Advertisement
Published: January 2nd 2011
A Parisian Wedding Anniversary/h3]
or: Un anniversaire de mariage parisiens
Ahhh, where better to go for a wedding anniversary then the city of love itself - Paris! Sure, this was almost two years ago, but in an effort to catch up on our travels we will tell you anyway!
We made the choice based on the fact that I had never been and Emma loved it when she was last there (with her Aunty Cindy in 2001 or so).
We tubed it to Kings Cross St Pancras and caught the Eurostar. Two hours later we were in Paris, arriving at the Gare du Nord. We caught the Metro from Gare du Nord to where our hotel was and booked in. Our room was stripy and red/pink. We dumped our bags, and headed out for lunch.
We found a little place on a main street that had English menus, so thought we'd give it a try. Unfortunately the French charge ridiculous prices and so we paid an arm and a leg (each) for some cheeseburgers. But they were friendly and took our photo for us. After we finished eating we decided we would venture out to La
Grand Arch
In all its glory!Defense, to see the Grand Arche, a part of Paris that Emma had not seen yet as it was quite new (I think) and then we would do the usual touristy stuff another day.
The Grand Arche is a massive office building that looks like a modern version of the Arc de Triomphe with a lot of artworks scattered around the place - a giant thumb, wire in the sky, red metal, coloured something else, stripey fountain, metal tree, amongst others. We wandered for a bit and took a lot of photos and then headed for the more well-know arch, the Arc de Triomphe. We caught the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe (which you can actually see from the Grand Arche) and then had to figure out how to get to it - it is in the middle of a giant roundabout. We finally found the tunnel under the road and paid our €uros and up we went. We spent quite a while admiring the view through our camera lens and then went back down and enjoy it's massivity from ground level. Yes, massivity is a word.
Me not being well, as usually happens on our anniversary
SKULLS!
The walls were lined with skulls and bones. and holidays in general, we headed back to the hotel and had an early night, enjoying what little English-speaking TV we could find.
Emma had read about some Catacombs in a Lonely Planet guide book, so the next day we set out to find them. They were quite hidden, and the outside of it is quite unsuspecting. We lined up around the block and finally got inside and entered the deeps of Paris. The Catacombs are an underground mass burial ground which was used during the plague in the 1600s. They didn't have enough room to bury all the dead people so they piled them together underground. Nice. The through the Catacombs is a dirt path with bones lining the walls. In sections there are walls made of skulls, sometimes in decorative pattersn. You're not allowed to use flash photography for a lot of the walk so most of our pictures are a bit dodgy. Occasionally what we named 'Catacomb juice' would drip from the muddy roof, making us jump and go 'ewww'. Other than that, very interesting and somewhat freaky!
After the Catacombs we decided to walk to Notre Dame. The gothic architecture of Notre Dame is
amazing! We didn't go in cause of the crowds, but rather stood outside and took more photos with our new camera. The gargoyles were of particular interest with their hideous faces, as well as the statue of Charlemagne. (Note to self: there are FREE toilettes near the statue of Charlemagne.) After documenting the entire outside of Notre Dame we dondered down along the river, deciding to make our way through Paris and to the Eiffel Tower.
We passed many-a nice building, coincidentally many of which I cannot remember what they were! One I do know is the Louvre. Again we didn't go inside, but mostly this time because of time - and because we knew we would be back. We admired the giant glass pyramids and discussed the fact that it was where 'The Da Vinci Code' was filmed and then had lunch in the gardens just out the front past the weird pink version of Marble Arch. What we didn't realise was that sitting in the sun was burning us (apparently we thought we were immune to European sunshine after having spent six months in dreary London!). We ate pastries from a shop called Paul, fed sparrows and
Arc de Triomphe
Took millions of these kinds of shots! groaned at the couple snogging nearby. We left the gardens and strolled along through the Jardin des Tuileries - again forgetting the sun, but getting redder by the minute. The Jardin des Tuileries is beautiful and very symmetrical, and quite pleasant with kids running around with their parents while others sunbake by the ponds.
