Is It Hard To Be Vegetarian Or Vegan In France? Attitudes Towards Being France

Tutorial Transcript

Salut YouTube today I am here with the lovely Maria we're doing another collab (collaboration) video and in case you haven't noticed you've probably seen that I'm doing more and more collab videos lately and it's because I've realized that I can't possibly know everything about the French culture I haven't lived every aspect of life in France and this is why I've chosen Maria today because she's living something in France that I'm not which is being a vegetarian in France Maria is also a certified yoga instructor and she's actually a corporate professional as well and the two have come together in her YouTube channel which she's just launched which is about yoga at work yeah so my channel is called Prana at Work and it's really a channel to understand how to let go be more calm you know be more stress-free at work and our videos feature you know meditation series that are guided we have Pilates videos in the morning. As Rosie said I'm a vegetarian and becoming vegan slowly and that's really hard to do it France so I'm actually going to be working on a lot of videos that focus on how you can make vegan food in France so yeah make sure to check it out but we'll talk about that later yeah definitely I'm gonna link everything down below we can find her the YouTube channel Instagram everything so definitely go check it out but without further ado I think we should have a little bit of a chat about what it's really like to be a vegetarian and even transitioning to veganism in France because this is something that I noticed when I arrived that even though I'm not a vegetarian unfortunately myself but I saw how hard it was for other people and it's a very particular aspect of the French culture right yeah it's a very meat-based diet here it's extremely meat based I think it goes back to you know the history of France and the culture of it where you have to just constantly eat meat and cheese and you know the biggest challenge I think for me was when uh I came to this country and I went into a restaurant for instance and I said can I please have a vegetarian option the chef looked at me he was like do you want to eat some grass? I'll bring you some grass from outside how would you describe the general attitude to vegetarian and veganism are they negative about it are they interested I think the most important thing is to know that as everyone is different and the diet you choose depends on yourself so I'm not in any way judging anyone so it's totally up to you to what you eat but I mean France specifically I think it's the worst when you say you're a vegetarian or vegan because when you say to someone you know I don't eat meat I choose not to for whatever reason it may be and the first question you always get is but why you're made to eat meat and you'll have a protein deficiency or but you know meat here in France is really good you're crazy you're not in the states you know I mean I think our generation is a bit more open you recently admitted to your in-laws didn't you that you did that both you and your French boyfriends were no longer meat eaters yeah that was hard OMG I don't know how to do this I'm going to this weekend I have to cook duck like a French dish is duck which is really popular and that really hurts your stomach if you're vegetarian and finally we told them and it was really horrible so it started with the dinner table and so my boyfriend's mom she's very French so she has her ancestors so great great great great great great grandfather's living in the same village for her whole life and she told us you know I really found this video on YouTube you know this thing called YouTube these people called vegans oh my god they look sick and it's just not possible and her his stepfather said to us oh but you know when a lion thinks about meat he doesn't think about it you know he just eats it so it was just horrible they just kept giving us chicken and lamb and they didn't care for a while and then finally they kind of accepted it was a battle what I noticed here especially is that you know back home almost every restaurant you see I mean it's definitely hipster it's definitely fashionable but you're walking down the street and everything vegan gluten-free like you're not a cool restaurant without that exactly how do you find it when you go out for example and even in Paris which is like you know arguably the most international spot in all of France I mean how is it going at restaurants are there many options so in Paris yes and no you if it's a traditional French restaurant and you go out people really be like...like they look at you up and down down like you're crazy if you have no meat on your plate but if you go to a more trendy area you know Le Marais it's a very trendy area over there so if you ask for a veggie option I'm sure they'll have it it just depends where you go in Paris right if you travel across France we recently went with my boyfriend to Etretat which is in next to Bretagne (Brittany) and they had literally no veggie places you just did not exist and every time we went inside they they looked at us they're like why are you here? It really depends around France but Paris I think it's starting to open up yeah but it's really in the most you know trendy hipster arrondissement I think Of course I find here for the veggie options like when I have vegetarian friends come to visit and stuff it's often pasta or burgers and then I'd say there's not much you know high cuisine I would say at a vegetarian level which is a bit of a shame so on a weekly basis where do you go shopping so um where we go usually with Romain is a place called BioCoop or Naturalia and these are two Bio (organic) stores that have literally everything so they even have really trendy weird products that most meat eaters don't know so chia seeds spirulina which is an algae protein they even have a mocka powder you know it's it's it was quite interesting in the states they're more they're very open to vegetarianism and veganism because I think that they're you know the animal industry is so exposed a lot of people kind of know about what happens in slaughterhouses what happens with you know GMOs and all that stuff so I think then at France because of the cultural aspect of food and because of the quality here at French food is very good it's true and because of that quality people are more conditioned to stay open it's good quality in France so it's okay so it's okay but um you know for instance I'm also Russian so I'm half Russian American and when I told my mom that I'm vegetarian so I think that there exists worse countries than France actually because in Russia for instance my mom said oh my gosh you look so skinny you look so pale you're gonna die because in Russia I mean I think Russian women are viewed as you know if you're a little bit fluffy it's just so beautiful and okay so they like the curves they love it right you know I guys I'm vegetarian so I have lean muscle very lean muscles but my Mom is just crying and in shock. That's so funny so I mean culturally we're not saying that France is the most extreme in any respect well there are some countries where it's just like you wouldn't dream of it it would be I mean how privileged must you be to choose not to eat meat but I think it is tough here for a modern open-minded Western country very much so when you talk about food to others for instance I don't know how it is with you but when I'm with my French friends all we talk about is what did you eat the other day? And as an American like guys why are we only talking about food? You sit down for a meal and you spend the meal discussing like a recent meal that this current meal reminds you of exactly oh one time I ate another pasta it was delicious there yeah there are stories and memories and history so ingrained with food here I mean overall to wrap up is it possible to be a vegetarian in France? Definitely! I know that it's definitely possible if you really put your mind to it if you really are set on the belief that you know you want to be vegetarian or vegan you definitely can it just means being more aware of what you buy you need to know where to buy this stuff so as I said if you guys are you know vegetarians living in France definitely go to Naturalia definitely go to BioCoop definitely I mean there's lots of great things on Facebook I'm part of vegans in Paris so I follow that Club people and we have meetups we talk about you know where we can get certain products that otherwise are really hard to get in France if you're living outside of Paris I mean there are plenty of ways to to live this kind of lifestyle it is just a bit harder for instance in America or New Zealand - you've got to really want it I guess? You gotta really want it and you've got to really stand your ground and say you know I decided to be this way for a reason and you have to be ready for a bit of negative feedback you know you've got you've got amazing bakeries here you've got farmers markets especially outside of Paris so differently should be should be doable as long as you stick to your principles all right well thank you so much for joining us thank you video and if you are actually a vegan or vegetarian in France let us know down below how you manage to get it done and what your experience has been as well and we can definitely help each other out down in the comments below see you next time - à bientôt !