A Parisian Vacation, Day 5

Disneyland Paris…because what would a vacation be without a visit to Disneyland?

This was our last day in Paris. Sigh. We had seen and enjoyed every museum and then some, but it was nice to have a different kind of activity for the last day. Plus, I kinda love seeing the effect Disneyland has on the Hubs. He’s all smiles at that place.

Here are a few notables from the day:

This is us standing in front of the entrance to the park. The Disneyland Hotel is built right over entry, and the lines to get in were much shorter than at home:

Lucky us, we got to visit during their 20th Anniversary Celebration.The park was not overly decked out, but it was cool to be there during their anniversary, I suppose:

The castle has a dragon’s lair underneath it:

Space Mountain Mission 2, Dave’s favorite, is substantially more sickening than Space Mountain. Those Euro’s make some crazy rollercoaster rides:

The Phantom Manor, my favorite, was substantially more gory than the Haunted Mansion and it’s theming was fun; lots of skeletons with mangled flesh. I dug it:

The Storybook Canals. Instead of a whale, you entered through the Cave of Wonders. We were then treated to stories like the Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, and Pierre and the Wolf (not Peter).

I did gather, however, that the French don’t have the same standards of upkeep. There were a whole lot of dandelions on the ride, and kind of a funny patch job (see below):

Small World was fun to see. Its décor was all consistent, unlike ours,
and it was fun seeing the representation for the US of A:

(Above) African-American cowboys, hmmm, that’s creative…

(Below) Athletes and Hollywood
 

Lunch was kind of unique. Mark and I both had the Croque Monsieur, while Dave and Tisha both got some sort of cheesy flatbread. Mmm…cheese:

Oh, and I almost forgot about our 2nd celebrity sighting of the trip! M.J., himself, back from the dead! Very cool; he had his hat, his white socks, his old nose (as Dave said) and a super sparkly "M" bedazzled on his belt:

 

The forecast for today was supposed to be the hottest of all our travel days. Of course it rained, something we hadn’t planned on. We got good and soaked during the first few hours, finally broke down and bought $20 ponchos, and then minutes later the rain stopped for the rest of the day. Lovely. **I will say, however, I am so GRATEFUL we had such good weather for the whole trip. It actually was supposed to rain almost everyday we were there, and never did even once. So lucky!

 

We ate dinner at Walt’s. This restaurant was designed as a tribute to Walt Disney, since most Europeans aren’t as acquainted with his life. The restaurant's lobby features many items referring to Walt and his achievements. And then upstairs, which is where you dine, is designed as a Club 33. So, YAY!, we can say that we know what it’s like to eat at Club 33 now…sort of…

And the castle in all its majesty. I like how the sunset matches the castle perfectly. We got to watch one heck of a firework show that had all sorts of special effects and things projected onto the castle. It was neat; my favorite show I’ve seen Disney do:

We did have one little hiccup in our Disneyland fun. We had park-hopper tickets so we could visit both Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. Around 7pm, we tried hitting Walt Disney Studios and they were CLOSED!!!! Lame. We kind of blew that one;) So, yeah, we only saw the one park. Oh, well. It gave us some time to buy some very much loved souvenirs for the kids, and also allowed us to go on a couple rides twice. I hear the other park is quite boring anyway…

***And that, my friends, concludes our Parisian Vacation. The flight home the next morning went smoothly...Dave and I each got our own row of seats to lounge as we pleased. And once home, the kids were "semi" excited to see their parents, but very excited to play with their souvies.

Overall, the trip was a dream! We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, interesting, and exciting destination. All of our i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed, so the whole trip was flawless! I was especially impressed by Mr. Blackhurst and his navigational abilities. And the company couldn't have been better. Our Williamson friends are the coolest and make life a party. So sad it’s over, but so glad we got to do it! Until next time, Paris, au revoir!

A Parisian Vacation, Part 4

Versailles! My favorite part of the trip, hands-down! It’s enormity and opulence is just ridiculous; such a crazy, cool place to visit.

