Dans le Noir

Imagine - total darkness. Most of us do not experience this very often. Even when we turn the lights out to crawl into bed there is light. The cable box, the night light in the hallway, the light from the alarm clock or the phone. Total darkness is scary to lots of us. Well out by the Travel Chicks apartment is a restuarant called Dans le Noir (In the Dark) where you go and well, dine in the dark. And I mean dark! You go in to the bar (which is lighted) and they ask if you have any special food needs (like are you allergic to anything) and you order. We ordered (Travel Chick and three of her Paris friends) the surprise menu. I did order the vegatarian surprise, just did not want too much of a surprise. Then you put your hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you and the blind (yes, blind) waiter brings you thru two sets of curtains down a hallway and into the dining room. You are lead to your table and told what is there. A fork, a knife, a water glass and a wine glass and a basket of bread. Then they bring water and wine that you pour into your own glass - remember to put your finger in your glass and stop pouring when the liquid reaches it (very important). Your meal gets brought out and you try and eat it. My first 80 fork fills were empty - so plan a lot of time - but once you got a system you could find you food. For me listening became really interesting - I felt that I could really concentrate on what others were saying without all the other stuff that goes with someone speaking to you. Looking at them, or watching the people walk behind them, or wondering why they wore that shirt. While I was in the dark I really could only listen. And while most of the people in the room were speaking French I felt I could understand more, that I might actually be able to learn French better in the dark. Anyway, we ate and drank for a couple of hours, guessing what was on our plates - I think we were wrong for the most part. I could only identify a couple of things while eating them, but I liked it. When we were done our waiter gathered us all together and got us out to the bar and light again. We were able to see again and were grateful, our waiter on the other hand spent every minute of every day in that total darkness.

Their t-shirts were very cool. They were black with the name of the place in braille on the front. Think about it.