Dimplenose
Stranger from the outside
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2002
- Messages
- 5,956
Santa Fe Trip 11-02-07 to 14-02-07
Those travelling
Me – 45 in love with Mickey
DH – 45 puts up with my Disney obsession
DS – 16
DD - 13
Tuesday 13th February
Today has been set aside for a day trip to Paris. It didn’t go quite as planned but we did feel very brave as none of our party can speak French (well “Ou est les toilettes?” but I can’t understand the answer!).
We have a very early breakfast booked at the hotel. We get up at 7am and it is still dark outside. It has been nice having lighter evenings but the dark mornings are so depressing – well they would be if I wasn’t at Disney! We go over to the restaurant for 7:30 and there are very few people there. The food choices are very similar to our Fantasy land breakfast yesterday except there are no fruit yoghurts on offer. DS is disappointed that we can’t buy a cooked breakfast (I had a feeling that this was an option but that might just have been at the Newport Bay where I stayed on my previous trip.)
We have enough to eat (and lots of coffee to drink) and then we return to our room to wrap up warm. If you remember we had forgotten the coats so we all had long sleeved shirts, jumpers and fleeces on today along with hats and gloves. The weather today is dry but much colder than yesterday. Eventually we leave to walk to the railway station at 9am.
We walk alongside the canal again – this is turning out to be one of our favourite parts of our holiday. We notice a cage on the grass which looks like it might be a humane bunny trap. There is a lot of carrot inside the trap but no sign of any rabbits. (Maybe it’s been put there in case Bugs Bunny tries to invade Disney territory.)
On our way to the railway station we stop at the tourist information kiosk and buy the open top bus tour tickets. This is partly for convenience and partly because I’d like to know before I leave the comforting surroundings of Disney if my credit cards are working today. 4 tickets later and with the advice to buy our rail tickets from the window and not the machine. The ticket sellers at the RER station all speak English and I end up with 4 return tickets to Paris. (It is only later that I find I have been sold Mobilis tickets and could have used them on the Metro as well, but as I only spend an extra €1.80 on all 4 tickets combined it’s no big loss that I didn’t know.)
We enter the station through ticket barriers that work in a very similar fashion to the London Underground and are lucky enough to get straight onto a train. It was very easy to know that we were on the right train as Marne la Valee is the last stop on the line. After some time (and some very uninspiring scenery) there is an announcement over the speakers. We are in the real world now so they are only in French. I understand the words “broken” and “twenty five minutes” but have no real idea what is going on. At the next station we sit on the train and wait for about 10 minutes before moving off. At the next station there is another announcement and everyone gets off the train – not quite knowing what’s going on we get off too. The train then leaves empty – I think the announcement mentioned a garage but I might have been making that up. Quite soon another train comes along and we get on – this one is standing room only and we only go one stop (to Nation) before getting another announcement. This time I only understand “twenty five minutes”. We wait on the stationary train for a few minutes looking at our Paris street map. From the map it doesn’t look too far to walk to the Gare de Lyon where we can pick up the open top bus tour so we leave the train.
It takes us about 25 minutes to walk to the Gare de Lyon. Not a very interesting route (it reminds me a little of Kingsway in London). Once at the station we find the toilets before setting off to find the bus stop. All in all, our 40 minute train journey has taken the best part of 2 hours. We eventually find the open top bus stop and have to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus. (I’m quite impressed by the prices displayed in the unisex hairdressers’ window that we are waiting by – much better value than at home!)
Once on the bus we are each given a set of headphones (a rather revolting yellow colour) and we head for the top deck. This was part of the bus route that we hadn’t planned to do and there wasn’t much inspiring stuff to see – although I quite liked the modern offices for the tax office. It took a long time to get to Notre Dame and we were freezing by the time we got there. We had gone and sat downstairs for some warmth but were quite chilled by the time we got off. (It makes me feel really sorry for toddlers in push chairs in cold weather). Just walking again soon warmed us up. We took some photos of Notre Dame cathedral and I am very surprised to see how built up the area is around it. I’ve only seen it once before, 30 years ago from a boat trip and it looks more isolated from the water.
We enter the cathedral and are immediately captivated by the interior of the building and the peaceful atmosphere. There is no charge for entering the cathedral but lots of requests for quiet and respect. I buy a mini guide for €2 from a machine and we proceed to around the building. It is really beautiful with many side chapels with statues and paintings. Some chapels are set aside for private prayer. We must have spent half an hour in here – I could easily spend more time here. Once outside I go to find another toilet (it must be the cold weather) and have my first experience of the French lack of worry over ladies and gents loos when the attendant directs me into what is obviously labelled as a gents cubicle. I was so embarrassed as I walked past the urinals area (but not as embarrassed as I will be tomorrow – but I’ll save that for my next report!)
We’re feeling a little hungry now but I can’t persuade the children to eat anything from the local take away shops so we head back to the bus stop. Here it takes half an hour for our bus to arrive and we decide that once we are on it we will not get off until we have seen both the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. This bus is much more popular and we sit upstairs – much better for photographs but downstairs is full anyway. The bus makes very slow progress. The traffic is heavy and the wait at each bus stop is prolonged. I get some photos of the Arc de Triomphe
and much to DHs amusement I take a picture of the Disney Store in the Champs Elysees.
