Olympics Taster: Paris Race Celebrates the Waiters and Waitresses Who Nourish City’s Life and Soul

Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
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Olympics Taster: Paris Race Celebrates the Waiters and Waitresses Who Nourish City’s Life and Soul

Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)
Waiters and waitresses in work outfits take the start of a traditional "Course des cafes" (the cafes' race), in front of the City Hall in central Paris, on March 24, 2024. (AFP)

Usain Bolt’s sprint world records were never in danger. Then again, even the world’s fastest-ever human likely wouldn’t have been so quick while balancing a tray with a croissant, a coffee cup and a glass of water through the streets of Paris, and without spilling it everywhere.

France’s capital resurrected a 110-year-old race for its waiters and waitresses Sunday. The dash through central Paris celebrated the dexterous and, yes, by their own admission, sometimes famously moody men and women without whom France wouldn’t be France.

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.

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

So drum roll, please, for Pauline Van Wymeersch and Samy Lamrous — Paris’ newly crowned fastest waitress and waiter and, as such, ambassadors for an essential French profession.

And one which has a big job ahead: Taking the food orders and quenching the thirsts of millions of visitors who will flock to the Paris Olympics this July.

The resurrection of the waitering race after a 13-year hiatus is part of Paris’ efforts to bask in the Olympic spotlight and put its best foot forward for its first Summer Games in 100 years.

The first waiters’ race was run in 1914. This time, a couple of hundred of waiters and waitresses dressed up in their uniforms — with the finest sporting bow ties — and loaded up their trays with the regulation pastry, small (but empty) coffee cup and full glass of water for the 2-kilometer (1 1/4-mile) loop starting and finishing at City Hall.

Van Wymeersch, the runaway winner in the women’s category in 14 minutes, 12 seconds, started waitering at age 16, is now 34 and said she cannot envisage any other life for herself.

“I love it as much as I hate it. It’s in my skin. I cannot leave it,” she said of the profession. “It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It’s demanding. It’s 12 hours per day. It’s no weekends. It’s no Christmases.”

But “it’s part of my DNA. I grew up in a way with a tray in my hand,” she added. “I have been shaped, in life and in the job, by the bosses who trained me and the customers, all of the people, I have met.”

Van Wymeersch works at the Le Petit Pont café and restaurant facing Notre Dame cathedral. Lamrous, who won the men’s race in a time of 13:30, waits at La Contrescarpe, in Paris’ 5th district. Their prizes were medals, two tickets each for the July 26 Olympic opening ceremony along the River Seine and a night out at a Paris hotel.

Although all smiles on this occasion, competitors acknowledged that’s not always the case when they are rushed off their feet at work. The customer may always be right in other countries, but the waiter or waitress has the final word in France, feeding their reputation for being abrupt, moody and even rude at times.

“French pride means that in little professions like this, they don’t want to be trampled on,” said Thierry Petit, 60, who is retiring in April after 40 years of waiting tables.

“It’s not lack of respect, rather it’s more a state of mind,” he said. Switching to English, he added: “It’s very Frenchie.”

The capital’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said cafés and restaurants are “really the soul of Paris.”

“The bistrot is where we go to meet people, where we go for our little coffee, our little drink, where we also go to argue, to love and embrace each other,” she said.

“The café and the bistrot are life.”



Louvre Museum Shuts Down, Sounding the Alarm on Overtourism

Tourists wait outside the Louvre Museum, which failed to open on time on Monday, June 16, 2025 in Paris. (AP)
Tourists wait outside the Louvre Museum, which failed to open on time on Monday, June 16, 2025 in Paris. (AP)
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Louvre Museum Shuts Down, Sounding the Alarm on Overtourism

Tourists wait outside the Louvre Museum, which failed to open on time on Monday, June 16, 2025 in Paris. (AP)
Tourists wait outside the Louvre Museum, which failed to open on time on Monday, June 16, 2025 in Paris. (AP)

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and a global symbol of art, beauty and endurance, remained shuttered most of Monday when staff went on strike in frustration over what they called unmanageable crowds at an institution crumbling from within. 

It was an almost unthinkable sight: the home to works by Leonardo da Vinci and millennia of civilization’s greatest treasures, paralyzed by the very people tasked with welcoming the world to its galleries. 

Thousands of stranded and confused visitors, tickets in hand, were corralled into unmoving lines beneath I.M. Pei's glass pyramid. 

