A New Adventure Calls to Us- a Disneyland Paris TR extravaganza! COMPLETED 3/15

We didn't. Just not enough time. I have done it before, when I was a kid, but... maybe next time. :)
Your safety is my first concern
Gee! Thanks!
It was amazing! At first we thought we would only see Paris (which I loved), but it was really cool to see some other parts of the country as well.
Did you get to Versailles? I really wanted to do that last trip, but... again... no time.
 


I have done it before, when I was a kid, but... maybe next time. :)
We almost didn't do it this trip (because of time, as well) but as you'll soon find out, we switched out one of our Paris day trips in favor of another day in the city. So we got to fit a few more things in.

Did you get to Versailles? I really wanted to do that last trip, but... again... no time.
Sadly, no. Since we were going to be in Paris at such a busy time we didn't want to deal with all the crowds. Since I know we're going back to DLP in the future, I'm sure I'll add on some more days for Paris and hopefully Versailles.

The day trip that we ended up skipping was to Fontainebleau, which is even older (though slightly less opulent). We had hoped that it would be a less-crowded way to live as royals for a day, but alas, the lure of living like Parisians for an extra day won out.
 


“English??”- Paris Day 1

Alright friends so like I mentioned in the intro, this TR is definitely going to focus on Disneyland Paris but I wanted to start first with a post to highlight what we did in Paris and our favorite parts of the city (plus there are a few Disney connections I can share!)

If you don’t know much about France, one thing that is really important to understand when planning a trip is that the French take their vacation very seriously. Most of the French (particularly Parisians) take either the entire month of July or August off. That means stuff shuts down, restaurants close, and if you happen to visit in August you’ll hear more English than French being spoken.

We knew of this phenomenon and chose to travel at the very end of August with most of our trip taking place in early September. We would still catch warm summer weather, but not have to bother with the August vacation crowds or lack of locals.

We left the US on August 29 and flew overnight, arriving in Paris at 7am on August 30. I woke up in time to watch the sunrise over France and it was just incredible.



As we drew closer to Paris I even caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower & Sacre Coeur Basilica.


[Do you see them??]

We prefer overnight flights to Europe because it means we can hit the ground running and have a full first day. That was definitely the case on this trip and we got so much done in our first 12ish hours in the city!

Back story: I knew more than a year in advance that we were going to France so I started learning French by using Duolingo and listening to some podcasts. I spent almost exactly a year trying to learn enough of the language and I was really excited to not have to rely completely on people knowing English. And there were several cases where we encountered people who did not know English and my French was enough to get us through.

So, that being said, on the taxi ride to our hotel (which was our first stop of the day) I practiced in my head what I needed to say in order to check in. I knew exactly the phrases, how to describe our reservation, and how to take directions for how to get to the room.



[Our cute hotel]

We walked into the lobby and approached the front desk and it all left my brain in one sudden whoosh. I swear you could actually hear it go. Anyway I opened my mouth with every intention of saying, “Bonjour madame, nous avons une reservation.” But what came out was…

“ENGLISH??”

For real. Not even kidding. No bonjour, no parlez vous anglais. Just…English.

If I had captured Jon’s look of disgusted embarrassment I would share it with you. Especially as I had spent the last several months reiterating to him that it is really important to first greet any French person with bonjour before saying anything else. Diving right in without a greeting is terribly rude in France.

Thankfully, the kind woman working the front desk spoke fantastic English and gracefully ignored my faux pax and we got all checked in sans francais.



[View from our room]


[Right outside the hotel]

So what did we do on our first day in Paris? A heck of a lot of walking, that’s what. Well, actually every day in Paris included a heckuva lot of walking but that’s part of traveling, right? But more specifically, I wanted to do some self-led walking tours to see some historic buildings and neighborhoods. I love history and I especially love old buildings so it was incredible to see so much of both. We saw:

The Sorbonne- the oldest university in France.





[The ad pillar looks just like the one in Epcot!]

The Pantheon (we went in, but didn’t get to go up to the top since those are only timed tours), where we saw the tombs of some famous French men & women. Among those were Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo, the author of the Hunchback of Notre Dame & Les Miserables. To be entombed in the Pantheon is an incredible honor and only the most prestigious people earn the right.


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Notre Dame





This wasn’t the only time we would come by the cathedral. Notre Dame was probably the one thing in Paris I was most excited about. If you read my TR then you know that I cried watching it burn back in April (at my desk at work. Try explaining that one to your coworkers). The historical and architectural significance of the loss really hit me and I was devastated to know that I wouldn’t be able to get up close to Our Lady.

