I’M SEATED COMFORTABLY IN DANS LE NOIR, one of the scores of restaurants littering the Centre Pompidou side of Paris’ fourth arrondissement. Across from me, I can hear my dinner companions’ empty fork scratch his plate. I can feel the woman beside me giggle like a six year old with a secret. I have no idea what I’ve ordered and when it arrives, the texture and smell stick out in my mind more than the actual taste of the food. In Paris, this is just like dining in any other place, except for one small difference. We’re eating in complete, liquid pitch darkness, literally dans le noir, in the black . Dans Le Noir is Paris’ social and culinary experiment: a restaurant designed to emulate the dining experience of the blind, manned entirely by a blind waitstaff. Here, cell phones, watches, lighters, and anything else that can produce light is checked at the door and patrons experience a two to three course meal without the benefit of knowing where, and in some cases, what, they’re eating. Welcome to one of the most surreal educational experiences Europe has to offer.

Dans Le Noir is divided into three parts, a lit bar/lobby where overpriced cocktails are bought, dinner orders are placed, and patrons catch a last fleeting glimpse of their company before entry, a lit lounge occasionally hosting a guest speaker and featuring all too metaphoric photos of people covering their eyes (so much for French subtlety), and the 60-seater restaurant, the likes of which patrons never actually see. The menu also comes in one of two varieties, the visible Menu au Choix which gives you a choice between four appetizers, four entrees, and four desserts (33 Euros for three courses, 27 for two) or the Menu Surprise which, just like it sounds, is a complete gastronomic surprise (33 Euros for the full meal, 25 for two rounds). We placed our orders, three of the four of us opting for the Menu Surprise, and waited by the door until our dinner guide straightened us into single-file, hand-holding lines, and led us through curtains to our table.

The experience of suddenly walking into a place that is darker than anything you’ve ever seen before is jarring in and of itself. The experience of spending a two and a half hour meal immersed in what I would imagine a space void feels like is terrifying, disorienting, exotic, and tranquil all at the same time. Our dinner party summed it up well, “It’s not so much dark as it is just nothing.” Being without the ability to visually judge or be judged gives way to a sort of childish liberation where you can freely make faces at your dinnermates or scratch yourself anywhere you choose without anyone being the wiser. We giggled at people who dropped their utensils. We announced in overcompensatingly loud voices that we were flicking each other off. We talked about the seedy deeds that could be going on in the restaurant that very moment. For a split second, the restaurant felt like a clandestine tree house only we knew the password for, that is, until food arrived.

Armed with little more than our fingertips, we shoveled empty forks into our mouths time after time after time, we tried in vain to cut meat with the dull side of our knives, we dropped food on the floor, we dropped food on the table, we dropped food on each other.

At no point in my adult life have I ever felt so unexpectedly dependent for the most simplistic of needs. How can I pour a glass of water without spilling? Where is the meat actually located on this plate? Are my eyes open or closed? Are other people even here or is this just someone’s TV set in the background? Why do I feel so alone? Can you imagine life like this? These questions are the overriding mission of Dans Le Noirand the silliness, the helplessness, the quiet contemplation are all as much a part of your meal as the dishes themselves.

Dans Le Noirisn’t just a restaurant, it’s an experiential lesson using food as a medium. Dishes came and went, phantom people passed by, life somewhere out in the shapeless black continued without our awareness as to who or what was conducting it. We fumbled through dessert and we listened with newfound appreciation as our blind escort gracefully guided dishes back to the kitchen, then shuffled us out of the restaurant. We stood in the dimly lit antechamber, letting our eyes slowly get used to the light once again.

LOWDOWN:
Dans Le Noir is located at 51 Rue Quincampoix and can be reached online at www.danslenoir.fr for more information. For reservations, call 011.33.1.42.77.98.04 at least three days before your visit.