Paris and Disneyland in pictures

I don't have much time for you at the moment. I don't want to make this a regular occurrence because I really love having you in my life and feel that your presence is necessary to keep me happy and healthy and wise. This is why I write in you every day - to be sure that I stay sane every day and keep reflecting on everything that has happened to me over the past several months (and a year coming up this January).

But today I'm going to just show you some photos. It's been a while since I've included any and since I miss equipping you with entertainment from all mediums of expression, I'm rectifying the error. I hope you will enjoy this even though it's less insightful than other writings. These are some snapshots from my trip to Paris and Disneyland Paris last weekend.

At the last minute (on the train at 5:40 am), I changed my plans to go to Le Marais first and instead stopped by the Champs-Élysées for a nice holiday market.

Everything in Paris was white and idyllic on this gorgeous morning. I could barely believe I was in a real place. It felt like a winter wonderland.

Eventually I made my way through the city to Le Marais and stopped at a bakery for some nosh.

But by the evening I was with my friend Dana at the Disneyland Resort Paris. We had some Earl of Sandwich and admired the scenery near the Disney Village (the equivalent of Disneyland's Downtown Disney District).

Then we explored some of the other hotels and saw this at the Disneyland Hotel along with a few suited characters out taking photos with children. Why am I not a child?

The next morning we got our first glimpse of the parks during Extra Magic Hours. These were the holiday decorations leading to Sleeping Beauty Castle when there were barely any people in the park. So lovely.

And the castle set against the morning sky, again pretty much an empty Disneyland.

And some adorable Minnie and Mickey Mouse snowmen.

During the Extra Magic Hours we went on the Dumbo Ride as well as Peter Pan and It's a Small World. And over the course of the day we managed to get on most of the rides we'd planned to pursue. In about 15 hours, we made some major successes.

A view from Haunted Mansion (called Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris) of Frontierland.

We eventually switched parks and spent some time at the Walt Disney Studios Park. There we found a Singin' in the Rain reference and I looked silly.

We also found a High School Musical and Pirates of the Caribbean-themed restaurant where I saw these cute Mickey Mouse highchairs.

Then we made our way back into the Disneyland Paris park for the rest of the day.

And went through an Alice in Wonderland maze/labyrinth, among other things.

But Disney came to an end all too soon and the next day I was wandering around Paris again. I went to Montmartre which was crazy busy on a Sunday afternoon.

Then I climbed many many steps to the Cathedral de Sacre-Coeur.

It was worth it just to watch these people I didn't know being cheesy for a photo they didn't even know was being taken (I'm a creep, but you already knew that).

And I capped the day off by going to Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre where Amelie works in the movie titled after her. I had some creme-brulée there and I cracked it. Seemed appropriate.

So that is the end of my photo post. There's nothing much to say except Paris was beautiful, Disneyland Paris was exquisite, seeing Dana was a treat and getting to be away for the weekend with nothing but beautiful things planned was a luxury. I can't wait for the few weeks I have back in London, but I lament at the loss of such a great few days. Oh well, more wonderful experiences to come, I'm sure.

Two (or three) days in Paris

I can't hear myself think. It's not that it's too loud or that I have too much other sensory stimulation, I just feel all jumbled. I don't know how the last few hours passed so quickly and yet so slowly. After spending the morning with Dana hanging around the Disneyland Paris Resort, I made my way back into the city proper so I could experience some more sights of Gay Parr-ee as well as get on my way back to London, the city that actually holds my heart.

I've had an extraordinary time here. Even though I just spent about 20 or 30 minutes walking through the sex shop district near the Moulin Rouge and had around three or four men casually walk past me and say "Bonjour" with disturbingly meaning-filled eyes, I'm still glad to have gone through the city. To have seen a new part of it. To have gone out of it and found myself both amused and confused by the Disneyland Resort.

This has been the least stressful of all of my European trips. Getting to and from the various airports in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Italy was a strain. Even reaching my train on time sometimes has been difficult. But somehow this just worked out. And it didn't coincide with any due dates, surprisingly.

Of course the real object of most excitement was Disneyland Paris which occupied most of my time and most of my cash. After spending a whole day in the park, I thought I might have satisfied my thirst for Disney paraphernalia and celebration. But this just wasn't the case. All I feel inside me is a greater need for the Disney I know.

It makes me excited to go home, which makes me sad because I still consider London my home.

Right now I'm going home. But in a few weeks I'm going home home. It's a confusing distinction.

One place that is most certainly not, nor shall it ever be, home is Paris. Even though I've found myself warming up to the city and enjoying getting to run through its streets as if I know what I'm doing (and clearly I don't; everyone can see that and they make it known), I still don't feel at ease here. I don't think I have since I was seven years old and was being brought to all the sights by my mother and my grandmother.

