(22 Sep 2004)
1. Pan from street to ‘Dans le noir?’ restaurant
2. Restaurant sign
3. Various of diners entering dining hall with hands on shoulders of the person in front of them
4. Various night vision pictures of people being seated by blind guides in the dark
5. Night vision of couples holding hands in restaurant
6. Various night vision of people eating in the dark
7. Owner Edouard de Broglie walking out of restaurant
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Edouard de Broglie, founder and owner of ‘Dans le noir?’ restaurant
“They just go into another world, they leave all ideas of light outside on entering complete darkness. They lose all their security and they awaken their other senses, because most of your senses are dominated by sight. You never use, in fact, truly your nose, your taste, and your touch, your fingers. There you have no other choice but to use them.”
9. People putting away objects that give off light into lockers outside the main dining area
10. SOUNDBITE: (French) Veronique Besancon, Restaurant patron:
“I came here to eat because my husband is visually impaired, very visually impaired, and I wanted to share that experience with him.”
11. SOUNDBITE: (French) Dominique Gombeau, Restaurant patron:
“This is after all a handicap and exactly how do these people live – (here) we can know it ourselves.”
12. Wide exterior of Parisian cinema
13. Blind man standing outside cinema
14. Paper showing sign for the deaf
15. Cinema screen
16. Blind viewers seated inside cinema
17. Hearing impaired viewer watching movie
STORYLINE:
A new Parisian restaurant is making its name by giving people a taste of dining blind.
At ‘Dans le noir?’ in Paris, diners including French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin have been eating in the pitch black since its July 14 opening.
The restaurant, in the capital’s trendy Beaubourg district, offers the sighted a glimpse into what it’s like to be blind.
Diners are led through the restaurant by blind waiters and meals are eaten in total darkness as many diners struggle to put the food in their mouths.
But the restaurant is less about the food and more about the sensory and empathetic experience.
Restaurant owner Edourd de Broglie says it gives the sighted a small sense of the difficulties the blind face in everyday activities, such as eating, and awakens the other senses, including smell and taste.
The restaurant is catching on, with de Broglie saying it’s packed every night. It’s been so successful that he’s contemplating opening up another restaurant in London next year.
‘Dans le noir?’ appears to be riding the wave of new initiatives put forward by the French government to make institutions more user-friendly to those with visual and hearing impairments.
On Tuesday night, a film was shown at a cinema at the heart of Paris’s Latin Quarter, newly equipped with the latest technology to enhance viewing for the deaf and blind.
Keyword: Wacky
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