Yay, Thursday! This was an adventurous day. We started the morning off first thing with a tour of the National Assembly. There aren't many good pictures of this visit because A. you can't take pictures most of the time for security reasons and B. the lighting was pretty low so good pictures were hard to take. A few members of Parliament were having a debate so we were able to see French legislation in action for a few minutes. What I find awesome is that they can pass notes, make copious amounts of noise, shout, and carry on while the floor is open. As a speaker, that would be totally jarring. But they seem pretty used to the noise, so it didn't sway them too much when one member kept throwing his two euros in between sentences. Anyhow, our tour guide was very sweet and gave us some behind-the-scenes looks. A very good morning.
Once we were done at the Assembly, most of the class went on an adventure. We
were looking for Choco-Story, a little known chocolate musem in Paris. We'd stumbled upon an advertisement for it by accident and we'd talked about going for a week and a half. Finally we decided to go fo it on Thursday. Man, was that cool!!! Three stories, detailing the history of chocolate, where it started, what it was used for, how they made it, stored it, shipped it, lost it, traded with it, marketed it, etc. It was so interesting and informative. Halfway through our visit, a woman came upstairs to invite us to her chocolate demonstration. Totally. She showed us how they made filled chocolates there, the machinery, the times necessary, the different ways to make different chocolate types, and then let us try one of everything. Sooooo good.The history was so awesome. Chocolate had been a spicy drink when it was first discovered and only became a sweet drink when the Europeans started tampering with it after Cortez conquered Central America and brought it back home. The tools and cups and ornamentation dedicated solely to chocolate were so cool. We did notice that nowhere in the museum was Hershey mentioned. Nestle got a shout out, but nothing about Mr. Hershey in all the history. That's alright though. We know where the world's best chocolate is made, even if the French won't acknowledge it. ;]
After Choco-Story, Alyshia and I went to visit Saint Sulpice and Arc de Triomphe. Saint Sulpice is a lesser known church near Notre Dame that has a magnificent organ. I stared at it, awestruck, for about 15 minutes. The church is huge, but since it isn't as popular as the others it isn't repaired regularly. This building needs some love desperately. I was so shocked at how the gorgeous paintings and beautiful stain glass windows were merely wasting away in this church that I couldn't help but give a donation. All around the church, there
were stations with prayer candles that asked you give a 2 euro donation if you chose to light one. I don't know the full meaning behind the gesture so I hadn't planned on lighting a candle anyway. When I had pulled all the change from my bag, I was a little heavy hearted. I had set aside 10 euros back at the dorm so I could buy a little food in the next two days and only had those few coins to spend. It didn't even amount to 2 euros. It was then that the story of the poor woman who gave her last two pence to the church and how to everyone else, it was seen as insignificant but to Jesus, it was a blessing because she was giving all that she had. I'd been tight with money during the whole trip and did my best to only buy what I would eat and could afford. I was sad that I didn't have more to give, but I knew that if I didn't put those coins in the donation box that I would feel so much worse. So I prayed that God would take my meager euros and help that splendid church continue to operate. It was definitely a pivotal experience for me.The Arc de Triomphe was cool. I didn't understand most of it, but it was quite a sight to see. I really liked the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That was a really cool monument. It was a very interesting day all the way around.
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