It’s a Small World after all - Disneyland Paris

Thanks to the Ligue 1 and the French laissez-faire way of scheduling football games, we missed the entire point of this trip - to attend a PSG game.  They had moved the game from Sunday to Friday less than two weeks before we left.   In order to offset this disappointment, I promised we could go to Disneyland.   

We left Paris in an Uber and an hour later we were in small, quaint French villages.   We stayed in a Marriott Vacation Club that was created to be like a village.  It was nice to have an entire townhouse to stretch out in, as well as amenities like pools here all while being 15 minutes from Disneyland.   As I always prep for these trips, I watched Ratatouille on the train ride.  It was easily of the best movies I have seen in years.

Disneyland Paris is divided into Walt Disney World Studios and Disneyland.   Walt Disney World Studios has the new Avengers campus, Pixar-land, Toy Story and some old school Studio items like Tower of Terror.   We started our day here and D rode the Tower of Terror for the first time.   We then did rides in each area, with D’s favorite being the Aladdin carpets, mine was the original RATATOUILLE, and Jordan’s was the Cars Road Trip.

We then set-off through the pretty pink hotel to the Disneyland entrance.  Disneyland is set-up in the five major areas like the original in Orlando, but has different rides.  We really enjoy comparing the Phantom Manor and Pirates ride to it’s counterparts in Florida.  They also have a lot of play areas to explore which was different.   My favorite ride was It’s a Small World - as always - and the North American part was comical.  I laughed so hard.   The other rides that were significantly different were two older rides that was a train ride around disney landscapes and a boat ride with miniature disney movie places.   The Tomorrowland also had different rides and we rode was not shut down due to wind.

The park is famous for its castle - it's smaller, pink and has a dragon in the basement. The entire castle is open to explore and has a sleeping beauty theme.

At the end of our day, we needed to eat dinner.  We went to their version of Disney Springs right at the entrance/train station which is like four stores and hilarious copies of American-type restaurants.  We settled on the only one open in the pouring rain - Rainforest Cafe.  

Our impressions were it was smaller and easier than Florida - we did all the major things in a few hours as it was not crowded.   I hated the food - the food has been my favorite thing at Disney and here it is terrible American fast food.   It was odd to me that the food was bad since we were in France?   Even the Pineapple whip was only half as good as Dole Whip.

The humorous part was from September to January, there are only five days the park is not decorated. We went during those five days and got to see some Halloween and some Christmas and some non-decorated parts.

I am sure we will be seeing Disney again, as my daughter has only had the pleasure of attending breakfast at Chef Mickey’s to meet Mickey and Minnie.   So she’s now due three trips to the Parks?  And will I ever make it to Disneyland in California?   So here's to see that beautiful pink castle and having kids who make you go to Disney.

Side Blog: Statue of Liberty

We made a slight detour on this trip to see another version of the Statue of Liberty.   The story is in the 1860s, France wanted to build a statue representing liberty for the US to honor freedom and their (revolutionary) relationship.   The monument was built by the famous French sculptor Bartholdi.   .   The last one major replica is located in Paris and was reciprocal gift from the US.  This smaller version of the statue, one-fourth the height of the original, was gifted in 1889. 

We have been lucky to see it in NYC and the other large statue in Colmar, the town where the sculptor was born, on previous trips. We have seen, and saw again on this trip, the last one crafted by Bartholdi in 1900, which is placed at the entrance of the Musée d'Orsay.  (For many years it was in the Jardin du Luxembourg and it now has a replica.)

I was so happy to complete the checklist of all of the Statues of Liberty!

I don’t want a history lesson, I just want to see stuff -Paris

 Blog title from my son, while waiting for the Louvre Museum.

We were back in Paris.  And within the first 15 minutes, it showed.   We decided to take a taxi from the train station to our hotel, as it should have cost $15 and my son would not have to be on the metro with luggage.   The taxi dropped us off at the hotel within 15 minutes and charged $70. He claimed it was due to the Rugby World Cup having flat prices, but that had ended two days prior? So yep, back in Paris that is never easy and always scamming.    Then I tried to check into the hotel, but our room was not ready regardless of my status. Yep, Paris.

