Unfortunate Paris Dining Experience

[NicoleAJ]

I was so encouraged by the responses of Floridanative and Tanya from Chicago when they said that they spent time in Paris without a single cross-contamination issue. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite so lucky.

I did my research, I went to plenty of pricey and upscale places, used my gluten free dining cards in French from glutenfreetravel.com, tried to find things on the menu that would be naturally gluten free, was excessively polite and showed gratitude for their time, and tried as much as possible to speak in French. During each meal, the waiters/managers would carefully listen about cross contamination issues and other hidden sources of gluten and they would always say "no problem," but I still managed to feel lousy during much of my trip to Paris. Of course I had a wonderful time, but in addition to my tours of the sites, I also ended up taking tours of the majority of McDonald's and Starbuck's bathrooms in Paris. Often times it wouldn't be an immediate and violent reaction--just a prolonged illness, leading me to believe it was cross contamination rather than outright gluten.

Of course it didn't help that my non-celiac boyfriend and I actually got food poisoning at an Indian restaurant there half way through the trip. I usually have great luck with Indian cuisine because much of it is naturally gluten free; however, I immediately felt ill and told my boyfriend that it must be gluten, but he said that he felt exactly the same way. For the next 24 hours we shared the immodium caplets and spent a lot of time slowly sipping tea, staying within a radius of accessible bathrooms. After that I'm not sure if I had gluten problems or simply lingering effects of food poisoning, but it still wasn't pleasant.

Unfortunately, I'm just hypersensitive to gluten and to cross-contamination. I often get ill if I try to go out in the States, and Paris was no different.

The resounding exception to this rule was Le Reminet near Notre Dame--I'll post about it on another thread.

[eleep]

Ech -- my boyfriend and I had two bouts of food poisoning/stomach flu together over the duration of our relationship -- it was a real bonding experience.

One thing I've tried to use to help explain to people that there's an emotional component to my food reactions is to ask them whether they've had food poisoning -- I'll say "you know that feeling just before you have to run for the bathroom when you feel like there's something terribly wrong and you're going to die? Well -- my reactions are like that on a lesser scale -- the anxious panic hits first!"

I don't recommend this strategy, by the way -- it kind of makes people look all crosseyed at you.

[gfp]

rest edited to comply with board rules

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During each meal, the waiters/managers would carefully listen about cross contamination issues and other hidden sources of gluten and they would always say "no problem,"

I am honestly not surprised at this for resto's in general in Paris. That is the whole reason for the site.

To be honest I have little success myself eating out randomly and the touristy resto's are the worst, they will say anything to get your custom.

[NicoleAJ]

GFP, these actually weren't restaurants on your list--I never seemed to be in the correct area at the proper time for any of those. I can post to your site, but I do need to look through the old receipts to find out where each of these places were.

I think a map of public restrooms could definitely be helpful, as I was leery about using the pay toilets on the streets.

[tanyad]

Hello NicoleAJ,

So sorry to hear about your food poisoning experience in Paris. I am glad that you were able to have a good time, but thats a bummer.

Tanya Davidson

Chicago

[gfp]

GFP, these actually weren't restaurants on your list--I never seemed to be in the correct area at the proper time for any of those. I can post to your site, but I do need to look through the old receipts to find out where each of these places were.

I think a map of public restrooms could definitely be helpful, as I was leery about using the pay toilets on the streets.

Yeah those toilets are now free after paying for themselves and standards have declnied accordingly.

A friend was visiting me a few weeks ago from Boston and kept asking me about "symptoms", over dinner of all things!

His wife (a surgeon) gave him a telling off and a couple of days later he had food poisioning or a stomach bug and needed a loo urgently... his wife called it serendipity! He ended up in the auto-loo... LOL

Also if you post about Le Reminet please can I copy it! I never manage to get there ... basically because I often dine with friends at the last minute and one of my best friends is a wine supplier to resto's ... this is good because he knows the owners ... and they make efforts (hence the list I have) but also he can talk to them about "additives" which they will usually deny point-blank ... so the booking policy on Le Reminet along with it not being a resto he knows the owner has meant I never manage to check it out!

[NicoleAJ]

GFP--feel free to use my post about Le Reminet. I've added the post separately on this forum. Also feel free to edit it down if you like because I know that it's excessively lengthy.

Wow, that is both unfortunate and humorous that your friend had the experience with the auto-loo. Is it true that madames have been known to take their clients there, or is that just a traveller's urban legend? Whether it was true or not, I felt it wasn't worth it to check on the cleaniness standards of those toilettes if I could possibly help it.