WATCH: Diners in Paris calmly enjoy meals amid raging fire

Diners in Paris enjoy meals calmly amid raging fire. Picture: Pexels/Matheus Bertelli

Diners in Paris enjoy meals calmly amid raging fire. Picture: Pexels/Matheus Bertelli

Published Mar 28, 2023

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Twitter users have been taken aback by a video which went viral, showing people at a French restaurant calmly enjoying their food while fires linked to anti-Macron protests over pension reforms, raged outside.

The video shared on Twitter by @pawelwargan appears to show the restaurant full of diners calmly carrying on while fires burned in the streets outside.

“The French really did the ‘this is fine’ meme,” he captioned the post, referring to a popular online meme depicting a cartoon dog saying "this is fine" as he idly sits in a burning room with a cup of coffee.

Many people have re-shared the tweet believing it perfectly depicts the current situation in France. The country has been engulfed in protests against proposed pension law changes which would increase the retirement age to 64.

— Paweł Wargan (@pawelwargan) March 21, 2023

While many doubted the authenticity of the video, the French publication Libération said the incident did indeed happen, and was bemused to see how it had gone viral. The publication said that the diners went about their business calmly while garbage cans were burning outside. There were firefighters present, which reassured the diners who went on eating like “nothing had happened".

The tweet has received over two million views so far and the video has been shared by many people on Twitter and other social media platforms.

One user sarcastically commented, "The riot fires give a lovely ambience." Another commented, "The term candlelit dinner takes on a new meaning."

Read how some of the other Twitter users reacted below:

— Sebastien Vaval (@sebastien_vaval) March 22, 2023