Hello everyone, this is Deb. No I haven’t done a post since Romania but I feel Glen is much better at these blog posts 🙂 He is making me do this one! hehehe.
So we made our way to Paris and I had 2 requests as to what I would like to do. One being to go to Paris Disneyland and the other to Moulin Rouge. Both requests were met so I was happy with that.
After arriving quite late in Paris (after getting lost on the way to the hotel and being directed by a very nice local) we settled into our hotel in which we got a choice of which room we wanted, then ended up staying up quite late chatting to the receptionist Pascal. He was very funny and ended up being quite useful – giving us lots of tips on what to do and where to go (including some places I won’t mention) and just general information about Paris. He was from around the area which was actually quite fancy! It also helped that he had lived in the US for 14 years so could speak fluent English. Looking back I wish we had a photo taken with him now!
Anyhoo, the next day we went to Paris Disneyland. I have to say it was a touch disappointing. I think maybe my expectations were a little high. I/we absolutely love rides and rollercoasters but there just didn’t seem to be that many. The ones we went on were pretty cool though. The first one we went on was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Secondly was ‘Indiana Jones’, and then off to ‘Big Thunder Mountain’. Of course I screamed like a girl on all of them ;-D These particular rides were in ‘Disneyland Park’.
Thankfully the maximum waiting time was only about 30 minutes or less for each ride. I hate to think how long the waiting times would be in peak season. As it happened it was very miserable weather when we were there but that didn’t seem to stop people from going on rides etc.
So after ‘Disneyland Park’ we made our way to ‘Walt Disney Studios Park’ where the best ride EVER was! It was an amazing, colourful, loud, fast and awesome rollercoaster which we couldn’t just go on once. Even sitting here writing about it I am desperate to go on it again!!! We did only go on it twice, as last time we decided to go on a ride 3 times in Californialand Glen ended up getting spewed on, so we decided not to take a chance 😉
We also went to the Hollywood Tower of Terror – which is exactly what it is. I almost had a reoccurence of white water rafting in NZ and peed myself!! haha. It was very frightening with sudden drops. It literally took my breath away with fear. I did say I’d never go on something like that again, yet as soon as I got off I thought it was a really cool ride. hehehe.
After quite a long day at Disneyland we went to some outlet shops we had heard about. Turns out by the time we got there they were only opened for another 10 minutes, but they had another massive shopping centre there – kind of a really fancy bigger version of Marion. So we looked around and got some traditional French food (MacDonalds) and bascially stayed until closing time. Then it was back to the hotel for another chat with our new friend Pascal. I am guessing he got kinda bored at night coz he seemed very keen to keep us entertained with all his stories. Anyway that was fine with us.
Now on to Moulin Rouge. This being one of my favourite movies I was most keen to see it. The night before we went, Pascal organised our tickets from the hotel for us. Basically every session every day is normally booked out so he hinted not to get our hopes up as we were booking our tickets very last minute. Well we were in luck. The 2100 session was booked out (which turned out to be a good thing….will explain shortly), but there was a spot available for the 2300 session.
So during the day I discovered that our friends Nathan and Sara (from Adelaide) were in Paris, so a few text messages were sent and dinner was organised for that night! Being our last night in Paris, I was keen for a real French meal. After walking out of one really weird place (they didn’t appear to have any real traditional French food), we went to quite a fancy pants real French restaurant, which I think I can speak for all us and say we all felt a little awkward there. We were given bread but with no side plates or butter so we weren’t really sure what to do with it. hehe. I am having a chuckle writing about it, as I’m sure we really were being looked at by the locals. The restaurant was absolutely packed so we figured it must be good.
Anyway all of us (apart from Glen) ordered French Onion soup. OMG it was amazing!!! Nate and Sara’s friend Caly also joined us and we decided surely it wouldn’t be that hard to make such delicious soup at home!!! Glen decided to be really traditional and get the Escargot for entree. I really wanted frogs legs but they didn’t have it on the menu sadly.
For mains I ordered what the man next to me had. I wasn’t sure what it was but it looked delicious so that is what I asked for. It turned out to be fish with mashed potato. Really good!!! Everyone else enjoyed their meals also. Thankfully Sara asked what her dish was before she ordered it, as it turned out to be raw mince meat. Ick!!!! Needless to say she ordered something else.
So after a fun night of catching up with our friends we headed off to Moulin Rouge by train. I said to Glen I would still be in Dubai if it wasn’t for his excellent sense of direction. Honestly the trains are easy to use but I am hopeless with them. I get so disorientated and really have no idea! hehe.
Once we got to the location we needed it was absolutely packed! It kinda felt like a bit of a dodgy area but there were enough people around that you felt safe. Even though we had pre-booked tickets, we still had to line up for a good 30 to 40 minutes. Finally we were in the theatre, champagne in hand and the show started. At first we thought it was a bit amateur but it soon got better. The flashy costumes, dancing and singing were great! If you like bosoms then this show is for you. From what Pascal told us French people don’t find bosoms an attractive part of the body so all women will have them on show in shows like this. Anyway that is minor detail. The overall show was very impressive and even though it was in French you still had an understanding of what was happening. The theatre was set out with tables and chairs and they did have packages available where you could also eat dinner. It was completely booked out and you can see why. It is a very ‘French thing’ to do and I am very glad we went!
We discovered on our way back to the train that the subway was actually closed, so we had to catch our first taxi since Romania. The taxi man told us his service was the best in Paris. Haha not sure why, but anyway he got us back safely and didn’t seem to rip us off so we were happy!
And that concludes my post! I hope u have enjoyed reading it, I had fun writing it!! Kisses xx
[salbumphotos=27,160,3,y,n,uploaded_timestamp,center,]