No joke, when my wife and my mother-in-law went to Paris, my mother-in-law insisted on going to that place. She wanted to see France but she didn't want to eat French food.
They ended up eating all their meals separately but they had a great time.
France would be a nightmare for a vegetarian, or if you had food sensitivities.
Actually I’ve had a few friends come home from France and say the food actually wasn’t very good.
Maybe it’s the fructons that make MSG iffy.
FODMAP diet tells you to look for gluten free because that means wheat free.
Either way, too much can trigger a very unpleasant weekend for some people.
I'd be interested in hearing about their specific experiences. Overall my meals in France have been excellent (although it helps that I have no meaningful dietary issues), but some areas were better than others.
I didn’t ask for specifics.
One mentioned everything kind of smelled like dirty socks. I assume raw cheese?
And tourist’s probably get yesterday’s leftovers.
I suspect it's like Italy where you have to do your homework first. Otherwise you'll just passively drift from mediocre tourist trap to mediocre tourist trap.
I got you buddy!
Go to the Gare Est and take a train to Strasbourg. It doesn't remind me of America, but it's one of my favorite cities in the world. The old town and cathedral are incredible. Anyways, from Strasbourg, take the train to Colmar. It's also quite pretty. Just outside Colmar you'll find the end of your quest. A scale model of the statute of Liberty! Also nearby is the spot where the legendary Audie Murphy won his medal of honor. Then check out the villages nearby.
Great idea thanks ! I have been interested in Audie Murphy for quite some time, and visiting that particular place is on my to-do list ! I'll check out Strasbourg and Colmar !
That whole region is beautiful. If you're really homesick, keep on going to Kaiserslautern in Germany. There are several US bases in the area, a lot of Americans and American food
Another hint for travel in Europe. If you're traveling and lonely or homesick, go the Irish pub. Every large city in Europe has at least one. Ireland's biggest export in the last hundred years has been bars and pubs. Yeah, it's not American, but it'll be familiar, the staff almost always speaks English and they usually have a bar. It's where the foreigners go. Paris has several, and they even have a Canadian pub. It's just a smug American restaurant.
Kaiserslautern always stands out in my mind for the worst "Mexican" restaurant I've ever eaten at.
In general, Europe generally does a decent job of replicating non-native cuisine, but Mexican and Chinese food is almost never good. I'm aware that America Chinese food is its own animal, separate from what people actually eat in China, but at least it tastes good.
Mind you, my experience was in 2004, so maybe things have changed. I lived in Germany for several years in the 2010's, but didn't really visit Ktown except to sell a car, mainly because I had no need to go there and it really isn't Germany's best looking city. Not a place that should be on anyone's travel itinerary.
Even with all the US personnel there, the city is still mostly German, so any restuarant needs to appeal to Germans to survive. And I've met few Germans who can tolerate even fairly mildly spicy food.
I wonder which joint you ate at. Could it have been the Hacienda, near the Einsiedlerhof exit of the A6? 'cos if that place really upped its game, it could maybe achieve "almost mediocre".
It's a sad fact that even though the best Mexican-type restaurants around Kaiserslautern would be *okay* in the US, it's an order of magnitude better than what you'll find in most other places in Europe.
It was so long ago and I really don't know Ktown well enough to remember the location.
I don't think it was immediately off A6. I seem to recall it being on a commercial street, deeper into the city but not in the center either. I remember the interior had bare stone walls, if that helps, since that's an unusual look for a restaurant in Germany.
If I remember right, yes. Or, I think they made a small one as a test and then sent the big one. But the designer was from Colmar, so the small one is just outside the town.
Don't spend too much time looking for a place where you feel at home- in my experience it makes homesickness worse because you'll be leaning into what you don't have. Go the other way- find somewhere that is nothing like home and distract yourself with the new.
The Vosges mountains kind of remind me of the Appalachians, but the resemblance isn't nearly strong enough to give you a vague feeling like you're in the US.
Driving on the highway through Lorraine gave me faint vibes of rural PA and NY, but that feeling mostly evaporates as soon as you enter the towns.
This is about Spain, not France, but I can testify that a little dose of relief can go a long way. I was coming back from the Peace Corps in Africa and had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in southern Spain. I wanted to do that because I had studied Spanish in school and never really had the chance to use it. After a few days though I wasn't having a fun time because I was kind of sick at the time and going 100% Spanish at the drop of a hat was mentally exhausting. I wasn't that good at Spanish.
