The end of a vegan challenge era (still in France)

Day 16

4-23-2018

We had to get an early start on the road as we had a long 6 hour drive that day to make it to our next stop. Waking up in the early morning consisted mostly of breaking down the tent and packing away our campsite, and we barely had time to think about a proper breakfast. The only thing I was able to eat was a banana and some peanuts we had in our snack bag.

After making a quick stop to stock up on camp-friendly groceries, I was still pretty hungry so bought a giant jar of apple sauce that was just eating it with a spoon in the car (haha, yes, so classy i know ;p). I love apple sauce and used to eat a lot of it back in college days, so it kind of reminded me of that:)

After a few hours on the road we stopped to get gas and decided to grab lunch as well. It was a small roadside gas station and rest area somewhere along the highway in France. The station had one little cafe and I was in luck that there was a vegetarian burger! However, it was really hard to explain to the attendant that I didnt want the cheese on it, so I had to take it off after it had already been put in the oven for a minute. It is possible that the cheese was vegan, but I seriously doubted it and tried my best to take it off of the sandwich before eating. What I wouldnt give to speak French while on this vegan diet!

Later in the afternoon we arrived at our next destination: St Mont du Michel along the north west coast of France. And it was magical and love at first sight - just look at this castle!

The castle turned out to be an old monastery after reading a bit about its history. We quickly set up camp, ran to the bus that takes us straight to the entrance, and spent the rest of the day exploring the crooked village stone streets winding up to the castle/monastery on a mountain overlooking the beautiful countryside and coast of France. It was magical.

I know this isnt food - but it sure is beautiful!

Since the lunch we had was a decent size, we didnt eat dinner until much later. Also there were no restaurants open in the tiny village and no grocery stores open until the next morning. Luckily we had one last can of Rataouille that we made last, paired with bread of course. It was actually a lovely meal for a canned dinner campsite meal!

Day 17

4-24-2018

I woke up early in the morning as I had a lot of work to complete for a recent client I managed to find, which might lead to a more full time design position, and actually I had staying up until 2am working to get the designs done (all on my vacation!). It turned out really well, but I still had to finish and tweak a few things, so my friends were really nice to bring me a pastry from the bakery for breakfast and pack the tent up without my help as I was in deadline mode.

When I wrapped up my work and sent it off, I rushed back to the campsite and my lovely friends had finished packing it up and had made a quick brunch of vegetable soup (legumes in french), which we paired with baguette for a light meal before setting off to our next destination.

Along the drive a few hours later we stopped for gas and to eat. This gas station didnt have veggie burger option like the last, so the best I could get was a tomato cucumber sandwich that came with feta cheese i had to take off. It wasnt very tasty...or filling..... and again was mostly bread which just makes me feel like blahhhhhhh. I was still hungry after eating, so I bought some sliced carrot salad package that ended up tasting very weird - but hey, at least there were more vegetables!

I also just realized that I wrote the wrong date on this! 8-24-2018, haha. I couldnt find my little slip earlier where I was writing the dates, so I made a new one in a rush and apparently simultaneously time traveled to August ;p

At the grocery store I had found a cheese made of three different types of milk from nuts, so I decided to try it since both of my friends were indulging in an array of French cheeses that I couldnt partake in. So for dinner, I cooked up fried zucchini and put the "cheese" on it and some bread. It was a very bizarre taste, and I didnt hate it but I definitely didnt like it either. Its always good to try new things though - so cheers to that!

At the grocery store we also bought two cans of what we thought was Couscous (as it said Couscous in really large letters haha), but in fact it ended up being an ensemble of vegetables in a red/orange sauce. Although we're not entirely sure what was in it, I'm 100% sure it was vegetarian and pretty positive it was vegan as well (unless there was butter used in the sauce, but its unlikely as it tasted like a tomato type sauce). Oh the fun of language barriers and veganism! ;p

Day 18

4-25-2018

Now we were in Bordeaux region of France, most known for its wine and steaks cooked with the special Bordeaux regional wine (not like I would be having any of that!;p). We were staying in a small village and campsite on the west coast near the ocean.

Here's all of us with our strawberry banana fruit breakfast, and you can get a little sense of the space we have been living in since the beginning of the trip. Its hard to take good photos and make a nice looking meal presentation when you're sitting on inflatable mattresses while holding the plate in one hand and trying not to spill everything ;p

Afterwards we headed off to explore the beach and these very cool sand dunes surround by a forest along the coast (its the tallest sand dune in all of Europe!). After walking up the entire sand dune (it was hugeee), we walked to the seaside to have a small lunch picnic we packed. To be honest, there was much left of our foods that were vegan, but I managed to get by with a banana and peanut butter, baguette, and snacking on roasted peanuts.

I couldnt find my original paper slip with the date, so I made a new one and accidentally wrote the wrong date (haha), but it stil works :)

Ok so this is a very funny story, and again, only happened because of the challenge of maintaining a vegan diet in a small town in France. For any of you that have been to France or other European countries and cultures (Italy, Spain, etc) , you might be aware that they operate on a totally different schedule and work-life balance than in other countries. In Spain the word is called Siesta, and basically it means during lunch hours it is normal for all types of businesses (mostly restaurants though I believe) to close for 2 or 3 or 4 hours, opening again later in the day. This also made it very difficult for our trip as a lot of times we arrived to our destination hungry and not a place was open to eat!