There's something stressful about being in a country where I should know the language but somehow I just fail massively at getting to exercise my awareness. I try and ask questions to servers, they don't understand me. I order in French, they respond to me in English. I make an effort, then I become more and more uncomfortable and I stop making an effort.

Yet I've had many of the lovely quintessential Parisian experiences that I've always longed for and never seemed to be able to accomplish.

Maybe it was out of knowledge and wisdom that my mother never took me around to Montmartre to experience La Moulin Rouge and its surrounding environs. There are, after all, a lot of sordid shops that I assume she wouldn't even want me passing by now.

But getting to see that side of Paris was new and exciting.

This afternoon I had crème brulée at Les Deux Moulins. This is the café where Amelie works in the so-titled film. It's lovely with a warm yellow lighting, filled with mirrors and red walls and writing. There are several workers and even though it's well-appreciated, it's not over-crowded. There's a mixed crowd, certainly not made up of locals, but it's fun to experience just the same.

I was glad to have gone. And glad to have taken a rest on what was otherwise a really lengthy and tiring journey.

After climbing all the steps up to Sacré-Coeur, the cathedral that stands on a hill looking over Paris from Montmartre, I wanted to stop and just feel the calm of a Parisian café. In my many visits, this is one I Never committed to out of fear of not having enough time to see anything else.

But I think Parisian cafés are a true raison d'être. In a city made up of too much to do, sometimes it's better to just do nothing and be glad with it. And if it just so happens that you're doing nothing in a place where they filmed one of the most adorable French films ever made, then all the better.

I think this was the first time when I actually felt like I had wound down in Paris. And I like it. It's the kind of city you imagine it to be when you stare out the windows or watch the servers run from table to kitchen and back again. Like Hemingway might have seen it.

Every time I visit Paris I always think I'm satisfied. There's no need to go back because I've done it due justice. But there is a part of the city I haven't seen yet. The part where I don't so much long for a homey atmosphere that I find easily in London or California or even Chicago. But where I find it.

Thanks, Mickey

Today was going home. Like walking into a place that I know and love and feel comfortable in. Everything was warm and inviting (despite the cold being biting and at times unbearable). Much of what I saw was what I'd already seen.

But it wasn't home. In my heart, I knew this straight away. The façades were different. The sounds, the sights, the smells. The smells. We couldn't get over the smells. Disneyland has really special scents that emanate from the bushes and from the water and the popcorn and churro stands. It attacks your senses to the point that you can no longer disassociate any particular experience with it. If you smell a similar smell, it brings you back. Anything can bring you back Disneyland.

So not everything was just right. But it was still right.

This morning as Dana and I walked into the Disneyland Resort Paris, we were reeling with excitement. The park was nearly empty as we moved across the wet pavement, still glistening from a morning soak by power hoses and untainted by the stain of millions of footsteps across it. It felt like the world (or at least Disneyland) was our oyster. We could do anything (or at least go on the rides that were open for Extra Magic Hours). We had the place to ourselves (and a few other families, plus that one guy on our boat in It's a Small World who was riding alone).

We grew complacent. It began to felt like our own Disneyland, there with the early morning dew sparkling off the planters and the sunlight just creeping in past the gloomy clouds, casting a pink and blue glow across the sky. How appropriate too, considering the castle that towers over the park belongs to Sleeping Beauty (Aurora).

By regular opening hours, we no longer had the place to ourselves. Our complacency had steered us wrong in the same way the proclamations by hotel staff had made us believe that this was the supposed "off-season" of the Disneyland Resort Paris.

These things may be true in theory, but when you walk around the park and see only lines of 40 minutes or more even for dark rides and Pirates of the Caribbean (which reminds me, anyone who doesn't go to Disney parks frequently may be confused about references to specific attractions and experiences.. apologies), you know that you're not in off-season.

After 14 hours of theme park hopping we managed to get on virtually all the rides we had planned to experience. Save for a few shows and lands that we skipped over for expediency, the day was well-accomplished and went off with few issues (despite the fact that the management here seems to believe it's okay to only open about half the restaurants and food stands during "off-season").


In a day we went on Phantom Manor (Haunted Mansion), Indiana Jones (a rollercoaster unlike the Disneyland version), Pinocchio, Snow White, Peter Pan, the old Star Tours. So many great classics. And new ones like Crush's Coaster.

At every step along the way it felt like repetition and sameness. Like walking backwards in time to this summer when I had Disneyland fully at my disposal every single day of the week. I didn't go every single day of the week, but the availability was what mattered.

And now it's available to me again. Or it was. For the full day of 8 am to 10 pm this morning, afternoon and evening. I'm so thankful for the opportunity.

