Paris’s Revived Waitering Event: Seizing the Olympic Limelight

The waitering event comes back after a 13-year break as part of Paris’s attempts to seize the Olympic limelight and present its finest face for the city’s first Summer Games in a century.

TFD – Paris rekindles its waitering event after 13 years, showcasing the city’s unique culinary charm and honoring its legendary cafés and waiters. Dive into the story of Parisian hospitality during the Olympic festivities.

The world sprint records held by Usain Bolt were never in jeopardy. However, even the quickest person in history probably wouldn’t have been able to balance a tray with a croissant, a coffee cup, and a glass of water through the streets of Paris without spilling it all over the place.

On Sunday, the capital of France revived a 110-year-old competition for waiters and waitresses. The race through the heart of Paris honored the quick-witted and, to be honest, occasionally notoriously grumpy men and women who made France what it is today.

Why? Because they make France’s cafés and restaurants tick. Without them, where would the French gather to put the world to rights over drinks and food? Where would they quarrel and fall in (and out of) love? And where else could they simply sit and let their minds wander? They have penned songs and poems about their “bistrots,” so attached are they to their unpretentious watering holes that for generations have nourished their bodies and souls.

Composer-poet Georges Brassens sang, “That is where you will find the population’s fine flowers,” but he also included “all the miserable, the down on their luck.”

Now let’s applaud Pauline Van Wymeersch and Samy Lamrous, who were just voted the quickest waitress and server in Paris, respectively, and who serve as representatives of a vital French occupation.

And one that has a challenging task ahead of it: handling food orders and satisfying the thirst of the millions of spectators expected to swarm the Paris Olympics in July.

A measure taken by Paris to capitalize on its first Summer Games in a century and revel in the Olympic spotlight is the reinstatement of the waitering race after a 13-year break.

In 1914, the first waiters’ race was held. On this occasion, some hundred servers and waitresses donned their best bow ties and uniforms, preparing their trays with the customary pastry, small (but empty) coffee cup, and full glass of water for the 1 1/4-mile course that began and ended at City Hall.

Van Wymeersch, who won the women’s division in a time of 14 minutes and 12 seconds, began working as a waiter at the age of sixteen. At 34, she said she is unable to imagine living an other life.

Both my love and detest for it are equal. It’s a part of me. About the career, she remarked, “I can’t leave it. It’s challenging. It wears you out. It’s demanding. One twelve hours a day. It’s no weekends. It’s no Christmases.”

But “It’s ingrained in my DNA.” In a way, I grew up holding a tray,” she continued. “The supervisors who trained me and the customers—all of the people I have met—have shaped me in life and at work.”

Van Wymeersch is employed in the restaurant and café Le Petit Pont, which faces the Notre Dame Cathedral. Lamrous, who finished first in the men’s race in 13:30, is waiting in La Contrescarpe, in the 5th district of Paris. Medals, two tickets each to the Olympic opening ceremony on July 26 along the Seine River, and a night out at a Parisian hotel were their awards.

Competitors admitted that while they were all grins on this particular occasion, that wasn’t always the case when they were pressed for time at work. In other countries, the customer may always be right, but in France, the waiter or waitress gets the last say, which contributes to their sometimes abrupt, grumpy, and even harsh reputation.

“In little professions like this, they don’t want to be stomped on,” explained 60-year-old Thierry Petit, who is retiring in April after 40 years of serving customers.

“It’s more of a state of mind than a lack of respect,” he stated. “It’s very Frenchie,” he continued, switching to English.

According to Anne Hidalgo, mayor of the capital, eateries and cafés are “really the soul of Paris.”

“We go to the bistrot to meet people, to have our little coffee or drink, to argue, to love and embrace each other,” the woman stated.

“Life is the café and the bistrot.”