Paris Sketchbook #3: "Comfy Duck"

"Comfy Duck" at Bar Vaudeville

👆 Play this while reading. It was recorded on location.

December 25, 2023
Rue Vivienne, Paris

The bartender glares at us when we ask for a hot water top-up. Tea is the cheapest item on the menu, and we’d already been sitting here for three hours. I order a Kronenburg 00 out of guilt as a young couple in black perch at the opposite end of the bar.

The man says something very intently into the young woman’s ear as she gestures to the bartender. She asks, in the thickest cockney English accent I’ve ever heard, if they are serving food.

The young French waiter rolls his eyes and hisses back, “Que demandez-vous?”

“Duck!” she says, ever so slightly louder. Still in English.
“Comfy Duck?” she adds, shaking her head.¹

He brought her a large cup of black coffee.

After trying to find the translation in their phone app, they got up and left. An old couple sat down at their spot and drank the coffee.

(👇 Click to view video )

author

Jason Chatfield on Instagram: “Sketching at Bar Vaudeville in Paris”

January 23, 2024