Paris through the Eyes of a Lover

Rummaging down rue Rosiers I stopped when Chez Marianne came into view.  What a delightful restaurant.  What a delicious restaurant.  Standing across the piéton I took it all in.  One part here, one part there with a door in the middle, where does that door lead to anyway?  It doesn’t matter.  That door makes the waiters run up and down the sidewalk with their trays

burdened with food, part of its charm.

One night my son and I, seated in the second part, enjoyed a yummy dinner at a table exactly in the center of the packed restaurant.  Paris is known for close quarters, but this goes beyond.  About midway through our meal two women entered dressed in penguin outfits that covered them head to toe.  They wedged in right beside our table, lively music struck up and they tap danced!  Why even the emaciated waiters could barely maneuver between tables; how did these two manage?  When they finished the penguins held out their flippers for coins.  You never know what is going to happen in Paris!

That was the last time I ate at Chez Marianne; that evening gave me a golden box memory that can never live up to itself.