PARIS

 

We arrived to Paris by train in the evening. It didn't get dark in Paris until 10pm so we were able to walk around the city and have some day light. I was surprised when reserving our hotel in Paris that there aren't too many hotels! So for my first time ever, I reserved an Airbnb. It was a cute apartment in a gated area with a courtyard in the center of the apartments. 

We walked from the train station to our Airbnb and then Ava went to sleep but Brent and I walked to a late dinner since I was hungry. It was after 10pm but all the cafes in the street were hopping as people were enjoying a relaxed dinner. 

The next morning we were off to Disneyland Paris. I was seriously debating staying back on my own and resting and wandering the streets of Paris at a slow pace, but I decided this was my one chance to see Disneyland Paris. So off we went despite my legs being so tired! Leaving our Airbnb- this is the street view and the gate behind Ava to get into the complex. 

On the way to Disneyland we had a slight hiccup. We didn't transfer correctly and ended up on the wrong train. The train got to the last stop and we looked out the window and Brent was like, "This isn't Disneyland!" We had to backtrack to where we should have transferred, and then continue on to Disneyland. We got there about an hour later than we wanted (it's about an hour outside of Paris by train). Once we got in though, we had a great day. 

Just arriving- Disneyland hotel. So gorgeous.

Pirates of the Caribbean ride: 

Alice's Curious Labyrinth- which is unique to Disneyland Paris. Brent looooves the Cheshire cat so he was happy to see this. Can you see it behind them in the picture?

We walked through the labyrinth and ended at the Queen of Hearts castle. Here we are at the top of the castle, with a view of Disneyland behind us.

The teacups is one thing I will not ride. Ever. 

For lunch I stopped at a food truck and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich of sorts. (I could eat any of the cheese here if it's a hard cheese!). The worker cut open a French bread bun, added some slices of ham, and then scooped some cheese off a large block of hot melting cheese. She smeared the cheese on top of the ham and then handed it to me. I was like, "Uhhh wow??" I wish I had taken a picture of the sandwich but it was gone too fast. I still think about that sandwich like every few days haha. Here's a picture from the internet:

Brent was super excited to go to the Phantom Manor. It's like the Haunted Mansion but it is a western themed ghost story. It apparently is considered the best version of the ride in any Disney park. The architecture of the house is an old Victorian Style (like the house in Psycho) and ties into the theme of the fiction town known as Thunder Mesa, which includes and ties into the lore of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The soundtrack was narrated by Vincent Price shortly before he passed away. It was definitely a spectacular ride.

The Sleeping Beauty castle was built to fit in with Paris, so it's gorgeous with stained glass. This park was the most expensive Disney park ever built (outside of the non-Disney owned Japanese parks like Tokyo DisneySea). They spent over a billion dollars (in early 1990s dollars) trying to have the decor rival the real castles that dot Europe. The succeeded greatly...The perfectly manicured Alice in Wonderland hedge maze I showed is just one example of the lengths they went in Paris to really wow the visitor. 

The amazingly designed Disneyland Paris castle behind us. Notice the square bushes? The shrubbery was cut to match Mary Blair's designs from Sleeping Beauty. Inside was a life-size Maleficent dragon, lurking in the underground caves. 

Besides the clearly well designed park, Disneyland Paris overall seemed to have a lot less "Disney magic" than Tokyo Disney did. The people didn't seem nearly as fanatic as the Japanese people did about Disney. There were a lot less people decked out in Disney gear or Mickey ears, less people screaming in anticipation of parades or characters, etc.  Many of the workers were not particularly friendly and what we would see at other Disney Parks. Kind of what you expect from Parisians. Where we were one of like two American families in Tokyo Disneyland...it felt like there were only a handful of French visitors in Disneyland Paris. It seems to be more something that Americans and other outside Europeans participate in. 

Brent worked for Disney and he said in the US there are very strict guidelines on appearance and standards. You need to have a "missionary haircut" with natural hair colors, for example, and can't have any visible tattoos or earrings on men. None of these things were true in D-Paris. They likely wound find enough workers to staff the park otherwise. This was such a stark contrast from Tokyo where every employee was overly animated, nice, and clearly displayed joy and fandom as much as the guests. 

Part of Brent's research for his Disney course he will be teaching in fall semester is based on differences in fandom in the varying Disney parks throughout the world. 

Ready to ride the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. This one is a roller coaster that has a loop. Ava was terrified, but ended up liking it, kind of.

