Paris is preparing to receive hundreds of athletes, who will fight to win some of the medals in the next Olympic Games, which will be held in the French capital from July 26 to August 11. But the first to compete in its streets have been the waiters from its restaurants who have participated in the mythical course des cafés.
The objective of the race, which had not been held since 2011 due to a lack of sponsors, was to demonstrate the talent of the waiters, tray in hand.
To test their agility, the workers had to navigate the narrow streets of the historic Marais neighborhood with a glass of water, a cup and a croissant. And that everything reached the goal intact.
The particularity of this test, which began to be held in 1914: the waiters could not run, but had to complete the course at a brisk pace, as they would do on a normal workday. At the finish line, the judges were waiting to evaluate the condition of each participant’s tray.
Van Wymeersch was the big winner in the women’s category with a time of 14 minutes and 12 seconds. She has been working in the hospitality industry all her life, since she was 16 years old. “I love him as much as I hate him. She’s in my skin. I can’t leave her,” she says, even though her days are 12 hours a day. Lamrous took first place in the men’s category.
Their prizes were medals, two tickets each to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26 and a night out at a Paris hotel.
