Mission Accomplished!

Today's our sixth day in Paris! I can't believe time flies so fast. Daniella and I are responsible for breakfast this morning. We woke up early to go grab some fresh bread at the bakery nearby our apartment and prepared breakfast right on time. We had a successful breakfast.

After breakfast we took the metro to Porte Dauphine station to meet with Mr. Kader Merbouh at the Paris Dauphine University to talk about Islamic finance. Their university building looks more like an office building, but it is very modern and pretty. We were told that the university building used to be the base of NATO before. He took us on a tour around the university and to the rooftop where we can see the views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. At first I thought we were going to have our lecture on Islamic finance in a lecture room, but we went to a cafe to have a casual chit-chat instead, which was really nice. My hot chocolate and biscuit was delicious.

Mr. Merbouh talked to us about the Muslim population in France and the country where majority of Muslims are from. He explained to us about Islamic finance and how it works. I never knew what Islamic finance was before and I thought it was very interesting. He also explained to us about the Ramadan and the debate on the starting day of Ramadan. Muslims are debating on whether they should follow the traditional or scientific way of determining the first day of Ramadan. The talk we had was very informative.

After our casual lecture, we ate lunch and stopped by at the Grand Mosque. The courtyard was very beautiful. I recall some areas in the mosque from the movie "Free Man" that we watched in class. Sadly, we couldn't get into the mosque, so we just toured around the courtyard. Then, we went to the tea house for some mint tea and dessert. I felt like my tea had more honey than other people's because it was so sweet that I couldn't finish it.


We had free time afterwards, so Daniella and I went to the mall called "Galeries Lafayette." They have a very beautiful architecture and we could see the Palais Garnier opera house and the Eiffel Tower from the top floor of the building. Right before sunset (which is around 9:30 p.m.), five of us, ladies went to Trocadero square to take photos with the Eiffel Tower. I was very excited because it is one of my bucket list to take a photo with the Eiffel Tower. We were there until sunset. Romantic isn't it? (We got beignet and crepes too!)

Mission accomplished! I just love Paris.
:-)

P.S. I just realized it's already past midnight here in Paris when I'm posting this. Well, bonne nuit!

- Panpanat T. (Pupae)