European Diary: It is the asparagus season in the Alsace region in France, and the city of Strasbourg - home to the European Parliament once a month when it is in plenary session - treated MEPs to a night of entertainment to celebrate its popular vegetable.
Platefuls of white asparagus - a popular variety in Alsace - were doled out on the last night of the parliamentary session to MEPs, who were doubtless hungry after voting on legislation dealing with everything from food labelling to foreign aid.
But behind all the smiles on show at the annual asparagus jamboree, many MEPs spent their night gossiping and plotting about how to escape the "travelling circus".
This is what critics call the monthly commute made by the several thousand MEPs, assistants, parliamentary officials and journalists to the parliament's second home in Strasbourg.
The parliament estimates it costs EU taxpayers €200 million a year to pay for its relocation from its permanent seat in Brussels to Strasbourg 12 times a year for just four days.
It's not just money at stake either. Bearing in mind that it takes about 30 people to load the trucks that carry the necessary files, documents and equipment a distance of 400km (250 miles) between the two parliamentary seats, the environment suffers too.
Cecilia Malmström, a Swedish MEP and member of the liberal group, is so frustrated with the waste of money caused by the monthly commute that she has started an online petition (www.oneseat.eu).
"After one week of campaigning we have reached 50,000 signatures. It proves that the issue of one seat for the European Parliament in Brussels engages a lot of people, all over our continent," says Malmström.
MEPs have grumbled for years about the logistics of the travelling circus, but a controversy raging over the rent charged by Strasbourg for the buildings used by the parliament is adding momentum to the campaign to have just one seat.
German conservative MEP Markus Ferber, who is responsible for a budgetary report on parliament spending in 2004, alleges that while the parliament paid Strasbourg €212 million in rent, the city has kept €58 million that was not spent on rent. The budget committee held a meeting last week to investigate.
"It's a bit of a steal, you've made quite a penny," Mr Ferber told the mayor of Strasbourg, Fabienne Keller, who was called to appear before MEPs.
The buildings are owned by a Dutch property fund and let to the city of Strasbourg, which sublets them to the parliament for about €10.5 million a year. Lawmakers say the rent in full should have gone to the Dutch fund. But the city has kept a portion of the rent for more than 25 years for construction work carried out on the buildings, maintenance and extra payments to the fund under a complex lease arrangement.
Keller warned MEPs not to use the current controversy to lobby to move the seat of parliament. She also reminded them why Strasbourg was an excellent location.
"For the record, Strasbourg was chosen for historical reasons that should not be forgotten, such as the fact that it changed nationality five times between 1870 and 1945," said Keller, who insists that nothing untoward has happened with the rent.
Most of Ireland's 13 MEPs support moving the Strasbourg seat to Brussels, except for Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley. "I think it should move from Brussels to sit permanently in Strasbourg. It is a powerful symbol for Europe," says Crowley.
But parliamentary officials privately admit that having seats in Brussels and Strasbourg, as well as an administrative hub in Luxembourg, is frustrating the smooth running of an institution that has gained more political power in recent years.
The problem is that only EU heads of state, voting by unanimity, have the power to halt the travelling circus under the terms of the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty. And, unsurprisingly, France is vociferously opposed to any move.
The president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, has agreed to raise the issue with EU leaders at the European Council next month.
There have also been rumours circulating that French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy may consider allowing the parliamentary seat to move from Strasbourg if the city were offered another high-profile EU agency, perhaps the proposed European Institute of Technology.
But few of the journalists who take the five-hour train journey every month from Brussels to Strasbourg are bargaining on an end to this travelling any time soon.
Indeed, this time next year most expect to be tucking into a plate of asparagus in Strasbourg and quietly muttering, "C'est la vie!"