Travel Eating August 18, 2022

Going to a new destination is fun, accept when you have food allergies.
Last month, my sister and her daughter, along with our Mother and I took a girls trip to London and Paris. I was excited to visit the places I had learned about in school, but I was not excited for the food.
If I didn’t have food allergies, eating new foods in new countries would be a blast; however, traveling with dairy and wheat flour allergies made me very nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. Would I be able to find food I could eat? Is Gluten-Free and Dairy Free as big in Europe as it is in the United States?
Well, keep reading and you’ll find out what I did to prepare, and what I learned on my trip.
I decided to pack some snacks in my large backpack and that helped me feel a little more at ease. I packed:
Rice cakes, two types of Gluten-Free crackers, and regular Rice Crispy Treats and Rice Crispy Treats with M&M’s.
In London, there are Tesco stores, which are little markets where you can purchase anything you need. Since we were staying there a week, my Mother and I didn’t want to go out for breakfast every morning, so, we went to Tesco and bought some grapes, and a few candy bars and a pastry for her to eat for breakfast.
My breakfast: rice cakes or crackers, grapes, and a candy bar, because in my opinion, chocolate is a food group too. 😊
If you’re staying in Paris, France, allow me to recommend the hotel we stayed at.
Hotel Floride Etoile, Paris is beautiful, clean, and quiet. The kind staff will ensure you have a wonderful visit.
https://www.floride-paris-hotel.com/
The first night we arrived, my Mother mentioned to the front desk that we wanted to get some dinner, but we had a lot of food allergies, and we were told to visit a lovely café where had a delicious dinner.
Most of my dinners on this trip consisted of a side salad and potatoes: sauteed in butter, mashed, fries, and even chips.
In Paris, we went to a little grocery store that was a couple doors down from Hotel Floride Etoile to buy dinner one night. We wanted to get some deli meat, but I’m the only one who speaks French, so, the French had to be spelled out to me (since I’m blind), so, I could tell what was being looked at, until we found the meat we wanted. I also bought two delicious oranges.
I discovered that, no matter where I went to eat in London and Paris, I could find something on the menu to eat, so, if you travel there, have no fear because there is safe food for you. I would recommend taking snacks, especially Rice Crispy Treats. I can’t tell you how many times I’d get hungry when we were walking around, or about to walk into a building for a few hours of touring, and I’d get really hungry, knowing if I didn’t eat something, I’d get sick. I’d eat a Rice Crispy Treat, and that would give me the energy to keep touring for a few more hours until we could grab a sit down meal.
Before we left, I was telling my friend Heidi about the trip, explained my anxiety about finding food to eat, and Heidi asked her friend for a list of restaurants and sent the list to me. Heidi’s friend had recently returned from London and Paris, and has gluten and dairy allergies in her family. I had the list with me, but we weren’t able to visit any of the restaurants.
Here’s the list:
London:
Amorino, Tortilla, Hobson’s Fish and Chips (GF Fish and Chios!), Portobello Road Food Market on Saturdays (this was so awesome with so many naturally GF/DF things they could eat), Honest Burger, PF Changs (sounds lame but they had a ton of options and the restaurant was small and quaint), Zizzy’s (so good and they are all over the city).
Paris: Little Nonna’s ( a must, best pizza GF or reg and they are completed dedicated GF) L’Imrpimerie (we ate here twice), The Kitchen Paris, Cafe Campana (clock cafe in the Musee de Orsay, We stopped at a lot of random cafe’s and they were all really good about allergies. Now GOOGLE will translate whole menus for you and the translator on the phone was so helpful.
The crepe place we went to was Bisou Crepery. Have her look them up and make reservations. They are small and some of the GF places I found online were out of business when we got there.
Boulangerie Chambelland – we didn’t make it there but it came up on all the GF lists and I wanted to!

Some things I learned:
The Microsoft Translator App, will let you speak, type, or take pictures of text and translate it into several different languages.
The Microsoft Translator App, just in case I forgot my French.
Packing all of my clothes in Force Explore Excellence Pack and roll compression bags enabled me to cram a ton into a smaller suitcase.
Adapters for England and France (We ordered on Amazon)
Antitheft backpacks we wore in front (find your favorite on Amazon)
Band-Aids for blisters.
Watch COVID-19 restrictions and take your COVID vaccine card, face masks, and hand sanitizer as a precaution.
The taxi drivers prefer to be paid in pounds (London) and Euros (Paris). We used credit cards, and they took payment, but they weren’t thrilled about it.
To exchange money, take a debit card because the ATM machines might not take your credit cards.
Taking the buses and trains is a fun experience, as well as, walking around if you want to explore. Don’t be afraid to ask for directions either.
If you like lathering up with your favorite bar of soap, bring it with you; the hotels will have everything else.

I know this post didn’t show where we went on our trip. If you’re interested in that, visit, http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMacyLewis and you can view some of the trip there.

Friends, wherever you’re traveling to, I hope you can find delicious and safe food to eat.

Bon Voyage!