Comments on: Letter from Paris: Touring the City of Light…with a Vegan

By: Shirley

Shirley — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 14:16:57 +0000

This posting was adorable. You are an extraordinary grandfather. I certainly would not have had the fortitude to go to all those vegan restaurants in Paris. I only hope that your grandaughter keeps this golden memory and sacrifice close to her heart. You and Linda are gems.

By: tony

tony — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:50:31 +0000

When she’s gluten free in 5 years, you should do a family trip to Italy.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:42:38 +0000

Martin, I’m shocked that a man like you wasn’t aware that fine dining establishments (which I’m assuming you frequent often) are the best source of vegan meals. Just mention to your waiter that your granddaughter is vegan and they will accomodate. It gives one of the line cooks a chance to shine.

I’m a limousine ridin, jet flying, kiss stealin, wheelin and deal son of a gun like yourself, but vegan. Trust me, vegetarian and vegan only restaurants taste like health food and boring. The better the restaurant, the better the vegan dish. When I’m feeling thrify, I’ll have the vegetarian tasting menu at Per Se.

By: elliott

elliott — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:38:53 +0000

This article is ostensibly about accommodating a vegan’s eating preferences in Paris. In fact, however, it’s a thinly-veiled but meticulous account of Mr. Feuer’s elite traveling privileges and the bourgeois pride he takes in them.

Sorry you had to venture into the province of the “plebeians,” Martin, to find what you were looking for. But you certainly showed pluck taking that cab when the Jaguar limo wasn’t available. Maybe that “small tip” had something to do with it.

By: Rebeca Four

Rebeca Four — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:36:50 +0000

This was lovely. Thank you for sharing it. I plan to take my now 8 year old to Paris next Spring and this has given me hope that I, as vegan, will faire well in the City of Lights. My Madi is no longer vegan but we always dine at an establishment that the very least has a hearty selection of vegan dishes available. How wonderful of the grandparents to provide such a lovely treat for their grandchildren. My mom does the same thing every year for Madi on the month of her birthday.

By: Andrew Washton

Andrew Washton — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:17:23 +0000

Well, to each his or her own. That’s a great reason to go to Paris, for a once in a life-time trip — to eat tofu and nuts. You can stay home and do that and save a lot of money. But obviously if you can afford to stay in The Ritz you don’t need to save money. This all of course is none of my business. But if the story is written, it becomes everybody’s business. There are many many more reasons to go to Paris.

Also may I point out: if God (if you believe in God) or the evolutionary process, had not intended for people to eat meat, we would not have been given by God, or would not have evolved, the means (enzymes) to digest it. That’s something to think about.

But as I said, to each his or her own.

By: Emily's Dad

Emily's Dad — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:22:17 +0000

You refer to her as “obviously spoilt”. This is a 4 day (not two weeks), once in a lifetime trip that her grandparents took her on. They do this once for each grandchild. It has never happened before and will never happen again. She lives 5 hours from her grandparents and sees them a couple of times a year. So where in your knowledge-base do you come up with the fact that she’s “obviously spoilt”? I’m her father. I might have a better idea.

When she’s not on the once in a lifetime 4 day trip with her grandparents (the other 5000 or so days of her life), she lives with her family and goes to restaurants that are 99 percent non-vegan (there’s one vegan restaurant within an hour from our house). While the rest of us feast on steak, seafood, and thick cream sauces, Emily is content with pasta, tomato sauce, beans, nuts, and rice. She never makes any vegan demands on us. So again I ask, who is the spoiled one?

So Ian, I ask you to try being a vegan for one or two days. Can you do it? Or are you too “spoiled” on meat and dairy.

And by the way, in my view, it’s a grandparent’s job to spoil their grandchildren, if for only a couple of days per year. Personally, I’m looking forward to this in my future.

By: Ian Keeves

Ian Keeves — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:33:40 +0000

I wonder if you do the correct thing with this obviously spoilt granddaughter.

It must have been a great couple of weeks in Paris but to have your eating dictated by a fourteen year old seems somewhat perverse.

Perhaps she needs to learn that people like different things and that she should not be appeased in this way. One may have discussed her reasons, at fourteen, for making this stance. It’s possible that her grandparents would have preferred to go to different eating places.

You are lucky to have the money and desire to pamper the child thus. I would not, but I hope that she matures well, irrespective of this incident.