Restaurants in Paris Create Communal Tables as Show of Solidarity

Seven restaurants are encouraging diners to eat together and "toast to life."

A week after the horrific attacks on Paris that killed 130 people, the city's dining community is banding together. Seven restaurants scattered throughout the city — Riche, 52, The Office, Le Mordant, Le Mangerie, Rosemary, and Nomos —  are physically joining their dining rooms' tables this weekend in order to bring diners together to "toast to life," reports Libération.

While communal tables may be popular in the U.S., it's considerably more rare for strangers to dine together in Paris — making it another show of solidarity from a city trying to soldier on in the face of last week's string of terror attacks. On Tuesday, French restaurant review website Le Fooding led a social media campaign called #TousAuBistrot — "everyone to the bar," as The Verge explains — that encouraged Parisians to patronize bars and restaurants in defiance of terrorists who took aim at the city's iconic cafe culture.

Last week's string of terror attacks hit the Paris restaurant community particularly hard, with mass shootings and bombings affecting eight different restaurants, cafes, and bars. They include Le Petit Cambodge, a family-owned Cambodian restaurant where 11 people were shot dead, and La Belle Equipe, a popular bar in the 11th Arrondissement, where 19 people were killed; a suicide bomber struck at cafe Comptoir Voltaire, injuring a dozen. The restaurant community worldwide was horrified by last Friday's events, taking to social media to express messages of support and prayer for Paris

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