Disneyland Paris has arguably the scariest ride in any of the Disney parks, called Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain. It's an indoor roller coaster in the complete dark that has a super fast cannon launch and a corkscrew inversion. We decided to do the single rider line to have a short wait. Ava was not happy about going on the ride, and was even more unhappy about going alone. Brent convinced her that she just needs to try it once. I said I would try it since I like roller coasters, just not spinning rides. 

As we got close to the front of the line, Ava started panicking and wanting to back out. So Brent told the worker she would be next in the single rider line (since we knew if we went first she'd just run out of the line). Ava timidly stepped to the loading part of the ride with tears on her face. Brent and I could see the worker talking to her, motioning to her cheeks, asking about her tears. He looked back at me and Brent like, "are you sure about this?" Me and Brent just smiled big and gave big thumbs up and she got on. Hahaha. 

They had room for two people together next, so Brent and I got to sit next to each other. The ride took off with a BANG and was SO scary, in the complete dark. I screamed my head off. When it finished, Brent and I looked at each other like, "ohhh shoot, what did we just make Ava ride?!"  

Somehow, she was willing to ride it again that night when the rides died down, so apparently we didn't fully traumatize her. But check out her face in this picture from the ride. She looks like her soul left her body.

We stayed for fireworks which weren't until almost 11pm since it gets dark so late! It was a beautiful show, but oh so crowded.

After the show we stalled a bit on Main Street and then made our way to the train with the masses of people. We had walked 10 miles this day and were SO tired. By now it was midnight. We had to wait 15 minutes for the train to leave. It was standing room only, but you can bet we were taking this train back to Paris. Ava fell asleep on the floor like this:

Oh PS. Many people in Paris don't wear deodorant. Europe in general actually. I don't really understand why. Just imagine the smell on all of these crowded trains.

We didn't get back to our place until after 1 am, so we slept in a bit on Friday. Then it was time for our Paris sight seeing day. Here's Brent and Ava in the courtyard of our Airbnb.

Our first stop was Notre Dame Cathedral. This was so cool to see in real life with my own eyes! There was an insane number of people in a queue in front of the cathedral, so I said maybe we should just see the outside and move on. Brent said, "No! We came all the way to Paris, we're going to see the inside." So we waited with what felt like thousands of people, and luckily the line moved quickly. 

I thought it was interesting that they gave any woman with bare shoulders a shawl to cover before entering the cathedral. Inside, every few minutes they'd play a recording that would say, "Shhhhhh."  Here we are about to enter- look how ornate this arch is! 

The fire at the cathedral happened in 2019 and it took 5 years to restore. You can call me crazy, but I still smelled a hint of smoke inside. The stained glass (seen in the picture behind us) was soooo beautiful. This felt much more like a church and less like a museum than the Westminster Abbey did.

Walking along the streets in Paris, everything was just so picturesque. 

More french bread sandwiches - these ones were cold though. We did a little souvenir shopping as we walked along the streets.

Walking around Luxembourg Gardens. In the large pond, little kids can rent tiny sailboats and push them around the pond with sticks. It was also so picturesque. 

The Luxembourg Palace:

Walking to our next stop, it was SO hot. Brent and Ava stopped for an ice-cream at a little shop. Europe was still going through a heat wave the whole time we were in Paris, and the high was in the mid 90s (20 degrees above normal!).

Instead of going to the Louvre, we opted to go to the d'Orsay instead since we were on a limited time table. We saw some beautiful works there. Here's a bronze scale model of Lady Liberty, which is the model used to create the real one. A replica of this can be found at the Luxembourg Gardens.

They had a large Renoir collection:

And quite a few Van Gohs:

After museum we walked to the Louvre to see the outside. Here we are in front of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and you can see the Louvre Pyramid behind me. 

After this, we walked to get on our Seine River cruise. It was just an hour long and went past many of the famous sights in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower. 

This was actually our first time to see the Eiffel Tower.

At the end of the cruise:

We then took the train back to our Airbnb and went to dinner at the same place we had gone to the first night. You can see in this picture how all the cafes have seating outside. Dinner doesn't really start at Parisian restaurants until after 7pm. 

Had to get a couple classic Paris shots with these beautiful trees:

Our last day in Paris was at Versailles. It's an hour away by train and we had tickets for 10am. Ava and Brent got croissants from a bakery on our way to the train. I made myself eggs at the Airbnb every morning :) 

Versailles is really hard to explain. I knew it was going to be big and opulent, but I think until you go there in person, you don't understand the scale we're talking about. It was mind blowing. 

