C'est Paris, ma chérie!
Over the weekend, my good friend and neighbor from Kissimmee, David Toledo, and I spent the weekend in Paris. We spent Saturday at Disneyland Paris which was full of unexpected surprises and weird reminiscence to Orlando's Disney World circa early 2000's. We then spent Sunday walking around Paris (26.7 km total!) and visiting all of the "main attractions" before the Euro Cup final would close all the shops down.
My day on Saturday started bright and early around 2:30 AM to go get on my flight to Paris. Once in Paris, I met up with David after going to our AirBnB and picking up the keys to the studio apartment we were renting. By 1 PM, we were in the park and ready to go! Walking into Main Street U.S.A. felt just like in Orlando except better because of its novelty. I was so excited to be there! Excitement on that level to go Disney was an experience I didn't remember! It was so nice to see Disney through the eyes of an excited tourist once again! Plus, many of you know I have a soft spot for Maleficent, and the castle here is Aurora's! They even have a Dragon Cave at the foot of the castle (definitely home to Maleficent's brothers and sisters in my opinion).
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| Walking down Mainstreet U.S.A. |
We went around the park and did a few rides such as the Phantom Manor, Indiana Jones, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Of those three, Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean were disappointments compared to their American equivalents, but Indiana Jones was quite a thrill! Since the other park was closing at 9 PM, we decided to park hop and go do some rides at Hollywood Studios. What is interesting about Hollywood Studios in Paris is that you actually have to walk through a studio to get to the park!
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| You can see the studio entrance in the background of this photo. |
My favorite ride that day was by far Crush's Coaster. Crush is the turtle from Finding Nemo and his coaster takes you for a roller coaster- while spinning the whole time- in a turtle shell. I have never gone on a ride with this kind of motion and I got off the ride in need of some munchies to tame woozie feeling I got walking away from the ride- which made me love the ride even more!
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| Crush's Coaster- my favorite ride! |
We then finished the day at the Disneyland Park where we rode Space Mountain Mission 2 (which is way better than the one in Orlando) as well as Buzz Lightyear. We spent a good amount of time trying to get dinner (the lines were humongous!) and then we left because the park "closed at 11." But, the fireworks show began at that time, so we stayed and enjoyed the musical/lights/fireworks show. The Orlando show beats Paris's, but I was still in awe of the whole composition.
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| The castle at sunset- a beautiful sight to witness. |
We got to bed around 1 AM, woke up at 8 AM the next day and braced ourselves for a long, sunny day! We were extremely lucky to have clear, sunny skies throughout the whole weekend, but that made the day just a little more tiring thanks to dehydration and heat. We got our breakfast at the local bakery in a traditional Parisian open-air market.
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| The open-air market we got our breakfast from. |
We then began our VERY packed itinerary which you can see below if you are curious:
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| Our itinerary. We actually ended up adding stops at the Palais de L'Elysee, Petit Palais, and Grand Palais as well. |
As you can see, we had quite the day ahead of us, and it was full of great views, loads of history, and random pit stops. We, of course, had to purchase some Euro Cup 2016 gear in honor of the final being that day. Since there are so many photos from my Paris adventure, I am going to post the link to all of my photos right here for those interested to sift through! Click
here to see the photo album.
Being in Paris the day of the Euro Cup final was an insane experience. You could hear people chanting "Allez les bleus!" all through the streets. Groups of guys were singing all of the players' names, total strangers banded together for photos and videos, and it looked like an ocean of red, white, and blue. We were walking down the street at one point and people started setting off colored smoke machines so the streets became full of red and blue smoke!
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| The streets full of coloured smoke. |
My final note on Paris is that although it is full of things to see and history, I don't think I would ever want to go and live there. It was a little too uptight for my liking, especially compared to easy-going Dublin! I am extremely grateful for having the opportunity to come visit such a distinct city and can't wait to see what these last 17 days in Dublin have in store for me!
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