Not to say that we didn’t try. We did a full loop around the cathedral to see how close we could get. On the sides you could get a lot closer, but there are so many construction walls and scaffolding everywhere that it’s hard to see much of anything. The major bright side is obviously that the stone structure was mostly intact, including the incredible detail of the towers at the front.





Next to the cathedral are lots of shops and cafes that tie into the Hunchback of Notre Dame. We had to decide whether to eat at Esmeralda or Quasimodo and eventually went with Quasimodo.



[I saw this and started singing Esmeralda from the Broadway show. If you know it, I hope it's stuck in your head now.]


What better first meal in Paris than a baguette next to Notre Dame?? To make it even more touristy, we finished off with a fresh Nutella and banana crepe to go.





Sainte-Chapelle



Sainte-Chapelle is a medieval royal chapel, and was the chapel of the kings of France until the 1300s. It’s known mostly for its beautiful stained glass collection. It’s a popular tourist destination but it’s even busier now that Notre Dame is closed because a lot of people are going to Sainte-Chapelle as an alternative.


Pictures don’t do this justice, guys.

Fat Bike Tour of Paris

This was a somewhat last-minute addition to our Paris itinerary. Jon knows someone who lived and worked in Paris for many years who suggested it to us about a week before we left. As annoying as it was to change our plans around, I’m so glad we were able to fit it in!



[Could this bike's name BE any cooler?]

The tour is targeted toward English-speakers and the guides have great English and are super fun. It was about a 3 hour tour and we saw a lot!

Eiffel Tower/Champs de Mars (we would come back here later in the trip)





Les Invalides (we also came back here later)



La Louvre (hmm we came back here, too…I’m sensing a trend)

Pont Alexandre III (yeah you get the point, not the only time we saw this, blah blah blah)

Disney (ish) connection! This bridge is MEGA famous. It’s used in a lot of films and TVs whenever there are shots of Paris. When we stopped here our guide asked if anyone recognized where it was from and I blurted out Anastasia!! Because the bridge was built in honor of Tsar Alexander III, Anastasia’s grandfather. They don’t really mention it much in the animated musical but they talk about it a lot in the Broadway musical and there’s even a backdrop for it during the show. I love Anastasia and even wrote a research paper on the real Anastasia Romanov in junior high for a history competition so I was stoked to see the bridge in person.

Place de la Concorde (French for Square of Peace). This is where the guillotine was erected during the French Revolution. Not terribly peaceful, eh?

Our guide was Kim and she was great. We couldn’t quite place her accent so at the end of the tour we asked her where she was from. Sometimes it sounded like New Zealand, others like US, and other words had a distinct Canadian pronunciation. She said she was born in South Africa, but moved to France as a young child and attended the international school which had a lot of Americans, Canadians, and Brits. So yeah, quite the cocktail.



We ended the day with a visit to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was golden hour and the gardens were absolutely beautiful. Probably the prettiest part of Paris. They were constructed for Queen Marie de Medici in the 1600s. The gardens are filled with statues of all of the queens of France. When we went it was the end of the work day and there were people just chilling all over the gardens, reading, drinking coffee, talking quietly. It was just so quintessentially Parisian.



We ate dinner that night at the Polidor, a known favorite of Victor Hugo. By this point I had recovered my knowledge of the French language and put it to the real test, since our server did not know (or refused to speak) English. I also had my first (of many many many) glasses of French wine with dinner.



One thing I miss most about France is the wine. Oh man. So good.



And that was just the first day!
 
I feel like overnight flights on the way to Europe are the easiest way to adjust to the time zone. You've got one long arrival day, but if you can power through the day you go to bed that night and are back on a normal schedule.

Oh my goodness, your hotel check in story.... :rotfl: Sorry all the French you spent so much time learning went out the window. I'm sure you had plenty of other opportunities to use it, though.

Looks like it was a gorgeous day to take a walking tour of the city!

The Pantheon and Sainte Chapelle are beautiful; I can't imagine how magnificent they looked in person.
 
Your pictures of Paris are just beautiful :love:


If you don’t know much about France, one thing that is really important to understand when planning a trip is that the French take their vacation very seriously. Most of the French (particularly Parisians) take either the entire month of July or August off. That means stuff shuts down, restaurants close, and if you happen to visit in August you’ll hear more English than French being spoken.