So here we are probably 30 minutes from opening. The line is short, compared to the snaking pattern that endlessly winds the front courtyard as the day goes on. We were glad we got there early:

Good thing we had the best of company with us for all the long waits:

Chapel inside where Marie Antoinette & Louis the 16th were married:

The gaudy Hall of Mirrors:

The back side of the palace (some of it):

In the gardens, in front of the Apollo Fountain:

One of my favorite parts of the day was riding bikes; something I haven’t done since I was a kid, and something I’ll not soon forget. What a cool way to see Versailles and its meticulously manicured gardens, sculptures and fountains…and still not being able to see it all! It’s absolutely no wonder why people wanted to chop off heads after seeing this place!  Also fun, was watching Mark cruise around as if he were riding a dirt bike;) Awesome!

We ate lunch in one of the garden cafes. It was a lovely, picturesque atmosphere, except that I had a rather large egg shell inside my omelet. I bit into and it totally felt like I was munching on glass. Gross. Oh, well. I’ll take any experience, bad or good, so long as it helps me keep this trip vivid in my mind. At the café, Mark and Dave were taught the peeing ways of Europeans. With no toilet or urinal (just a drain on the floor) one Spaniard showed them how the Euro’s  just pee on the wall. I put the pic in below not only to give you more of a visual, but also to show you what all the women (waiting their turn for the women’s bathroom) got a view of:

In the Domain of Marie Antoinette; liked this Brady Bunchesque picture:

And the best part of the gardens is Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet. Apparently, she dreamed of peasant-life so much that she had an entire village created for her in which she could fulfill these fantasies. She had little homes and shops, veggie gardens, farms (complete with washed and perfumed sheep) and the likes. She knew what was up! This place was awesome!

So several hours later, and with feet that could barely walk, we mustered up enough strength to get ourselves back home to the hotel to rest for a bit. NOT LONG, mind you, but for a bit. Once rejuvied, we headed out to dinner and a stroll through Luxembourg Gardens. *Background-Before the trip, Dave and I learned how very much the French love to smoke. When we found Cigarette Bubble Gum Sticks from Pirate O’s (the kind that lets out a puff of powder), we knew we’d need them for our Parisian Vacation.*

So once we got to Luxembourg G’s, we casually busted out the sin sticks, trying to fake out Mark and Tisha. I’m really not sure of their reaction as I was way too busy thinking we were so freaking hilarious! I so want to post a great big pic of the picture below, but instead, made it miniature so my children won’t see it. Don’t want to encourage cancer and sloppy habits, you know. But go ahead and click on it to make it big…I think it’s rather side-splitting, if you ask me.

Cutest pic of the trip…again, if you ask me;)

Not far away is the Restaurant Polidor, which made clear that it hasn’t accepted credit cards since 1845. You knew it had to be good if they’d been open so long. We ate here not knowing much about it. We’ve since learned, however, that it was one that Ernest Hemmingway frequented. We have also since discovered that it is in the movie Midnight In Paris; kind of cool. Food was great, as usual. For dessert that night (because dessert happened every night while on vacation to Paris) we tried going to the famous Berthillon Ice Cream. Sadly, they had a little sign in the window saying that they were closed for the evening. Alas, we couldn’t go without dessert, so we went to Amorino yet again. And as always, it didn’t make me sad going there.

A Parisian Vacation, Day 3

We met up with our good friend “Paul” for another perfect pastry breakfast. Following, we went to a lesser known museum, The Cluny, which was just down from our hotel. This is one of Rick’s favorite museums, so we thought we’d give it a try. To our surprise, it was quite cool. Part of the museum is built from a pre-existing Roman bath dating back to the 1st century, so that in itself was pretty neat to see.