We get a good view of the Eiffel Tower but I am still having problems stopping my camera from making outdoor shots into silhouettes, but I think I get one decent and a few Ok pictures. We stay on the bus until we get to Auber station.
We find the Galleries Lafayette department store and decide to find a café in there. Much to the children’s delight they find a McDonalds branch in there and I’m too hungry and tired to resist.
We could have stayed in Paris for a proper meal but we’re tired and a little worried about our train journey home. We are a little disappointed at how little we achieved today – I’d have loved to have visited Monmartre but we really didn’t have enough time. In hindsight we should have not taken the bus but used the Metro because the tourist sights are so far apart without much of particular interest in between, the traffic is slow, off peak there are not many busses per hour and having worked in London we are used to city travel. But we are not unhappy, we’ve had a good day (and for us an adventure with the broken train) and we’ve introduced the children to some major places of interest.
The train ride back was very easy, although I was worried at one point because we went through one barrier to enter Auber station and then had to go through a second to get to the RER lines. Finding the right train wasn’t hard as the line has a code and as long as we looked for A and then A4 we didn’t go wrong.
Once back at Disneyland we had a stroll through the Village and back to our hotel. We were very tired and decided to go back to our room for a nap before dinner.
At 7pm (ish) a little rested we wander over to La Cantina. This was a very busy time to eat and the set up here isn’t as efficient as at The Cheyenne yesterday. Everyone is taking their meals and then queuing to pay before finding tables. It takes a while for four of us to find our food, regroup and then pay and the food is starting to get a little cold. The food here is uninspiring with just one offering of what I’d consider Tex Mex – fajitas. The fajitas were being served rather than help yourself and this had slowed things down even further. I did notice that there was plenty of child friendly food (chicken nuggets, pasta etc.) available. We paid €19 each for our food this didn’t include a drink which we were able to purchase very easily from the bar.
After dinner we go back to the room and watch a DVD before checking our driving route for tomorrow evening. Later on DH and I leave the children watching a DVD and go to the bar for a coffee. This was very relaxing - it's strange to be on our own for a while, I'm only just getting used to having children old enough to leave on their own. We then do a little shopping in the hotel gift shop before returning to our room. Then we go to bed.
We have been very lucky with the weather today as it has stayed dry all day. I think a day in a wet park is easier to deal with than a wet day sightseeing.
Libby
Those travelling
Me – 45 in love with Mickey
DH – 45 puts up with my Disney obsession
DS – 16
DD - 13
Tuesday 13th February
Today has been set aside for a day trip to Paris. It didn’t go quite as planned but we did feel very brave as none of our party can speak French (well “Ou est les toilettes?” but I can’t understand the answer!).
We have a very early breakfast booked at the hotel. We get up at 7am and it is still dark outside. It has been nice having lighter evenings but the dark mornings are so depressing – well they would be if I wasn’t at Disney! We go over to the restaurant for 7:30 and there are very few people there. The food choices are very similar to our Fantasy land breakfast yesterday except there are no fruit yoghurts on offer. DS is disappointed that we can’t buy a cooked breakfast (I had a feeling that this was an option but that might just have been at the Newport Bay where I stayed on my previous trip.)
We have enough to eat (and lots of coffee to drink) and then we return to our room to wrap up warm. If you remember we had forgotten the coats so we all had long sleeved shirts, jumpers and fleeces on today along with hats and gloves. The weather today is dry but much colder than yesterday. Eventually we leave to walk to the railway station at 9am.
We walk alongside the canal again – this is turning out to be one of our favourite parts of our holiday. We notice a cage on the grass which looks like it might be a humane bunny trap. There is a lot of carrot inside the trap but no sign of any rabbits. (Maybe it’s been put there in case Bugs Bunny tries to invade Disney territory.)
On our way to the railway station we stop at the tourist information kiosk and buy the open top bus tour tickets. This is partly for convenience and partly because I’d like to know before I leave the comforting surroundings of Disney if my credit cards are working today. 4 tickets later and with the advice to buy our rail tickets from the window and not the machine. The ticket sellers at the RER station all speak English and I end up with 4 return tickets to Paris. (It is only later that I find I have been sold Mobilis tickets and could have used them on the Metro as well, but as I only spend an extra €1.80 on all 4 tickets combined it’s no big loss that I didn’t know.)
We enter the station through ticket barriers that work in a very similar fashion to the London Underground and are lucky enough to get straight onto a train. It was very easy to know that we were on the right train as Marne la Valee is the last stop on the line. After some time (and some very uninspiring scenery) there is an announcement over the speakers. We are in the real world now so they are only in French. I understand the words “broken” and “twenty five minutes” but have no real idea what is going on. At the next station we sit on the train and wait for about 10 minutes before moving off. At the next station there is another announcement and everyone gets off the train – not quite knowing what’s going on we get off too. The train then leaves empty – I think the announcement mentioned a garage but I might have been making that up. Quite soon another train comes along and we get on – this one is standing room only and we only go one stop (to Nation) before getting another announcement. This time I only understand “twenty five minutes”. We wait on the stationary train for a few minutes looking at our Paris street map. From the map it doesn’t look too far to walk to the Gare de Lyon where we can pick up the open top bus tour so we leave the train.