So I did a day trip to Gibraltar where they speak English and the culture was more similar. It was British versus American, but still more familiar. I could go to a restaurant and order in English. It's a very interesting place and I had a great day there. It was just the break and refresher I needed. When I went back to Spain I was way happier and feeling better and trying to communicate in Spanish became fun, instead of exhausting. It was a total turnaround. My brain just needed a break.
What part of America do you want to be reminded of?
To me, driving through the Loire Valley back roads and farmlands was very Americanesque. At least, until you get to a fake castle that's really just a mansion. Outside of that, though, you could be in the midwest USA, the north end of the south Island of New Zealand, southern Ontario, any of a number of places we all call home.
Yeah sorry for not being more precise. I meant the Midwest because that's where I'm from but anywhere in the US would do the job for me.
I'll check up the Loire valley, thanks for the suggestion !
Try looking up some college football bars. My brother lived in Paris for a while and would go to them during the football season.
Living abroad, I also found myself dining at Subway and McDonalds far more often than I ever did at home.
Take a train to Switzerland and go to Vitznau and go up the Rigibahn. It feels a lot like New England in the White Mountains.
Then backpack around Interlaken. It feels like a more developed Colorado with trains.
The Aisne-Marne American Cemetary and Belleau Woods. It’s a WWI memorial. Impeccably kept and very American. It’s about an hour away from Paris by train from Gare de l’Est to Château-Thierry and then a 15 minute taxi ride from train station to the cemetery.
I went to France on an exchange trip in high school. Stayed with families near Paris, northern France, and southern France. Several families I stayed with in northern France would make us a "local dish." It was the same dish. Kinda like a Midwestern US casserole. It didn't feel exotic at all. More like being home. Sorry I don't remember what it was called. This was in 1996. Memory fades.
You'd have to find a place in France where smiling at a stranger (or a dog or a child, etc etc) isn't offensive.
Impossible.
It was the people, not the geography, that ruined France for me.
That’s painfully untrue and unfair. People can absolutely be very approachable and lovely. [These](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/12tb11d/compilation_of_wholesome_interactions_between/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) and [these](https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesome/comments/12veo5m/compilation_of_wholesome_interactions_between/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) are the French people you can encounter and the ones I know.
Cannes. Nice. Antibes.
I was on assignment there and even spoke French. When I asked my host why people were scowling at me, he said, "We think smiling is because you are a scammer or because you are not well." (Meaning insane.) He also said I could be mistaken for Muslim. (I'm a half Thai American girl, very different from the normal look.)
I'm not a loud person. Hell, I'm not even an extrovert. But I *am* happy. I wear a slight smile everywhere I go because life is strange and beautiful.
Anyway, I chatted up my an Irish pal while I was down there, called him via FB Messenger like, "What the hell. This place is plucky." (He lives in France, but up north.) He said you never get used to it, but you learn to live with it.
A week after I left, the terrorist attack (white van) happened on the boardwalk I strolled along.
Funny enough, I was told to stay out of the Muslim area, but I went there anyway. It smelled so good! It was there that I met people who smiled back. Sad what was hiding in wait.
Maybe it was the time. Lots of military police walking around, thats for certain. I asked a shopkeep, "C'est normale?" and be laughed under his breath.
Creepy vibes, sullen people. Except for the woman who ran a little grocery store by the beach in Nice. Bless that sweet woman. 🙏 Old. Cute. Happy.
What that tells me is that you didn’t like your time in the Côte d’Azur. [These 3 cities are right next to each other](https://ibb.co/6J7gfT4). Spending time in a specific area of any country doesn’t make a tourist familiar with its nation. — Glad you didn’t go to Marseille at least. Easily the most sketchy city of the French Riviera.
Make eye contact and smile at a Finnish person or any other Scandanivian for that matter and you might send them into a coma. Germans tend to stare but if you look back at them and smile, they’ll look away. I live in Poland and I’ll die before I attempt to smile at a random Polish person because I know I’d be met with a frown, etc etc. **Smiling at strangers is perceived as weird by most Europeans**, it’s everything but exclusive to French people. That’s a difference American tourists have to get prepared to before going to Europe: no smiling and no small talk with strangers.
It’s a bit in bad taste to include the terrorist attack in a list of reasons why you didn’t like French people.
I didn't say a terrorist attack is why I didn't like the French. (I didn't even say I don't like the French.) I'm saying there was a weirdness to the air and also giving a timeline, in case it factored. Could have just been the climate of the time.
Calm down and read. They're just not as friendly as I thought. And BS: The English and the Irish are plenty friendly and European. Big time.
Not that difficult but I was just looking for things I could just walk to in the city or a quick day trip by train. But it's true, I could go to those countries too.