I dropped off our bags and we headed down the street to Printemps, as I had promised my son macaroons each day.  As I have good taste, we had to have our first ones at Laudree! It was the first shop in Printemps so it was perfect.    (Not a great shot of him, but first bite of real French macaroons.)

We decided that was a great lunch and made our way to the metro.  We went to the L'île de la Cité as a soft way to ease into exploring Paris. Sadly, due to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the Holocaust memorial was closed.  We had a tour of Notre Dame scheduled as our only guided tour of the week, so after exploring the restoration of the church on our own, we listened to a tour guide for over an hour.   We left the tour early to explore the crypt.   I wanted to see two things in Paris this trip and the first was a church.  We walked to the other side of the island to our strictly timed visit for Saint Chapelle.   This place was as magical as I remembered.   We then grabbed a glass of champs at a Parisian cafe while we almost cracked a smile that we made it to Paris again.  We then went back to the hotel/Opera area to walk around and eat dinner.   After dinner, we went to the top floor of the hotel in the club so we could lean into the gabled window and watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle.   This is the thing I find reliable in Paris.

The next day was the day our son planned.   The Louvre was up first.  While to enter the Louvre you now must have a timed reservation and a ticket, the que for the Louvre is more insane than any past time we went.  While waiting, D said the blog title quote as I was trying to show him my printout of the museum and talk him through the history of it.  We had our first mishap with the Paris Pass, but I figured it out after the museum staff was useless. Through hours of planning, I got him to see all of the major pieces in the museum -including the Mona Lisa - in less than three hours.

We then grabbed lunch and rode a few trains to the city’s football (soccer) stadium.  Parc de Princes, where Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (PSG) plays, had a self-guided tour that took you around the entire stadium.   We all thought it was impressive, but our son was literally jumping for two hours for excitement.

 

He picked out a Mbappe jersey and we left the 16th arrondissement for on a long bus ride to the Arc de Trompihe.   Our son did not want to climb the Arc, so we settled on a stroll down the Champs-Élysées. 

From there, we went to Hotel des Invalides to see Napoleon’s Tomb.  He is really into Napoleon history, so he enjoyed it.  I will say, as I have seen it four times now, it is still impressive and somewhat silly.  For dinner, I made the family go to a gluten-free Italian restaurant which was my best meal of 2023.   

 

On Monday, after 14 years, I got back to the Orangerie Museum.  The entire family enjoyed looking at the rooms of Water Lillies.  Years later, I still wanted to sit there for hours.

We went to the base of the Eiffel Tower and were shocked by the new security.   We tried to go into a neighborhood to ride a balloon that flies over Paris, but it was too windy.   From there, we regrouped on a boat that functions as a disco, bar, coffee shop, pool, gym, yoga studio and hang-out on the Siene.  Honestly, the most interesting place I have sipped rose.  We took a detour to see something I’ll post about later!   For lunch, we stumbled back towards the Eiffel to try out a newer restaurant that was a French twist on a American diner called Birdys.  Our afternoon was capped off with our first boat ride down the Seine.  We ended the night at Hard Rock.

We woke early on our last day in Paris to go to the Musee d’Orsay to see more art.    We had to ride on an overly full metro, which made us nervous.  As we had a timed entry, multiple lines with security checks and I had planned ahead, we were the first people on the scared fifth floor for the Impressionist art.   We saw all the greats, but my son is much like my husband who after about 30 pieces is just done.   He enjoyed Van Gogh the most and I never change - Degas and Water Lilies.  

As it was our last day in Paris, we slowly strolled down the river.    We stopped at Food Breizh for crepes and drinks and ate on the river.   We walked to the Concorde to see it up close.   We then went to see the outside of  Palais Garnier and take a last stroll through Printemps.  We went to the food court, which is so much nicer than the US food courts, Laudree and to my new favorite (gluten-free) bakery, Cospains.  I prefer to spend my money on food rather than clothes here.

We packed up our beautiful hotel room and called an Uber to take us to our last place.

PS - Ask D about playing spies in the hotel…