After a long walk we came out the other end and stumbled across the Obelisk - a big pointy pole with a giant gold triangle on top. Not much to write home about, but nice enough to look at. Near by we sat down and had a rest (in the shade this time, cause we had noticed our scarlet skin) then kept on walking, towards the Arc de Triomphe and along he Champs Elysees - with all its expensive shops and wide footpaths! Finally we were getting closer to our final destination - the Eiffel Tower!
I had never been to the Eiffel Tower and hence was rather excited. This also meant I had no idea as to its absolutely huge size! As we got closer I kept saying, "It must be right behind those buildings" only to be bitterly disappointed when it just
kept getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger until finally it was ginormous and we were there! We didn't go up it cause we knew we were going to take Mum on a surprise trip to Paris in August and we could do all the going in and up then. We admired it from below in all its metallic massiveness, while fighting off the hawkers trying to sell us a million mini Eiffel Towers - we did in the end buy a few for cheap (Emma and her bartering skills!).
After the Eiffel Tower we headed back (by train, no way was I walking all the way back again!) to the hotel cause we were exhausted and sunburnt. We needed our rest so we could go to Disneyland the next day!
So, our big treat for our anniversary was to go to Disneyland - I know, right, as if going to Paris wasn't enough we also went to Disneyland! Amazing! To get to Disneyland you have to catch the RER trains, which are big double-decker style trains (like ones I went on in Sydney once that had broken air-con). Disneyland is a way out of Paris, so it takes
a while and the trains get more and more packed as you go along - full of children and parents all looking for a humanised cartoon character day out. We kept ourselves occupied by watching the maps on the train that have flashing lights telling you what stop you are at and coming up to - much easier than counting down the stops!
Finally we arrive at Marne le Valle and did the short walk to the entrance - there are two parks, one which looks more like a WB Movie World kind of thing, the other is the Disneyland Resort. We waited in, not too long, and paid for our tickets - getting more and more excited the closer we got! I remember feeling a weird sense of spaciousness when we walked past the bag checkpoint before we got to the ticket booth - it suddenly was very wide and open after being on a train and then in line with so many other people.
Our first stop was to watch the Good Morning Parade - a heap of employees wandering along the street in costumes of Pinocchio, Lilo and Stitch, the Dwarves, and other well-know (and
Mickey
As close as we got to a character :( not so well-known) characters. For some reason we got more than a few photos of Geppetto. Not sure why.
Our first ride was the rollercoaster in Discoveryland. I think it is meant to be from the Disney version of
Treasure Island. Quite a good ride. I would recommend it. Next was the Buzz Lightyear Ride aptly called Buzz Lightyear Lazer Blast. It is a personal favourite. You sit in a little carriage, like the mine ride at Dreamworld but Buzz Lightyear style, and as you travel on the rails you have to shoot targets on the walls around the place in an effort to destroy Emperor Zurg. Amazing! I loved, Emma loved and it is a bit of loving competition. At the end it tells you your score and you remember that to see what level of space fight you are: I was something or other extraordinaire (it's all in French so who knows). Buzz Lightyear speaking French was a bit of a hit; just doesn't sound right. After Buzz we walked through Cinderella's Castle - not a ride, just a giant walkway with CInderella themed walls and windows and whatnot. Quite nice, but not a ride so we
didn't stay long. A merry-go-round was next - nothing out of the ordinary, but fun nonetheless.
One thing that did disappoint us about Disneyland Paris was the sever lack of characters wandering around. I was led to believe from movies that when you go to Disneyland there are characters everywhere for you to get a photo with. So before we went Emma and I made a mental note of the characters we wanted to get a photo with. Alas and alak there were none to be seen! Catastrophe! The closest we got was getting pictures with Mickey and Minnie Mouse balloons. Lame. I have since been told that it is only like that at Disney land
Paris not at the American and Japanese ones.