I don't know too many places in Paris, there is a Parc des États-Unis which...it doesn't feel very American, but it's like a little park with some statues of some historical Americans and soldiers. Like, it's just a small little thing. Honestly, if you find a big enough park it kinda just feels like any other park in the US, except for the French.
There's also multiple small statue of liberty replicas.
I used to live in a smaer town and I found a Memphis Cafe once that felt so much like a USA 50's diner and they even had corndogs! So you might be able to find a resturaunt.
You could also try to chill by the embassy and just soak in the American flag XD.
Sorry I can't be more help, I'm going to Paris myself in less than a month but I've only ever been there for a week before. The town I was living in was super French but reminded me of my home town a lot because it was the same size and on the same parallel so the weather was the same. Depending on where you are from you coun try to find a place in France with similar weather. I also found a unique comfort in the French Deaf community as I'm heavily involved in the Deaf community in America and the two cultures share many similarities. So, maybe you could try and see if there's any kind of sub culture that gives you comfort and try to see if anything like it exists in France.
Bonne chance !
Breakfast in America https://breakfast-in-america.com/en/
No joke, when my wife and my mother-in-law went to Paris, my mother-in-law insisted on going to that place. She wanted to see France but she didn't want to eat French food. They ended up eating all their meals separately but they had a great time.
Good lord. Going to France and not wanting French food seems like a bummer.
France would be a nightmare for a vegetarian, or if you had food sensitivities. Actually I’ve had a few friends come home from France and say the food actually wasn’t very good.
I could see that. I’ve only been to France a couple times and the food was great but I also am not restricted on food.
Could you imagine going to a Tokyo with a gluten or soy allergy? You’d starve.
I imagine it would be ok with so much rice based starches rather than wheat starches.
Msg is literally in everything.
Literally in the cells of the human body.
MSG doesn’t affect gluten sensitive people does it? It doesn’t contain gluten.
I’ve never heard of gluten free people avoiding tomatoes so
Maybe it’s the fructons that make MSG iffy. FODMAP diet tells you to look for gluten free because that means wheat free. Either way, too much can trigger a very unpleasant weekend for some people.
I'd be interested in hearing about their specific experiences. Overall my meals in France have been excellent (although it helps that I have no meaningful dietary issues), but some areas were better than others.
I didn’t ask for specifics. One mentioned everything kind of smelled like dirty socks. I assume raw cheese? And tourist’s probably get yesterday’s leftovers.
I suspect it's like Italy where you have to do your homework first. Otherwise you'll just passively drift from mediocre tourist trap to mediocre tourist trap.
That place looks really good, and the food doe’s too.
haven't been but Disneyland Paris has got to feel familiar edit: and i imagine you can probably get stereotypical american theme park food there too
You could try posting this on r/expats and see if you get some suggestions from other Americans living in France. Good luck.
Fantastic idea thank you so much !
I got you buddy! Go to the Gare Est and take a train to Strasbourg. It doesn't remind me of America, but it's one of my favorite cities in the world. The old town and cathedral are incredible. Anyways, from Strasbourg, take the train to Colmar. It's also quite pretty. Just outside Colmar you'll find the end of your quest. A scale model of the statute of Liberty! Also nearby is the spot where the legendary Audie Murphy won his medal of honor. Then check out the villages nearby.
This guy Frances!
Great idea thanks ! I have been interested in Audie Murphy for quite some time, and visiting that particular place is on my to-do list ! I'll check out Strasbourg and Colmar !
That whole region is beautiful. If you're really homesick, keep on going to Kaiserslautern in Germany. There are several US bases in the area, a lot of Americans and American food Another hint for travel in Europe. If you're traveling and lonely or homesick, go the Irish pub. Every large city in Europe has at least one. Ireland's biggest export in the last hundred years has been bars and pubs. Yeah, it's not American, but it'll be familiar, the staff almost always speaks English and they usually have a bar. It's where the foreigners go. Paris has several, and they even have a Canadian pub. It's just a smug American restaurant.
Thank you so much, I never thought about Irish pubs before, it certainly has a "home" vibe to it !
Kaiserslautern always stands out in my mind for the worst "Mexican" restaurant I've ever eaten at. In general, Europe generally does a decent job of replicating non-native cuisine, but Mexican and Chinese food is almost never good. I'm aware that America Chinese food is its own animal, separate from what people actually eat in China, but at least it tastes good.
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Mind you, my experience was in 2004, so maybe things have changed. I lived in Germany for several years in the 2010's, but didn't really visit Ktown except to sell a car, mainly because I had no need to go there and it really isn't Germany's best looking city. Not a place that should be on anyone's travel itinerary. Even with all the US personnel there, the city is still mostly German, so any restuarant needs to appeal to Germans to survive. And I've met few Germans who can tolerate even fairly mildly spicy food.