It takes us about 25 minutes to walk to the Gare de Lyon. Not a very interesting route (it reminds me a little of Kingsway in London). Once at the station we find the toilets before setting off to find the bus stop. All in all, our 40 minute train journey has taken the best part of 2 hours. We eventually find the open top bus stop and have to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus. (I’m quite impressed by the prices displayed in the unisex hairdressers’ window that we are waiting by – much better value than at home!)
Once on the bus we are each given a set of headphones (a rather revolting yellow colour) and we head for the top deck. This was part of the bus route that we hadn’t planned to do and there wasn’t much inspiring stuff to see – although I quite liked the modern offices for the tax office. It took a long time to get to Notre Dame and we were freezing by the time we got there. We had gone and sat downstairs for some warmth but were quite chilled by the time we got off. (It makes me feel really sorry for toddlers in push chairs in cold weather). Just walking again soon warmed us up. We took some photos of Notre Dame cathedral and I am very surprised to see how built up the area is around it. I’ve only seen it once before, 30 years ago from a boat trip and it looks more isolated from the water.
We enter the cathedral and are immediately captivated by the interior of the building and the peaceful atmosphere. There is no charge for entering the cathedral but lots of requests for quiet and respect. I buy a mini guide for €2 from a machine and we proceed to around the building. It is really beautiful with many side chapels with statues and paintings. Some chapels are set aside for private prayer. We must have spent half an hour in here – I could easily spend more time here. Once outside I go to find another toilet (it must be the cold weather) and have my first experience of the French lack of worry over ladies and gents loos when the attendant directs me into what is obviously labelled as a gents cubicle. I was so embarrassed as I walked past the urinals area (but not as embarrassed as I will be tomorrow – but I’ll save that for my next report!)
We’re feeling a little hungry now but I can’t persuade the children to eat anything from the local take away shops so we head back to the bus stop. Here it takes half an hour for our bus to arrive and we decide that once we are on it we will not get off until we have seen both the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. This bus is much more popular and we sit upstairs – much better for photographs but downstairs is full anyway. The bus makes very slow progress. The traffic is heavy and the wait at each bus stop is prolonged. I get some photos of the Arc de Triomphe
and much to DHs amusement I take a picture of the Disney Store in the Champs Elysees.
We get a good view of the Eiffel Tower but I am still having problems stopping my camera from making outdoor shots into silhouettes, but I think I get one decent and a few Ok pictures. We stay on the bus until we get to Auber station.
We find the Galleries Lafayette department store and decide to find a café in there. Much to the children’s delight they find a McDonalds branch in there and I’m too hungry and tired to resist.
We could have stayed in Paris for a proper meal but we’re tired and a little worried about our train journey home. We are a little disappointed at how little we achieved today – I’d have loved to have visited Monmartre but we really didn’t have enough time. In hindsight we should have not taken the bus but used the Metro because the tourist sights are so far apart without much of particular interest in between, the traffic is slow, off peak there are not many busses per hour and having worked in London we are used to city travel. But we are not unhappy, we’ve had a good day (and for us an adventure with the broken train) and we’ve introduced the children to some major places of interest.
The train ride back was very easy, although I was worried at one point because we went through one barrier to enter Auber station and then had to go through a second to get to the RER lines. Finding the right train wasn’t hard as the line has a code and as long as we looked for A and then A4 we didn’t go wrong.
Once back at Disneyland we had a stroll through the Village and back to our hotel. We were very tired and decided to go back to our room for a nap before dinner.
At 7pm (ish) a little rested we wander over to La Cantina. This was a very busy time to eat and the set up here isn’t as efficient as at The Cheyenne yesterday. Everyone is taking their meals and then queuing to pay before finding tables. It takes a while for four of us to find our food, regroup and then pay and the food is starting to get a little cold. The food here is uninspiring with just one offering of what I’d consider Tex Mex – fajitas. The fajitas were being served rather than help yourself and this had slowed things down even further. I did notice that there was plenty of child friendly food (chicken nuggets, pasta etc.) available. We paid €19 each for our food this didn’t include a drink which we were able to purchase very easily from the bar.
After dinner we go back to the room and watch a DVD before checking our driving route for tomorrow evening. Later on DH and I leave the children watching a DVD and go to the bar for a coffee. This was very relaxing - it's strange to be on our own for a while, I'm only just getting used to having children old enough to leave on their own. We then do a little shopping in the hotel gift shop before returning to our room. Then we go to bed.
We have been very lucky with the weather today as it has stayed dry all day. I think a day in a wet park is easier to deal with than a wet day sightseeing.
Libby
i think you acheived a lot really