The tea cup ride was next. A must do as it is a staple of Disney theme parks. You get to spin yourself around like a crazy person and feel dizzy from it. Not recommended after a meal.
By now it was getting a bit busies, so we had to line up for quite a while for the Dumbo ride - but I HAD to go on it, having been a Dumbo fan
since I was little. It was well worth the wait. You control your Dumbo to make it go up and down as it goes round the pole! Awesome stuff. Don't mock it til you try it!
Another staple of Diney life (and I am not sure why, as I have never seen it in Disney movies) is the Small World ride. Should be called the Long Small World. The line isn't massive, but once you get into your little boat you around in for the long haul. It goes through (literally, I think) every country and displays their national culture/s in small cartoony form. Australia got platypuses, kangaroos and kids in khaki. You leave the ride with 'It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all' running around in your head. Fun times. I would still recommend it, cause it is quite interesting and is good for a sit down!
Other rides we went on included Big Thunder Mountain - quite similar to the Mine Ride at Dreamworld. We waited a very long time to get on and resorted to playing I Spy and random other games to amuse ourself. The Pirates of the Caribbean
Peter Pan
Disappointed. "ride" was more of a tour of a pirate world via small water craft. No thrills or spills in it other than the water dripping from above and "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me" constantly in the background. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril was one of the best rides for the day. It is just a roller coaster, but it's quite fast and very fun!
The WORST ride by far was the Peter Pan Flight ride. Thankfully they have these tickets called Fast Passes which allow you to skip the queue at the time written on the pass. We used it and were very glad we didn't stand in line waiting for the rubbish that was to ensue. We sat in a pirate ship that took just the two of us and follow a predetermined path to see from above the whole Peter Pan story. The most "exciting" part was flying over London and being able to say "We live there." Lame lame lame, don't even bother (in our opinion).
I can't think of any other rides we went on - overall an amazing day and no wonder we went back later in
the year with Em's parents and Beth.
We left Disneyland, thinking we had plenty of time to get back to Paris and catch our Eurostar - but you can probably guess from that sentence that we didn't. We had to line up to get our train tickets, which took a while and then catch the train back to Paris. I think we needed to change somewhere along the line to get to where we needed to be (maybe our hotel if we left our bags there, or maybe straight to the Eurostar, I can't really remember). We got off at the station we needed to change at and asked some guys how to get to where we needed to go. They Frenched it up for a bit and then told us where to get the train from. Turns out they were wrong, or mean. We ended up going the wrong direction and at a strange station. We saw a taxi outside the station so went to get that figuring it would be easiest, but lo and behold there was no driver. Then there was some palaver with our Metro ticket not working any more, but I can't quite remember
how we got around that one - I do remember Emma wasn't keen on jumping the barriers...
Eventually we got to the Eurostar, only to find out we had missed it...just. (No doubt we were both grumpy and tired by this point as well) In an effort to get on the next one we went to the desk and enquired about what we could do. The man told us it would cost us €200 and something to get the next one, to which we replied that we would have to do that if that is our only option - thankfully he had more ideas in his head and asked us to wait a moment. When he got back he said we could get on the next one for FREE if we were willing to sit anywhere there was a seat. He said he could not guarantee us a proper seat, but if there were none left we could sit in the bumper seats. Fine with us, we just wanted to get home! So we went along, and a Eurostar lady helped us to look for seats (SHE walked up and down the whole train while we just did a bit),
coming back to tell us that there were none and aforementioned bumper seats would be our only choice. The bumper seats are those ones that are right at the doors when you get on the Eurostar. A bit of a breeze, a bit of noise and lots of weird looks later, we finally made it home to Willesden! Huzzah!
Paul
Advertisement
Tot: 0.148s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0517s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Chris and Nikki
Chris
Cool blog, we're (hopefully) going to Paris in May, I'd never heard of the catacombs until reading your blog, something I will definitely have to see whilst there I think.