EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

It's awesome, both what they do and the building. Definitely worth a visit. I know all the anti stuff about the EU in the British media not to even mention Brexit, but if you come to Strasbourg and go to the European Parliament you can actually see what they do. Not a biased British press version of what they say they do. The building itself is amazing and full of superlatives at every corner. It was paid for by the French and has been gradually paid back by the EU28. It houses the largest Parliament in the world with 751 deputies debating and voting. As an aside if we Brexit there will be 71 seats to redistribute. It's all done on a population per country basis.

The Parliamentary plenary chamber.

It's hard to photograph the main debating chamber due to its size and shape. The chamber is oval as from the Greek hemicycle. The shape is to ensure consensus politics rather than adversarial politics as the UK Westminster system of opposition politics, ie. the party in power facing/opposing the party/s not in power. Fascinating. 

The Agora, the internal courtyard.

For the architects amongst you the Agora is deliberately 'unfinished' on the upper layers. Obviously the building is actually finished but the design of the building appears unfinished especially from the outside. This is a visual reminder that the European Project is ongoing.

External view of the Agora showing the 'unfinished' elevation.

At the end of the visit you are invited to have your photograph taken with a variety of European Parliament backgrounds. We opted for the EU flag (photo cropped from original).

Dick and Geoff at the European Parliament.