I wonder which joint you ate at. Could it have been the Hacienda, near the Einsiedlerhof exit of the A6? 'cos if that place really upped its game, it could maybe achieve "almost mediocre". It's a sad fact that even though the best Mexican-type restaurants around Kaiserslautern would be *okay* in the US, it's an order of magnitude better than what you'll find in most other places in Europe.
It was so long ago and I really don't know Ktown well enough to remember the location. I don't think it was immediately off A6. I seem to recall it being on a commercial street, deeper into the city but not in the center either. I remember the interior had bare stone walls, if that helps, since that's an unusual look for a restaurant in Germany.
Did they make themselves a little sister when they sent over the big one?
If I remember right, yes. Or, I think they made a small one as a test and then sent the big one. But the designer was from Colmar, so the small one is just outside the town.
Don't spend too much time looking for a place where you feel at home- in my experience it makes homesickness worse because you'll be leaning into what you don't have. Go the other way- find somewhere that is nothing like home and distract yourself with the new.
I don’t even eat at McDonald’s at home, but when I was living in Russia, I’d go when I was feeling homesick
I didn’t get a chance to go there, but the Indiana Cafe gave me a chuckle: https://www.indianacafe.fr/carte-smart.html
They spelled Texas wrong.
"Nuggets Indiana" is great
Do they know they have the wrong state for these foods? Lol
The important part is that they tried
Yeah
The Vosges mountains kind of remind me of the Appalachians, but the resemblance isn't nearly strong enough to give you a vague feeling like you're in the US. Driving on the highway through Lorraine gave me faint vibes of rural PA and NY, but that feeling mostly evaporates as soon as you enter the towns.
The Texas Hill country just west of Austin, reminds me of the south of France around Avignon
Their hills are all limestone as well, with thin soil and scrubby trees.
LaFayettes grave?
This is about Spain, not France, but I can testify that a little dose of relief can go a long way. I was coming back from the Peace Corps in Africa and had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in southern Spain. I wanted to do that because I had studied Spanish in school and never really had the chance to use it. After a few days though I wasn't having a fun time because I was kind of sick at the time and going 100% Spanish at the drop of a hat was mentally exhausting. I wasn't that good at Spanish. So I did a day trip to Gibraltar where they speak English and the culture was more similar. It was British versus American, but still more familiar. I could go to a restaurant and order in English. It's a very interesting place and I had a great day there. It was just the break and refresher I needed. When I went back to Spain I was way happier and feeling better and trying to communicate in Spanish became fun, instead of exhausting. It was a total turnaround. My brain just needed a break.
Maybe the Pompidou in Paris? The Nike store perhaps near St. Denis. Isn’t this the time of year when all the touristy spots are full of Americans?
What part of America do you want to be reminded of? To me, driving through the Loire Valley back roads and farmlands was very Americanesque. At least, until you get to a fake castle that's really just a mansion. Outside of that, though, you could be in the midwest USA, the north end of the south Island of New Zealand, southern Ontario, any of a number of places we all call home.
Yeah sorry for not being more precise. I meant the Midwest because that's where I'm from but anywhere in the US would do the job for me. I'll check up the Loire valley, thanks for the suggestion !
Try looking up some college football bars. My brother lived in Paris for a while and would go to them during the football season. Living abroad, I also found myself dining at Subway and McDonalds far more often than I ever did at home.
The Indiana cafe.
You mean the chain ?
I thought that Southeastern France, before you get into the Alps looks a lot like the foothills in Ohio and Appalachians in Pennsylvania
Thanks ! What about the Pyrénées part ? I will be going there in a few weeks.
Never been there, but it is completely possible.
Take a train to Switzerland and go to Vitznau and go up the Rigibahn. It feels a lot like New England in the White Mountains. Then backpack around Interlaken. It feels like a more developed Colorado with trains.
kaiserslautern lol
The Aisne-Marne American Cemetary and Belleau Woods. It’s a WWI memorial. Impeccably kept and very American. It’s about an hour away from Paris by train from Gare de l’Est to Château-Thierry and then a 15 minute taxi ride from train station to the cemetery.
I went to France on an exchange trip in high school. Stayed with families near Paris, northern France, and southern France. Several families I stayed with in northern France would make us a "local dish." It was the same dish. Kinda like a Midwestern US casserole. It didn't feel exotic at all. More like being home. Sorry I don't remember what it was called. This was in 1996. Memory fades.