Inside are a variety of medieval artifacts, in particular, a famous tapestry collection, Lady and the Unicorn, which we didn’t see as it is currently in Japan on special exhibit. Boo. No worries, we got to see a collection of kings heads that once decorated Notre-Dame. Apparently, Revolutioners mistook these kings of Judah for the kings of France and cut off their heads too. Let there be no kings with heads! Is that not hilarious? I thought it was. Anyway, the heads have long since been replaced on the cathedral and these original heads were unearthed just in the 70’s.

Below, Dave shows off four pillars that are the oldest man-made objects you can see in Paris. They were built from 14-37 AD:

We left the Cluny and got on the trusty metro. I thought I’d throw in a pic just for stinkiness sake. The pic looks quite clean and nice, but don’t be fooled;)

These machines actually adorn the walls of metro stations all over Paris. Dave thought he was hilarious pretending to put a quarter in for a pic:

Next, we landed at the Rodin Museum. Rodin actually lived and worked in the Mansion where the museum now is, and loved placing his creations in the gardens. We got to see The Kiss, The Thinker, Balzac, The Burghers of Calais, The Gates of Hell, and of course, lots more.

Just across the way is Napoleon’s Tomb. It’s housed under a golden dome at Les Invalides church. The French just love this guy. Apparently, if you opened the lid to his coffin, you’d find an oak coffin inside, then an ebony coffin, 2 more lead coffins, then a mahogany, and then tinplate…until finally, you’d find Napoleon. The French go a bit overboard I’ve decided, which is awesome. I love it.

After the tomb, we visited the Army museum, which is all part of the Invalides complex. We mainly hit the WW2 wing of the museum. In it, we saw concentration camp clothing, a Nazi flag, LOTS of guns, and various other artifacts. Also cool, was Napoleon’s stuffed horse.

His innards are coming out, which is gross, but it’s cool seeing Napoleon’s brand on his thigh

 

Our bellies were rumbling, so we walked down Rue Cler. This street has all kinds of specialty shops: wine, chocolate, bread, flowers, and lest we forget CHEESE. In fact, as we passed the cheese we were all going to pass out wondering what the stink was. We thought for sure it was garbage or feet, but then we realized it was the cheese. It was funny and you probably had to be there. Anyway, we ate a place called Café Central there and everyone very much enjoyed their food.

Next, came the absolute HIGHLIGHT of the trip! Montmartre. If you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. This is the one thing Rick Steves failed us on. There was absolutely no mention of the poo that is Montmarte. It’s very much Tijuana; dirty, crowded, pick-pocket central. Sacre-Coeur is a basilica built on the highest point of the city and looks beautiful from a distance:

See…pretty! But once you climb the steps to the top, it’s madness:

We were supposed to do a little walk that weaved past notable sites like Renoir, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec’s homes, Picasso’s studio, etc. But 1 or 2 in the company wanted to get the heck out of the city. I can’t blame them and I may have been one of those people. It was mayhem. We eventually found ourselves sitting in Montmarte Cemetery gathering our bearings. This cemetery is certainly not like any cemetery we see in Utah, so it was nice to see anyway.

Afterwards, we took a quick glance at the Moulin Rouge since we couldn’t actually go to a show. Although they sell kids tickets, Dave read the online reviews and one man said, “It’s boobs galore!” Probably not the most appropriate show to see…

That night we decided to get a close-up view of the Eiffel Tower. And, you know what, I’m so glad we did. Seeing it up close was absolutely breathtaking! I had no idea it was so dang big! The wait to climb was long, but we were there so, of course, we had to do it.

Here’s Dave on the first landing of the Tower. Is it wrong that I am extremely unattracted to him in this pic?

 

And here’s the clan on the 2nd landing. It was windy, but a perfect time to be there just as the sun was setting.

And, of course, a kissy picture was a MUST!

 

For dinner, we hit Mich Sandwiches close to our hotel. It was good, but it wasn’t part of the plan, and I won’t get into the long story of how we ended up there. We also hit our beloved Amorino for yet another gelato cone. MMMMmmmm!