So anyway, we found ourselves in this lovely coastal town, with no restaurants open at all (many said they werent open again until 7pm and we were too hungry to wait). We even checked back three times at this Indian place as that would have been a perfect veggie/vegan option. We did finally find a little side stand crepe and sandwich cafe. The lady was super nice but we were trying to ask if there were anything vegan/vegetarian and were struggling to communicate. When we said "burger legumes" she got very excited and basically was saying she could make a veggie sandwich. She excitedly opened the fridge and kept showing me different vegetables asking if i liked them - first carrots, then corn, then eggplant! It was sooooo funny. So anyway, she went off to make our "burgers". 15 minutes later she gave us our boxes and it was the cutest thing. She basically made me a salad on a burger bun (hahaha), but sliced and grilled the eggplant. It was so sweet how enthusiastic and nice she was to make something customized (although still a very carb heavy meal for me), and was such a funny moment that me and my friend were laughing and enjoying ourselves the entire time :)

Day 19

4-26-2018

We started the day off with the last of the baguette from the day before and peanut butter, with roasted peanuts on top, orange juice to drink, and the last of the strawberries. We were trying to finish the last of our groceries as we were planning to leave that day, but because we had to drop our car off at the mechanics when it started having trouble, it ended up taking longer than the mechanic said and we stayed another night at the campsite.

Since we were running low on groceries and had no way to drive to the grocery store (there was nothing close to the campsite and the car was at the mechanics!), I had a croissant for lunch (ahhhh more breaddddd).

Around 6pm the mechanic finally called and they dropped off the car - yay it worked! They had to change the brake pads and the wheel bearrings ( costing almost 400 euros D:) but it was driving smoothly - so thank goodness for that. So we drove to the grocery store and picked up some things for dinner:

Mushroom and tomatoes in a tomato based sauce, which we put over pasta. After boiling the pasta in our little camp gas grill, the gas can ran out (nooooooooooo), and so we couldnt heat up the tomato mushroom sauce. Luckily it still tasted good. There was no way we could get more gas as by this time the groceries store has just closed :(

Still a good (vegan) meal! My friends were so considerate (buy annoyed) with my diet, helping to plan the meals with me. They added cheese on top of their dishes tho, and mine was vegan :)

Bonus picture of our amazing Bordeaux red wine ;)

Day 20

4-27-2018

We packed up the tent early in the morning and didnt have supplies or time for breakfast, so I snacked on a few fig newton bars in the car. On the road we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some things for lunch on our drive heading to Montpellier. I bought enough ingredients for a really filling quick salad.

We pulled over at a rest stop a couple of hours into the trip for our lunch. I mixed the large back of greens (not sure what type of greens they were but they were good!), added in a package of tomatoes and couscous with raisins in it. I topped in with a bit of oil as a dressing and it was pretty good! And so big I actually kept half for later :)

When we arrived to Montpellier later that night, my colleague, friend and tango partner from NYC and his wife were hosting us in their spare bedroom (they are in Montpellier for a month or so) and were nice enough to cook us an amazing meal ready for when we arrived! The only problem was I forgot to mention to my colleague that I had started this vegan diet, and the main course was over baked mussels! I died a little inside telling them I was sorry I couldnt eat them, and it made me feel like a pretty bad guest to not eat the main meal that my colleagues wife had spent time cooking for us. She was kind enough to throw a quick salad together, and luckily we had just bought some more veggie soup from the grocery store earlier so I heated that up as well. She also pulled out some incredible tasting olives from Italy.

Look at that amazing meal - and those mussels D:

The last days....

Day 21

4-28-2018

My colleague that we were staying with didnt really have much for breakfast that I could eat, so I snacked on some almonds and granola bars for breakfast.

For lunch I ate my leftover salad from the car ride the day before, with the couscous and tomatoes, as well as added a few walnuts on top.

I also ate some more of the veggie soup, but with lots of oregano spices added on top this time!

For dinner I put some mini avocados they had in the fridge ( I couldnt eat the meat based dish they cooked again), carved them out and added in tomatoes. Here were four, but I ate two more with tomatoes, and oregano and basil on top.

Day 22

4-29-2018

For breakfast I grabbed a quick banana and orange from the fruit stash. My colleagues wife said she was planning a big vegan friendly lunch for me, so not to eat much.

By the time lunch was rolling around, the smell of this amazing sautéed veggie mix was filling the entire apartment! I cant remember everything that was in it but it was delicious! Carrots, broccoli, peppers, eggplants, and a whole bunch of other deliciousness :)

I wasnt really hungry much for a proper supper because of the large lunch, so I finished the rest of my fig bars and the rest of the legumes soup as well ! Such a nice meal from earlier was a great way to end the challenge of all chanlleges - being vegan while camping and roadtripping through all of France! :)

Day 23, Maybe ?

4-30-2018

I wasnt sure whether or not to include this day because the challenge said until 4-30 but technically its day 23. I decided to anyway since I wasnt sure, and once you get into the habit of prepping, buying, and documenting the right foods, of course it feels kind of weird to stop! I guess what @heart-to-heart said about habits is right - 21 days really is enough for something to really take affect!

A tasty breakfast of mini avocados and tomatoes alongside cut up bananas topped with cinnamon:)

Another pile of avocados mixed up and some leftover homemade ratatouille - it was so incredible! and so french !

Grilled green beans with sautéed almonds to finish it off!

You can read more about the challenge here:
https://steemit.com/contest/@heart-to-heart/eatlikeasuperstar-100sbd-giveaway-challenge-starts-now

Are you vegan? Have you ever thought about being vegan? I would love feedback from others who followed along with the challenge, who are vegan, if you learned anything or have insights to offer, or just want to make fun of all the highs and lows of my vegan challenge journey!