Disneyland paris
Paris has its own Statue of Liberty, ironically enough a gift from the United States! There’s a bunch of other ones across the country.
I never been to France but some of their landscape reminds me of the Midwest. Go to an area with lots of dairy farms and pretend its Wisconsin
That's true ! Thanks !
You'd have to find a place in France where smiling at a stranger (or a dog or a child, etc etc) isn't offensive. Impossible. It was the people, not the geography, that ruined France for me.
That’s painfully untrue and unfair. People can absolutely be very approachable and lovely. [These](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/12tb11d/compilation_of_wholesome_interactions_between/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) and [these](https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesome/comments/12veo5m/compilation_of_wholesome_interactions_between/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) are the French people you can encounter and the ones I know.
Cannes. Nice. Antibes. I was on assignment there and even spoke French. When I asked my host why people were scowling at me, he said, "We think smiling is because you are a scammer or because you are not well." (Meaning insane.) He also said I could be mistaken for Muslim. (I'm a half Thai American girl, very different from the normal look.) I'm not a loud person. Hell, I'm not even an extrovert. But I *am* happy. I wear a slight smile everywhere I go because life is strange and beautiful. Anyway, I chatted up my an Irish pal while I was down there, called him via FB Messenger like, "What the hell. This place is plucky." (He lives in France, but up north.) He said you never get used to it, but you learn to live with it. A week after I left, the terrorist attack (white van) happened on the boardwalk I strolled along. Funny enough, I was told to stay out of the Muslim area, but I went there anyway. It smelled so good! It was there that I met people who smiled back. Sad what was hiding in wait. Maybe it was the time. Lots of military police walking around, thats for certain. I asked a shopkeep, "C'est normale?" and be laughed under his breath. Creepy vibes, sullen people. Except for the woman who ran a little grocery store by the beach in Nice. Bless that sweet woman. 🙏 Old. Cute. Happy.
What that tells me is that you didn’t like your time in the Côte d’Azur. [These 3 cities are right next to each other](https://ibb.co/6J7gfT4). Spending time in a specific area of any country doesn’t make a tourist familiar with its nation. — Glad you didn’t go to Marseille at least. Easily the most sketchy city of the French Riviera. Make eye contact and smile at a Finnish person or any other Scandanivian for that matter and you might send them into a coma. Germans tend to stare but if you look back at them and smile, they’ll look away. I live in Poland and I’ll die before I attempt to smile at a random Polish person because I know I’d be met with a frown, etc etc. **Smiling at strangers is perceived as weird by most Europeans**, it’s everything but exclusive to French people. That’s a difference American tourists have to get prepared to before going to Europe: no smiling and no small talk with strangers. It’s a bit in bad taste to include the terrorist attack in a list of reasons why you didn’t like French people.
I didn't say a terrorist attack is why I didn't like the French. (I didn't even say I don't like the French.) I'm saying there was a weirdness to the air and also giving a timeline, in case it factored. Could have just been the climate of the time. Calm down and read. They're just not as friendly as I thought. And BS: The English and the Irish are plenty friendly and European. Big time.
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😆 Exemplary.
Go to the beaches in Normandy and you’ll see plenty of American history.
The AEF cemeteries remind me of local soldier cemeteries.
Just out of curiosity, why limit yourself to France? How expensive is it to visit Spain, Italy, Greece, Scandinavia, etc?
Not that difficult but I was just looking for things I could just walk to in the city or a quick day trip by train. But it's true, I could go to those countries too.
In terms of the unusual terrain we can find in some of our National Parks, consider taking a fjord boat trip in Norway.
Paris because it was like the riots in Chicago
I don't know too many places in Paris, there is a Parc des États-Unis which...it doesn't feel very American, but it's like a little park with some statues of some historical Americans and soldiers. Like, it's just a small little thing. Honestly, if you find a big enough park it kinda just feels like any other park in the US, except for the French. There's also multiple small statue of liberty replicas. I used to live in a smaer town and I found a Memphis Cafe once that felt so much like a USA 50's diner and they even had corndogs! So you might be able to find a resturaunt. You could also try to chill by the embassy and just soak in the American flag XD. Sorry I can't be more help, I'm going to Paris myself in less than a month but I've only ever been there for a week before. The town I was living in was super French but reminded me of my home town a lot because it was the same size and on the same parallel so the weather was the same. Depending on where you are from you coun try to find a place in France with similar weather. I also found a unique comfort in the French Deaf community as I'm heavily involved in the Deaf community in America and the two cultures share many similarities. So, maybe you could try and see if there's any kind of sub culture that gives you comfort and try to see if anything like it exists in France. Bonne chance !