"It’s the Mona Lisa moan out here," said Kevin Ward, 62, from Milwaukee. "Thousands of people waiting, no communication, no explanation. I guess even she needs a day off." 

The Louvre has become a bellwether of global overtourism, overwhelmed by its own popularity. As tourism magnets from Venice to the Acropolis scramble to cap crowds, the world’s most iconic museum is reaching a reckoning of its own. 

The spontaneous strike erupted during a routine internal meeting, as gallery attendants, ticket agents and security personnel refused to take up their posts in protest over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and what one union called "untenable" working conditions. 

It’s rare for the Louvre to close its doors. It has happened during war, during the pandemic, and in a handful of strikes, including spontaneous walkouts over overcrowding in 2019 and safety fears in 2013. But seldom has it happened so suddenly, without warning, and in full view of the crowds. 

What's more, the disruption comes just months after President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a sweeping decade-long plan to rescue the Louvre from precisely the problems now boiling over - water leaks, dangerous temperature swings, outdated infrastructure, and foot traffic far beyond what the museum can handle. 

But for workers on the ground, that promised future feels distant. 

"We can’t wait six years for help," said Sarah Sefian of the CGT-Culture union. "Our teams are under pressure now. It’s not just about the art; it’s about the people protecting it." 

The Mona Lisa’s daily mob  

At the center of it all is the Mona Lisa, a 16th-century portrait that draws modern-day crowds more akin to a celebrity meet-and-greet than an art experience. 

Roughly 20,000 people a day squeeze into the Salle des États, the museum’s largest room, just to snap a selfie with Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic woman behind protective glass. The scene is often noisy, jostling, and so dense that many barely glance at the masterpieces flanking her. Works by Titian and Veronese that go largely ignored. 

"You don’t see a painting," said Ji-Hyun Park, 28, who flew from Seoul to Paris. "You see phones. You see elbows. You feel heat. And then, you’re pushed out." 

Macron’s renovation blueprint, dubbed the "Louvre New Renaissance," promises a remedy. The Mona Lisa will finally get her own dedicated room, accessible through a timed-entry ticket. A new entrance near the Seine River is also planned by 2031 to relieve pressure from the overwhelmed pyramid hub. 

"Conditions of display, explanation and presentation will be up to what the Mona Lisa deserves," Macron said in January. 

But Louvre workers call Macron hypocritical and say the €700–800 million renovation plan masks a deeper crisis. While Macron is investing in new entrances and exhibition space, the Louvre’s annual operating subsidies from the French state have shrunk by more than 20% over the past decade, even as visitor numbers soared. 

"We take it very badly that Monsieur Le President makes his speeches here in our museum," Sefian said, "but when you scratch the surface, the financial investment of the state is getting worse with each passing year." 

While many striking staff plan to remain off duty all day, Sefian said some workers may return temporarily to open a limited "masterpiece route" for a couple of hours, allowing access to select highlights including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The full museum might reopen as normal on Wednesday, and some tourists with time-sensitive tickets for Monday may be allowed to reuse them then. On Tuesday the Louvre is closed. 

A museum in limbo  

The Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors last year, more than double what its infrastructure was designed to accommodate. Even with a daily cap of 30,000, staff say the experience has become a daily test of endurance, with too few rest areas, limited bathrooms, and summer heat magnified by the pyramid’s greenhouse effect. 

In a leaked memo, Louvre President Laurence des Cars warned that parts of the building are "no longer watertight," that temperature fluctuations endanger priceless art, and that even basic visitor needs, such as food, restrooms, signage, fall far below international standards. She described the experience simply as "a physical ordeal." 

"What began as a scheduled monthly information session turned into a mass expression of exasperation," Sefian said. Talks between workers and management began at 10:30 a.m. and continued into the afternoon. 

The full renovation plan is expected to be financed through ticket revenue, private donations, state funds, and licensing fees from the Louvre’s Abu Dhabi branch. Ticket prices for non-EU tourists are expected to rise later this year. 

But workers say their needs are more urgent than any 10-year plan. 

Unlike other major sites in Paris, such as Notre Dame cathedral or the Centre Pompidou museum, both of which are undergoing government-backed restorations, the Louvre remains stuck in limbo — neither fully funded nor fully functional. 

President Macron, who delivered his 2017 election victory speech at the Louvre and showcased it during the 2024 Paris Olympics, has promised a safer, more modern museum by the end of the decade. 

Until then, France’s greatest cultural treasure and the millions who flock to see it remain caught between the cracks.