebook for “English speaking vegans in France” or “Veggies and vegans in France” for English- speaking local vegans. Or if you speak French, type “vegans” and the name of the city you’re traveling to in the search bar to see if there are any local groups to join. It is always a nice idea to open your network and make friends with vegans all over the world.
Another useful website is www.meetup.com. With Meetup, you can see if there are any vegan events in the area you are going to. Here is an example of a vegan meetup group in Lyon, France
2. Find Vegan Accommodation or Notify hotels of your needs ahead of time
As the number of vegans is increasing, people and businesses start to pay attention more to target these customers. The hotel industry is not an exception. Most hotels and hostels are now providing vegan options at breakfast. During a trip to Paris and Alsace last Christmas, we worked very closely with our hotel in Ensisheim in Alsace to create an amazing menu for our travelers. Not only did they do an amazing job, but they kept some of the items on the menu after we left!
In addition, the concept of 100% vegan-friendly accommodation is new but not yet widespread in France. However, it would be much better to notify the hotel/ hostel that you will stay about your diet and inquiry the customer service team, so they can prepare and make the best experiences for vegans like you.
While not yet widespread, there are an increasing amount of vegan or vegetarian hotels. It can be worthwhile to do a search on some of these websites. You never know, there might be the perfect place for you to rest your head after a long day of sightseeing. You can do some research before booking the room based on these websites:
3. Follow some vegan guides to France from famous vegan bloggers/vloggers
World of Vegan – Vegan in Paris:
WHAT I ATE TODAY (realistic vegan) IN PARIS by Sarah Nourse
PARIS VEGAN VLOG – Places to go and Vegan food in PARIS by Veganmischka
4. Join a vegan tour to France
The easiest way to travel to France as a vegan, undoubtedly, is booking a tour where someone else does all the worrying about food and accommodation, leaving you to just enjoy the whole trip. We are excited to announce that World Vegan Travel will two trips to Paris and Alsace in September and again in December (we have a few spots left), and release 2 more very soon to some exciting new regions in France that are not the most vegan-friendly collaborating again with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Make sure you are signed up to the mailing list to be the first to know!!
By following these tips, you can fulfill your trips to France with joy and fun. And who knows, maybe someday we can meet on the street and share with each other even more vegan travel tips!
Stay tuned for the next blog posts, as we will take you on a vegan food journey in Paris!
* In full disclosure, World Vegan Travel does not own any of the listed products or companies and is not receiving any profit from the recommendation or purchase of these products (except of course the promotion of our trips in tip 6).