Tomorrow I have a day planned in Paris. Dana will be heading back to Edinburgh in the afternoon and then I'll be left to my own wits to get back into the city and wander around before going back to London in the evening. I'm a little disappointed, I must admit. While I enjoy Paris immensely, the real excitement of this experience was Disney. It was all for Disney.

Anything with the name seems to have an impact. Earlier this morning, Dana and I talked a bit about that on our way into the parks. We were giddy and floating on air at the idea of spending a day living our Mickey and Friends. The topic of conversation eventually turned to how we've been raised to be obsessed with this brand, and how it may seem silly to some people that we go far and wide to take part in the Disney magic even when there are so many European cities to explore within an arm's reach of where we are.

Anyone who asks that doesn't have the Disney gene, I guess. There's something about going to these parks, no matter where in the world you are, that makes life a bit brighter and happier. Even if it seems culturally stifling to some, for us it's like re-entering a cultural haven of childhood and happiness-eternal.

So that's the end of the Disney story for now. Tomorrow we'll have several hours here to wind down, but after that it's back to the real world again (after Paris for me, of course). But I'm so glad to have had the experience. Disneyland Paris was great. Spending time with Dana was wonderful. Getting to be away and back home (in some ways) for a bit has been a luxury.

It'll be hard going back, but I think I'll be doing so with a new vigor. Thanks, Mickey.

Disneytime Paris-Style

Today has been long and treacherous. I've walked through gravel and sandy pathways in parks, on slippery ground and in many many hotel lobbies. And it's not even the end of the walking just yet.

My day has been all over the map. And by that I mean literally all over a book of maps that I purchased which helped me navigate around Paris as best I could. Only a few wrong turns here or there and I've made it to the Disneyland Resort. And despite arriving prior to Dana and having to wait for about 15 or 20 minutes for her arrival, there have been few to no hitches.

Unless you count having the lights magically turn off on their own as a hitch. I called it a ghost. I still call it a ghost. I hope it wasn't a ghost.

Anyway, since a lot happened in a short amount of time today I'm just going to spend the rest of this blog post telling you piece for piece the various experiences of my day.

As you know (or as you know if you read my blog last night), I had to go to bed early to be up by 3:30 am. I got up accordingly, managed to have breakfast and finish finalizing my packing. Walked out the door and...

I forgot my toothbrush.

But I had to keep moving. When I got to St. Pancras train station I found my way to the Eurostar terminal quickly and efficiently. Other than the security scanner who asked me why I travel with a wooden duck (my umbrella, Ralphina), I managed to get through without being suspected of terrorism or snowglobe-hoarding. So good going me.

On the train I was sat in a nearly empty car, but had the pleasure of sitting next to a man who refused to move to one of the many open seats available to him even once we'd passed Calais. Perhaps this would've been construed as a rude move, but in his position I probably would've asked if it was okay and moved away so I could stretch out on a two-seater. But I guess I just have no respect for social norms.

Anyway, after getting off the train, I got to the Champs-Elysées by about 10 am and wandered around looking at the Christmas market that had been set up there. With the white-painted wooden stalls that lined the street and the pale gloomy sky that surrounded them, it almost felt like walking in a winter wonderland. There were no actual icicles or snow around, but there was an ice rink with strange animatronic animals.

From there I walked onto the Place de la Concord and through the Jarden des Tuileries.

 It was a beautiful day despite the rain, but I figured I'd not waste time and took the Metro to Le Marais where I got some food at a Jewish bakery and walked toward Ile St.-Louis. All the quaint shopping did me in, but I reasoned that I wouldn't buy anything until I got to Disneyland.

And a few hours later, I arrived at the Disneyland Paris Resort. There I met up with Dana and we took a moment to appreciate the pleasures of our Disney Resort Bambi-themed hotel room. We went into every single Disney-themed shop (there are many) in Disney Village (the Downtown Disney of Disneyland paris).

We bought things. We questioned buying things. We looked at expensive food items. We purchased expensive food items.

And now we retire.

Because today was just the rehearsal.

Tonight during dinner we whipped out a Disneyland Paris Resort map. On it we labeled the rides according to our preference. Which to definitely go on. Which were expendable.

We came up with a coding system. Stars counted for the most important rides. Hearts represented those where one of us had a penchant for it but the other was indifferent. Peace signs were placed next to those that we didn't feel ridiculously enthusiastic for, but still wanted to go on. And finally, question marks went next to promising prospective rides that we wouldn't be disappointed if we missed.

Then there were the two or three we left out for whatever reason.

Tomorrow is the day we meet every goal on that list. That is the day to look forward to. That is why we're here. That is why we're going to bed early. That is why I must end this blog sooner rather than later.

So sooner it is.

Goodnight, bonne nuit. Have a lovely evening, À demain, mes amis.