European Parliament

This guide to the European Parliament in Brussels follows the monthly ritual of trucks and lawmakers hauling paperwork to Strasbourg and back, a compromise written into treaty decades ago that nobody has managed to undo. It traces the building's local nickname, a French cheese its oval dome resembles, architect Michel Boucquillon's 1988 design, and the brewery and rail yard it replaced. Look up at the glass dome and imagine the chamber inside, built for arguments in dozens of languages at once.