For restaurateurs worrying how they can welcome back customers but keep them safe from COVID-19, a French designer has a solution: an oversized lampshade made of transparent plastic that encases a customer’s head as they eat.
The cylindrical device hangs from a cable on the ceiling, much like a lamp shade, and has a scoop cut out of the back so that a diner can get sit down and get back up without having to bend over double.
The designer behind the invention, Christophe Gernigon, said designs that are already on the market looked like booths in prison visiting rooms, so were not inviting for customers.
“I wanted to make it more glamorous, more pretty,” he said. His design will go into production next week, and he said he had received interest from France, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Argentina.
France is starting to relax some of the restrictions it imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Shops and hairdressers have re-opened, and some children are back at school.