The Dangers of Vegetarianism in France

Many years ago when my vehemently vegetarian surrogate step-daughter was about 9 her non-meat-eating Mum and I were talking about being a vegetarian in France where I had just been.

Some years later when her Mum and I decided to go to Paris, SSD was very distressed.  We hadn't been away without her much but when we had, had not had any problems and despite her assurances that she didn't mind us going away we couldn't get to the bottom of her distress.  Until...  Until she said that she was afraid for us.  It then took more coaxing before she told us that they ate vegetarians in France.   They did what?   And then I remembered.  When her Mum and I had had that conversation those years ago I had made the comment that it was difficult being a veggie in France and that they ate vegetarians.

I should have known better because when I was young my Uncle Eric made the comment that he would never teach anyone to drive again because when he'd taught X to drive she'd lost her head.  As a toddler I worried about this headless lady for ages. 

Lesson 1: Be careful about making throw-away comments in front of children.

Lesson 2: If you are a committed vegetarian there are easier places to live than France if you dine out a lot.

PS I had a feeling that I'd already told that story but assuming that it had been in Eagleton Notes I didn't check this blog.  So many of you (but not SP who made me think of it) will already have heard it.  It's come to something when even my Blogland friends are hearing my stories more than once.

On Being a Vegetarian

On Facebook this morning Fi of Four Paws and Whiskers asked if anyone had heard of 'meat glue' being used here in New Zealand.  To understand you may need to watch the link from the Australian Today Tonight programme.  As some of you will know I was brought up in a household with relatively little red meat being eaten and in an era when chicken was an expensive luxury but fish was plentiful.  My Dad had been diagnosed with crippling rheumatism at 18 and had been told that there was no cure but that if he cut out red meat it might help.  He died at 94 never having had rheumatism again.  Mum just disliked meat.

During the course of the 'conversation' another Fiona commented how difficult it was being a vegetarian in France.  That reminded me of a story.....

My wife was a meat eater and an absolutely superb cook and hostess and during the years of our marriage I ate meat until one day when we were in France at a ferme auberge I was faced with a poussin for the meat course (the French tend to have the meat as a separate course).  It sat there on the plate sans feet and head and feathers and I couldn't eat it.  It was many years before I could face anything that actually looked like meat again.

My second partner and her daughter were vegetarian.  It was during this time that I learned how wonderful and varied vegetarian cooking could be.  When my partner's daughter was about 9 I said in conversation that in France it wasn't just difficult being vegetarian but that they ate vegetarians in France.  

Some years later when my partner and I were talking of a visit to Paris for the weekend her daughter became very agitated.  We didn't leave her very often and her reaction was very unusual.  Eventually it transpired that she was frightened that we might get eaten if it was discovered that we were vegetarian.

That taught me a lesson I should have already learned.  When I was a wee lad my Uncle Eric had said that he wouldn't teach anyone to drive because someone he'd taken out had lost her head when she drove.  I took his words as fact and the thought stuck with me for years. 

Although I am by inclination a vegetarian I now eat meat especially when I'm in New Zealand (I use a lot of Quorn in the UK but it's not available here) but am easily put off if it's identifiable as belonging to a particular creature.  C'est la vie.

And I tend to be careful what I say in front of children!