What a Grand Grand DAY!

There are loads of photos because today was grrreat! I had classes this morning at the church/institute building. Then in the afternoon we went to the Louvre for art class. We studied Botticelli's frescoes, Da Vinci's Madonna on the Rocks, and studied La Jaconde for a little while . . . otherwise known as the Mona Lisa.

Here are a few tidbits our prof shared with us: The piece was originally done as a wedding piece, but Da Vinci never actually gave it. He was obsessed; he carried it around everywhere, and asked Lisa to sit for hours on end for it, and eventually da Vinci donated it to Francis I, which is why it's at the Louvre. Also, her infamous smile is physically impossible; the cheek muscles make a frown, whereas the lips are curved into a smile, so don't even try to replicate. There were hoards of people crowded around taking cheapy photos (which tends to tick me off) and sometimes watching the commotion around the painting is more interesting than the piece itself. This photo is outside of one of the many corridors of the place.
Then we ditched the last half an hour and came here:
They did have a few items that weren't chocolate, but for the most part, it was all cacao-related. Yeah, amazing.
Almost all of the booths had little samples. I tried different kinds of ganache, chili- chocolate, lavendar-chocolate, apricot-chocolate, and every other kind of dark/milk/white and creamy/crunchy kind. It was pretty dreamy friends.
This is me with a free sample of an ice cream bar, sitting on a throne (disclaimer: throne NOT made of chocolate . . . shame, but the ice cream was delicious.)
This is L'Opera Garnier . . . made completely out of chocolate. It was pretty incredible.
This is one of the pieces from the fashion show. I confess I was vaguely disappointed. I thought the outfits would be ALL chocolate, but they were mostly just accessorised.
So.Much.Chocolate. It was truly wonderful.
Those are cacao beans, a chocolate shoe, and some holy figurine . . . .
The booths really were quite lovely, even the ones without free samples.
We ended up buying some pistachio bread, of all things. We were just a little too full of chocolate. That's Camille . . . she's so great.
This event travels to Moscow, Tokyo, NYC. Big Deal no?
Voila, there it is. We were all so glad that we'd come, and so pumped with cacao, that we ended up just taking photos any chance that we could.
And in about 12 hours I'm flying out for Ireland! Yeah, I know. I decided on Sunday that I would go with the group (that included my roomate) and I'm looking forward to taking in rolling hills and funny accents. I love you all!