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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I'm French and just had to deal with this several times this past year when we traveled back and forth to various places in France.

Europe is not allergy-friendly, despite huge progress recently when they made it the law that each restaurant, bakery, chocolaterie, etc, have a binder with a table of allergies for each of their product. When we asked, the binder was produced rapidly, was easy to read, and we could look up the possible contaminations. Well and good.

BUT!

At Parc Asterix, a theme park near Paris, the Ile Flottante dessert, which the binder said was nut-free because it's made with beaten egg whites floating on cream, actually had ALMOND SLIVERS all over it.  It was lucky the contaminant was highly visible and we avoided that dessert, otherwise my son would have eaten it and had an anaphylactic reaction.

The problem is that this is so new to most people in France, that some don't even know what kinds of foods are included in the nut category. They actually had to create a category, because the translation of nut in French is walnut, a specific type of nut. So they call the nut category "fruits a coque" (literal translation: fruits with shell), which I am sure most French people had never heard about prior to this new law. Just before the law was passed, two years ago, we visited a patisserie and wanted an assortment of little tarts, and asked the owner which ones were nut-free. She did not know what we were talking about, and directed us to something with pistachios, the food to which my son is most highly allergic.

So ask for the binder, tell them which foods he is specifically allergic to, and never separate your child from his Epipen, even if you think you're not eating any time soon. Visually inspect and taste the food, and always be vigilant.

[/quote]

OP here, thanks so much to all PPs, very helpful.  I should have mentioned, we will be in the south of France, near Antibes and later in Nice.  Would you have any additional suggestions/advice given this location?

Also, would the term "fruits a coque" be familiar in the south of France?  Not sure how long the term has been around.  I just checked an email from the school nurse (kid attends the French school), and I see that she used the word "noix."  Would this be adequate to describe her tree nut allergy?  We speak a little French, but neither of us are fluent.  Actually, I just realized that maybe we should speak to the school nurse re: any suggestions too.

I'm a little bummed that she won't be able to eat a lot of delicious things while there if it has nuts or may be exposed to nuts in the kitchen, but want to keep her safe.[/quote]

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