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Dreams really do come true! -- A Vegan in Paris

Updated: Jan 18, 2019

I know what you're thinking, eating vegan in the land of fromage, filet mignon, foie gras, escargot and frogs legs? That's crazy! Well, crazy it may be but impossible it is not. Here's something I'm sure you've already worked out about me, I'm a vegan. I also know what you're thinking right now, "OMG how do you know if someone's a vegan? DON'T WORRY THEY'LL TELL YOU ABOUT IT! HAHAHAHA" No. No. Aaaaaand no. I actually almost never mention it until people ask why I have declined their generous offer of food multiple times. Or when someone asks me what food I like. That's when I'll shrug off the feigned casualness of a mutually undesired confession, that I don't eat animals or anything that comes from them. People are usually pretty accepting but you have to be prepared for that inevitable Vegan Bingo moment when you're hit with one of those lines meat eaters use every time they meet a veggo or vegan: "Oh cool, good for you, I could never do that though!" Or the more condescending ones like, "Oh so what can you eat? Grass? Hahahah" or, "Oh so you must take a lot of supplements.", Or (a personal favourite of mine), "oh really? Wow I respect your opinion BUT humans are carnivores." Yes. You're absolutely right. We are carnivores. That's why I'm still alive after almost 3 years without meat. BUT I DIGRESS. As is obvious in the title I am veggie and if you're here then you most likely are too. If not it ain't no thing but a chicken wing my hommie we can all be buds here ☺️


What is also obvious from the title is that, heck yeah, I've recently been to Paris and that my friends, is a city I have only been dreaming about for over a decade (yes, I realise how basic that is), SO IT WAS A BIG DEAL! Many tears were shed, many thank you's were sent out to the universe and many excited fits of jumping up and down and smiling like a lunatic were had. It was magical and I loved every minute of it. I was lucky enough to secure an Airbnb on the Île de la Cité which is right at the heart of Paris and home to my favourite monument on earth Notre Dame. As I'm sure you are all aware, Notre Dame is the setting of an incredibly popular story by Victor Hugo and, more recently, an incredibly overlooked Disney movie. Now you may or may not realise this about me, it would entirely depend upon weather or not we've met, but if you've read this far and you don't know yet, then you really should be informed that Disney is something I take very seriously. Its a way of life for me. Its like veganism. It's not a diet, it's not a personal preference, it's a way of god damn existence. Because of this, as you may expect, I consider myself as something of an authority on Disney and in my considered, expert, inalienable opinion, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the 3rd best Disney movie ever made -- and in my mind thats a very big compliment.


So, as a Disney freak, growing up watching all my friends jet set to Paris and feeling left out, what did I do? I put on Hunchback of Notre Dame and pretended that was the next best thing and through watching it over and over (because thats what I do when I find a movie that I like, I have it on repeat for days) I fell madly, stupidly in love with it. Firstly, because it's beautiful and secondly, because the lyrics are genius -- and you can fight me on that, I challenge you to find a better, more satisfying rhyme than the combination of: Gaped at some Adonis and shaped like a croissant is. You can't.

And thirdly, because of this perfect joke:


Along with the perfectly sculpted word play of this scene:

(I suggest starting from 0:30 to save time 😄) Essentially just the incredibly witty writing. ANYWAY for all these reasons and more I guess you could say...Eiffel for it 😂😂 and its been in my top 3 ever since. So naturally my Eiffel Tower wasn't the metal pointy thing that most people go to Paris for, I didn't mind about seeing that at all, my Eiffel Tower has always been Notre Dame. If any of you share this love for the more than 800 years old masterpiece of architecture then I recommend staying at Chez Feministe, the Airbnb I stayed in. The owner, Lisa, is lovely and helpful and her apartment is on the same street as Notre Dame, in fact its only about a minutes walk from it!


This is the view from the living room window:


And this is the view from my bed 😭😭😭

Please excuse my blurry, terrible iPhone pictures, I'm currently in the process of saving up for a good camera, so please bare with me for now 😂😂


And so my friends, as you've probably guessed, my 5 days in Paris were a very emotionally fulfilling and beautiful experience.


Now, circling back to the whole point of this blog 😂 Being a Vegan in Paris was actually not as challenging as you might initially think. Paris is a very progressive city and they have a lot to offer animal lovers on any end of the veggo spectrum. Of course being Vegetarian is easy af in Paris, I have no doubt you'd be munching down all those French cheeses, croissants and crepes and just generally laughing the whole time like the lucky bastards you are but Vegan, ehhhhhh, I was pretty concerned. UNTIL the absolute godsend that is Happy Cow came to my rescue! Now, if you don't know what Happy Cow is then allow me to tell you the great news! Some GENIUS came up with the idea of compiling every vego/vegan restaurant, cafe, health food store and pop up stall in THE DAMN WORLD and placed all of them on one VERY easy to navigate website called Happy Cow. Now my personal favourite way to use the website is the map feature, where you can type in the city you are in or going to and it comes up with an interactive map with all these multicoloured pins to show you whats available.


For example, this is what comes up if you type in Paris:

If you click on one of the thumbnails you'll be redirected to that restaurant/cafe/health food store's page on the Happy Cow site. These pages have opening hours, contact numbers and addresses as well as a little write up on the place and reviews for you to have a little stalk of where you want to go and spend your hard earned cash.


I know. GENIUS. They also have an app for those of you who aren't stingey af and want to spend $6 (Australian) in order to cash in on the convenience of having this thing easily accessible at all times. #notsponsored #justafanatic If you're keen to check it out here's a link: https://www.happycow.net


MOVING ON 😜 So when I had *cough, cough* FINALLY arrived in Paris I had a looooong list of places I wanted to check out but I was also super privileged to be staying in an Airbnb that gave me full use of the kitchen, so I could treat myself to delicious af, restaurant grade, vegan, goodness but also save money and make my own stuff too. If you find yourself in a similar position then YOU NEED TO KNOW about this place:


"Bien L'épicerie" market themselves as an "organic and natural gourmet grocery store" and, as is easy to do with any health food store stocking heaps of vegan food, EIFELL IN LOVE! I'll stop making that pun now 😂 For those of you wondering, it is pronounced "Bee-uh(n)" the N is sort of swallowed and only just pronounced and its definitely not "Beee-en" or "Bye-en" not that it particularly matters but you know, I'm a french nerd so.....it matters to me 😂 Anywhosies this place was like heaven for me! I was super happy to find things like vegan ratatouille patties and a range of other quick and easy, vegan, ready to go foods coz I am lazy af 😜


They have three stores, two are in in Le Marais (actual vegan heaven) and one is just one street down from Notre Dame in the Latin Quarter (awesome af suburb of Paris, 100% recommend). The one in the Latin Quarter is the one I went to and I was very impressed by their range of organic and cruelty free products and I loved the check out chick! She was so freaking lovely and helpful and ugh, I just love this shop!

They also have cutest little website ever! Here's a link for you all to check it out:

http://www.bienlepicerie.com/ If you're using google chrome the browser should automatically translate it all to english for you :)


Now if you don't happen to be staying somewhere with a kitchen say like a hotel or some stingy Airbnb where they don't let you use their kitchen #rude then don't despair. You're budget should be bigger to cover the cost of eating at restaurants and cafes all the time anyway and if you do have access to a kitchen but obviously want to treat yourself now and again, I'll be making another post shortly for all of you looking for cafe and restaurant recommendations so stay tuned! - Han Han

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