Notes from the Road (14) - Gluten Free France

What do you think of when you think about France? The Eiffel Tower? Wine? Allo Allo? Yeah, okay of course, but for me the most obvious is the food. And the food that knew I'd never be able to enjoy. The freshly baked baguettes, the croissants, the delicate creations at the patisseries...

Having Coeliac Disease, the food was probably the thing I was most nervous about when we decided to move here. Before we arrived, I had done a little research on the food and sadly had resigned myself to not being able to indulge in the famous breads and pastries but I was also very nervous about my options in the supermarkets. Would I even be able to buy cereal? A gf loaf? Pasta?

I needn't have worried. So far, every supermarket I've visited has it's own "Sans Gluten" section and there are actually quite a lot of options including bread, cakes, biscuits, pasta, sauces, cereals, flour, bread mix, chilled pastry and even beer! So, it's not going to be that hard. Every time you go to a new country, you need to learn the different food and different brands. This time, I'm just on the hunt for the GF stuff.

Eating out is going to be a different challenge altogether. The language barrier always makes for an interesting experience (you never quite know what's going to arrive at the table) but there seems to be much less knowledge or options around gf alternatives. So, if I order the Canard (duck is a regional speciality) it's always without the sauce. Who knows if the sauce is gf or not? Sadly, I just can't take the risk. In addition, we are in no way even close to finding something like Hell Pizza, Pita Pit, a chippy that does gf stuff. The hunt continues.

LM.