restaurant review #344 – BrEAThe is a vegan Asian maki bar. It is the second location of this restaurant, based in Montorgeuil in Paris. We were here for lunch in March (yes, I’m still cathing up on restaurant reviews!) when we were in Paris for a show of GENESIS on their last ever tour (see some videos below, and more on my You Tube channel).
A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, there was a vegan market in Lille (Rijsel, France). Lille is just across the border with Belgium, and for us that is just an hour’s drive, so we were eager to go check it out! The vegan market was organised by Végétal & Vous, a vegan shop in Lille. We could park not too far from the Community center. A bit of a bummer that the elevator was out of order, although the organisor had mentionned and warned about this the day before on the facebook page, and offered help to anyone needing assistance. But we managed 🙂 The market was not really that big (certainly not when compared to other vegan fairs or festivals we’ve been to, like Veggieworld, VegfestUK, vegfestNL or Vegan Summerfest). But nonetheless with a nice variety of shops, products and organisations. And since it was in France, also some new brands that we had never heard of. But also some products that I personally don’t really associate with veganism (like dream cathers and …
Shop review #40 – Biodesir in Lisieux (Normandy, France) is an organic shop at the edge of the city. It is a reasonably sized store, with lots of parking place in front. We were on holiday in Normandy for a couple of days in June, and we stopped here to buy some bread spreads and crackers for our lunch. I wish we could have bought more products (especially from the cooled section), because there were many products that were ‘new’ to us, and not available in Belgian stores. But since it was also extremely hot during our holiday in Normandy (around 38°) we would not have been able to preserve them till we got home. Please note that it is not a vegan shop, so not all the products on the photos are necessarily vegan. The shop does sell a lot of vegan items that are not so easily found in ‘regular’ shops in France (vegan yoghurt, tempeh, plant based drinks, vegan cheeze, …). Here are some more photos from inside Biodésir, and some vegan products: …
Restaurant review #137 – Le Potager du Marais is a vegan restaurant in Paris. It is located – as the name says – in the Marais, which is a lively and cosy (but also quite touristic) neighbourhood. There are plenty of restaurants, cafés and trendy shops in the area. Marais is French for swamp, which refers to the region’s original state, and potager stands for vegetable gardener. So that makes Le Potager du marais the vegetable gardener of the swamp 😉 It’s a rather small place, and tables are closely together, but yet there’s still a cosy atmosphere. There’s also a small terrace in front. We were here for lunch during our city trip in Paris in June. We didn’t have a reservation, and were lucky that there was a table available (we were quite late for lunch, so people already started to leave). Service was very friendly, and we immediately felt welcome! There was tap water on the table (and was refilled), which we appreciated immensly, as it was a very hot couple of …
Shop review #36 – Un Monde vegan is a vegan shop in the center of Paris, on the north side of Le Marais. We paid them a visit during our city trip in Paris, in June. It is a reasonably sized shop, comparable to the size of organic stores like Biovita and Origin’O in Belgium. Un Monde Vegan is stacked with vegan goodies, from the usual suspects like plant milks and vegan burgers, but also books, icecream, cheezes and cosmetics. It is so exciting but also relaxing to look around in an all vegan shop. Not having to check labels to see whether any goods contain animal products (which seems to have become second nature 😉 ! We had the same feeling when we visisted the vegan shop Veganz in Vienna. We couldn’t do any real shopping, as we were with our tandem bike. But we did buy some drinks, as it was a very hot day in Paris! Here are some more pics of Un Monde Vegan, which give you an idea of what they have …
Shop review #12 – Matt & Natt is a vegan Canadian company which makes handbags, briefcases, wallets and other accessories. I had my eyes on one particular bag, but didn’t find it in Belgium. Ordering directly from the company in Canada (or other American webshops) would entail paying tens of euros to customs and taxes for import in the EU. I had often encounterd such unpleasant surprises from orders in the US in the past, so did not want to have that happen again. The Belgian branch of webshop Zalando has some products of Matt & Nat available, but not the bag, nor the colour I was looking for. I eventually found the bag I was looking for (Blinkin Citrus) on a French – Paris based vegan webshop, Vegissime. Unfortunately also with high postal costs for shipping to Belgium (15euro as opposed to free delivery within France), which I think is absurd living so close to the French border! Alas, the ‘Union’ of Europe does not extend to the postal services yet 😦 Ordering online at French webshop Vegissime and …
The Bruges Vegan 