We first went into the Palace of Versailles since the crowds just grow throughout the day. The palace was HUMONGOUS. And it felt like every inch of it was covered in gold and ornate carvings or paintings.  It has 2,300 rooms. Can you even comprehend that? 

Beautiful doors:

The Queen's Apartments - so lavish, so out of control. Apparently this was the official bedroom of the queens but also a public ceremonial space. Nineteen princes and princesses were born in this room. People of the court can and did walk through here all the time. The bed would be covered with large drapes for privacy, but it apparently took Prince Louis years before he would consummate his marriage to Marie Antoinette. I can see why. Absolutely no privacy. 

The Hall of Mirrors video:

Ava in the Hall of Mirrors:

The "gardens" of Versailles is kind of misleading. It's more like a town. It goes on for miles and mile and miles. People can rent golf carts to get around. We didn't but probably should have. It's hard to imagaine just how far the gardens, fountains, and grounds extend.

We walked through the gardens for a really long time in the heat until we got to the Queen's house in the Estate of Trianon. This was the private residence of Marie Antoinette, gifted to her by her husband in 1774. No one was allowed to come her unless invited by her (even her husband), and she used it as a place to escape the rigid etiquette and formal life at the main palace. 

Here is her music room:

And her bedroom:

And her dishes, which we thought were so pretty with flowers and snails on them!

We walked through the Queen's Hamlet which was created as a rustic village to allow her to live a romanticized version of country life. It was by far Brent's favorite part of Verasaille. So quaint and Disney-esque.

Ava and I found a nice place to sit and rest. We were so exhausted by this point!

The pretty little hamlet:

After Versailles, we wanted to go to the LDS temple which is only like 1 mile away. Brent convinced us to walk instead of uber since it was only like a 15 minute walk and so expensive. I may or may not have nearly had a melt down half way through the walk. "I can't walk one more step!!" I gave Ava a piggy back much of the way though and we made it just fine. 

At the Paris Temple visitor's center we had a nice visit with Elder and Sister Bybee, a couple whose son, it turns out teaches at BYUH.

The grounds are so beautiful and it was so interesting to compare the extravagance of Versailles to the beauty of the temple and its relative simplicity. This temple is literally like a mile away from the grounds of Verasaille.

We then took a train back to Paris and got off near the Eiffel Tower. We took a few pictures and kind of giggled at the influencers around us taking funny posing pictures. 

Our own influencer pictures :D 

We took the train back to the neighborhood of our Airbnb and decided to go for round #3 at our same restaurant haha. 

I was ready to go crash in bed when we realized we were only half a mile or so away from the Moulin Rouge. Do you know how many times I watched that movie when we lived in Guatemala? So of course we walked to go see the real thing! That part of town quickly turned into a sleazy part of town. We took a few pictures and then quickly left! 

Ava and I flew back to SLC the next morning (yay for a direct flight!). Navigating the airport and customs etc. was a bit stressful, but I did it! 

Ava and I got sandwiches just a little bit down from our gate. There was a beautiful piano and a young man sat down and started playing Clair de lune. At first I assumed it was his job, but then I noticed he had luggage with him. It was echoing through the airport, the most beautiful expressive music ever. He looked young, like 20. As we returned from getting our sandwiches, he stood up and got his luggage and walked toward his gate.  As we passed him, I told him that he plays so beautifully. He said thank you, and then ran to catch his plane.  Ava and I stood there with wide eyes, just looking at each other in awe. As we had stopped to talk with him, we noticed that he had a disability. One of his arms was twisted and deformed. I literally stopped walking and asked Ava, "How did he play like that?!?" Clair de lune, perfectly with no mistakes and so much emotion. It was the perfect little send off from Paris. 

At our gate was Elder Gilbert and his family. I saw on Facebook that he and his family had been on a London and Paris trip the same days we had! 

Walking total in Paris: 30.1 miles. If you add that with the 17.2 in Ireland and the 32.2 in London, we have a grand total of 79.5 miles on our Europe trip! That's the equivalent of 3 marathons. Combine that with jetlag, and we were SO exhausted when we got back! But oh, what an amazing 10 days we had. 

Although this was the end of Ava and my trip...it was seemingly just the beginning for Brent who had another two weeks left in Europe. He stayed in Paris for several more days until Bastille Day before flying to Berlin, Germany then off to visit Copenhagen, Denmark and Sweden before returning home.

He'll have more to say on the rest of his trip in another post.