Les Secrets

Today mom and I went to Le Musée Les Secrets du Chocolat, and what a secret it is...it's destination, at least.
We attempted to go yesterday by bike...and failed extravagantly at trying to find our way. At least we got a good work out from that whole experience.
Last night, when my dad got back from work, my mom and him went out in the car to try and find it, so that not only would we know how to get there, but my mom would have gotten in some practice driving.

We made it successfully today (successfully as in we didn't die...barely). Just as we were pulling in, a bus full of british school kids was unloading. So when we went in, we were able to watch the beginning video in english with them. The video was quite humorous, being narrated by Chocolate, and the high schoolers were giggling all around us. It was nice to sit there and think about the fact that I never have to return to Forest Hills Eastern High School ever again! Especially if they are keeping teachers like Glover in there midst...yikes...
After the video we walked through rooms where they had little exhibits set up with slightly creepy moving mechanical people and explanations about chocolates past. We learned how cacao goes from bean, to velvety smooth pools of rich, swirling deliciousness. Did you know that the beans are actually white when they come out of the pod? I thought that was curious. We also learned that cacao PREVENTS cavities!
At the end, they have a demonstration room, and the woman was still there, having just finished giving the high schoolers a demo. So she gave my mom and I our very own show. It was cool, she showed us how they do molds and things. My mom learned how to make the chocolate we cover our famous sea foam in shiny and smooth, rather than with white scuff marks. She also explained how they make each different chocolate; white, milk and dark. White chocolate doesn't actually have cacao in it, it has the cacao butter extracted from the beans which is white, and that's why it isn't brown like the others. White chocolate is cacao butter, milk, and sugar. Milk and dark are different only because the amount of cacao powder and sugar. Milk has more sugar and less cacao...which is why dark chocolate is better for you. Less sugar.
Then we wandered through their store. I got a bag of hot chocolate (can't wait to try this!), and a little bathroom kit with chocolate scented lotion, body soap, and oil! I'm gonna smell like chocolate! Yum! My mom got a bag of chocolate tea, and an oil kit with chocolate oil scents. So now our house here will smell like chocolate too. We also each got a bag of little mini chocolate bars with our tickets. They have dark (chocolat noir or black chocolate is what they call it here), milk and white chocolate.
They also had a salon de thé (a tea room) where they sold drinks, and chocolate fondue. The whole room was decorated in dark blue and sea foam green...It put a smile on my face.
A very happy day! (Especially since I got to hear my mother drop a few choice swear words after taking a wrong turn...never heard her say the 'f' word before!)