We knew of this phenomenon and chose to travel at the very end of August with most of our trip taking place in early September. We would still catch warm summer weather, but not have to bother with the August vacation crowds or lack of locals.

Eek. I had no idea. I was thinking of taking DD in July 2021 and since she'll be heading off to college, we don't have much flexibility with that. Of course, we haven't 100% decided on France, but it's definitely high on the list of options.


If I had captured Jon’s look of disgusted embarrassment I would share it with you. Especially as I had spent the last several months reiterating to him that it is really important to first greet any French person with bonjour before saying anything else. Diving right in without a greeting is terribly rude in France.

Good to know.


What better first meal in Paris than a baguette next to Notre Dame?? To make it even more touristy, we finished off with a fresh Nutella and banana crepe to go.

Yum!
😋


Sainte-Chapelle is a medieval royal chapel, and was the chapel of the kings of France until the 1300s. It’s known mostly for its beautiful stained glass collection. It’s a popular tourist destination but it’s even busier now that Notre Dame is closed because a lot of people are going to Sainte-Chapelle as an alternative.

It's gorgeous. Seeing all these churches reminds me of one of my favorite books EVER...Pillars of the Earth. If you had ever told me I would love a book that gets into the nitty gritty of building churches back in the 1100's, I would have thought you were crazy. I loved it so much that I almost want to read it again now after seeing these pictures.
 
So happy to have stumbled on your trip report. We are spending two nights in Paris this spring. Not a lot of time but taking note of what you did. I’ll have to look into the bike tour, sounds like you really liked that.
 
You've got one long arrival day, but if you can power through the day you go to bed that night and are back on a normal schedule.
Exactly!

I'm sure you had plenty of other opportunities to use it, though
So many- especially after we left Paris. There were multiple times we ran into people who didn't know much or any English. Thankfully after that first unfortunate incident it went pretty well.

Looks like it was a gorgeous day to take a walking tour of the city!
The weather was amazing on this trip, we seriously couldn't have asked for better.

I can't imagine how magnificent they looked in person.
Words and photos will never do them justice!
 
Your pictures of Paris are just beautiful :love:
Thank you! I have so many of them, and I'm still not done editing (and it's been three months 😂 )

Eek. I had no idea. I was thinking of taking DD in July 2021 and since she'll be heading off to college, we don't have much flexibility with that. Of course, we haven't 100% decided on France, but it's definitely high on the list of options.
It's still totally doable, just be prepared for crowds!

Good to know.
If you're just staying in Paris you'll be fine without learning any French, but the bonjour thing is an absolute must. Most of the reason people think the French are rude is because the French think you're rude if you don't greet them first! So even if you just say "Bonjour, do you speak English?" it will go over much better than just going right into "Do you speak English?" (Or in my case yelling at them in incomplete sentences).

Seeing all these churches reminds me of one of my favorite books EVER...Pillars of the Earth
That's one of my absolute favorites!!!! Have you read them all? Did you see he's about to release a PREQUEL??? Oh my goodness they're so good. And yes, reading that sparked my interest in Gothic architecture. I was able to explain the architecture to Jon just because I've read those books. I was like, hey do you want to know all about buttresses? Because I can tell you all about buttresses.
 
Everything is just so classically beautiful!! I'm loving your pictures, especially the beautiful sunrise. How incredible to be able to see the Eiffel Tower from the air like that. Just wow!

Looks like a perfect first day!
 
Everything is just so classically beautiful!!
It really is! Paris looks exactly the way you think it would and it's just stunning.

How incredible to be able to see the Eiffel Tower from the air like that. Just wow!
I was so surprised! As soon as I realized we were close to Paris I was on the lookout and when I saw it I got so pumped! It really helped set the excitement for our first day.

Looks like a perfect first day!
It really was, I don't think it could have been any better :D
 
That's one of my absolute favorites!!!! Have you read them all? Did you see he's about to release a PREQUEL??? Oh my goodness they're so good. And yes, reading that sparked my interest in Gothic architecture. I was able to explain the architecture to Jon just because I've read those books. I was like, hey do you want to know all about buttresses? Because I can tell you all about buttresses.


I did not see that! I hope it's just as good as the first!

Ah yes, the buttresses! There was a lot of talk about buttresses!
 
What a packed fun-filled first day in Paris! It is my dream to visit one day - my son and bride visited France and Italy on their honeymoon and their pictures of the cathedrals and museums were amazing just like yours. To see the beauty that Paris offers in person must be such a thrill :) Can't wait to read more!
 

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