56. Changing Perspectives

When Arden was a toddler she found fascination in smoking. The first time she saw a smoker was during a night out in a restaurant that allowed smoking. Amazed, she leaned over to Mom and while keeping her eye on the man in the booth across the room said “That man… put a STICK in his mouth… and made FIRE! I’m gonna do that when I grow up.” She stared in fascination for the rest of the meal. Now, she thinks smokers are about as evil as the construction workers outside of my dorm room last year. In fact she makes sure to hack up a lung every time we pass a smoker. We’re in Europe, so that’s all the time. I’m surprised she still has a voice.

That’s not the only thing this trip has changed. In fact this trip has changed a lot in our family. We have noticed there are many instances when we act differently than people around us. Today we went on the best chocolate factory tour I’ve ever been on. Well the only chocolate factory tour I’ve ever been on. It was completely in French, but we got free chocolate 3 times before it was over. One of these times was a small cup full of mousse. Everyone else in the room politely took a few scoopfuls and emptied their cups. The Friends did the same. Then scraped the sides, then licked out everything that was left. We were just being efficient. I’ll never know why the others left a good half spoonful sticking to the sides of the cup. Yet another example of how we’ve learned not to let anything go to waste.

This tour was part samples, part the tour guide speaking to us, but mostly a series of videos showing the owners of the company traveling to Africa to explain how their cocoa was collected. As a token of appreciation, the owner and his wife brought along a bar of chocolate to show the forced laborers what all their hard work was making. They also brought a few pieces of clothing that the women immediately put on right over their tattered and torn mumu’s. All were overjoyed, except for the one person who ended up with the knitted scarf not suitable for any time of year in Africa. At least that is my interpretation of the French video.

Reactions to raw cocoa beans!

Afterwards, we ate our weight in free dark chocolate samples from cocoa beans produced in different regions. The best were from Madagascar. We had a great discussion with Brody about money management, explaining that you could get the same 7 dollar bar of chocolate at the supermarket for less than half the price. He refused to understand this and was upset for the entire car ride home that no one bought him anything.

50 euro chocolate

Our other stop of the day was the Chambord Castle. We learned a lot about the history of the castle but it can all be summarized quite simply. King Francoise I built the place to show off how much bling he had. Due to the fact that it’s freezing in the winter and the stone walls don’t keep the place heated very well, this big hunting lodge was used only a handful of times. But what is Europe without useless castles and monuments built to show the peasants what they’re missing out on?