Paris revived an old tradition:
the annual coffee race
.
About 200 service industry workers walked or marched in the streets of the French capital on Sunday.
Each one carried a tray with a croissant, a glass of water and a cup of coffee.
The rules
: obviously, the tray was not to fall;
You couldn't hold the tray with both hands, but you could switch from one to the other;
couldn't run.
The penalties
: 30 extra seconds for any glass of water that was below the 10 centimeter line;
1 extra minute for each empty glass;
2 extra minutes for broken dishes;
disqualification for lost plate.
Participants of
La course des cafes
(the coffee race) started and finished the race at Paris City Hall.
They walked, among other places, through the streets of Marais and the Pompidou Center.
Most finished the tour in 13 to 20 minutes
.
There were six big winners, three for each category (apprentices and veterans).
The women and men competed together but qualified separately.
The top three in each category won stays in four-star hotels and meals in restaurants, and the top finishers in each category got tickets to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj competing in the race.
Photo: Instagram
The deputy mayor of Paris,
Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj
, published a series of photos of the race and celebrated the call: "Many people in the square of the town hall and in the marsh to encourage the waitresses and waiters who took the start given by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo".
Old tradition recovered in a year of the Olympics
The race was held again in a year of great relevance for the French capital, since in July the Olympic Games will be held there and the eyes of the world will be focused there.
Apprentices and veterans competed in two different categories.
Photo: X, @BasseCourFr
The waiter race, which is estimated to have been held since the mid-1910s, had been suspended since 2012 due to lack of funding.
The event was again organized partly by the Olympic Games and partly thanks to funding from the city's public water company.
The company's intention was to take advantage of the Games year to show the world how important the custom of sitting in Parisian restaurants to drink coffee and eat baked goods and pastries is for French culture.
The flyer for La course des cafes.
Last year, Paris was home to more than 15,000 bars, cafes and restaurants, a scene that remained strong even during the coronavirus pandemic.