Disneyland Paris

Lord deliver me from Walt Disney.....

Bill and I were a bit reluctant but in the end decided that, arguably, you have to go to Disneyland once in your life (although this was Bill's second time). The kids were really fizzing on the whole place. As it happened the day we chose to go was day 3 of a 4 day weekend and the end of school holidays as well as Halloween, so no doubt the crowds were worse than usual - long queues were the catchcry du jour. It took us over an hour to queue up just to get tickets to enter the park - madness. However this did not seem to dampen the kids' enthusiasm for the place at all and they didn't moan at all about the queues for the rides themselves, which do seem to move quite quickly but were about an hour long for the main rides.

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We started with the Pirates of the Caribbean which was quite a spectacle but we all decided came up short on the adrenalin front -  but when we went to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril we found out that poor old Zoe was slightly too short ....she wasn't too happy but after taking the other two on it later in the day (using fastpass which we managed to work out at last) I decided it was probably a good thing Zoe didn't come .... she was also too short for Space Mountain so Bill took Harv and Amelia - they had a long wait in the queue:

but the 3 of them were still freaking out when we caught up with them later:

We did a family round of Autopia which was a car race with all 3 kids at the wheel - surprisingly good fun!

While they did that Zoe and I hit fantasy land and did the Mad Hatter's Teacups and Dumbo the flying elephant.....both of which were good fun.

What was amazing was the people-watching - it really is classic how many people get into the whole disney thing - loads of people were dressed up as disney characters (even without children) and seemed to be genuinely ecstatic about the whole scene.

By the time we left it was almost dark and the crowds were filing in for the Halloween soiree that evening....one or two weirdos in that lot, that's for sure.

A good experience for the kids - but one I certainly don't need to do again! You won't catch me on the Gold Coast so make the most of it kids....

Harvey says : Disneyland was an amazing experience with my first two roller coasters (Space Mountain and Indiana Jones Temple of Peril) I also enjoyed Autopia because I liked driving my own car. Dad kept on ramming me though.

Amelia says : Disneyland was so amazing - my favourite ride was Space Mountain. You may have seen the photos but I was screaming my head off because it was so scary. We also went on a roller coaster that was very scary because you could see everything you are doing - we went upside down and it felt like you were about to fall off the tracks. We had lunch at a bar called Hakuna Matata.

Zoe says: At Disneyland I wasnt allowed to go on any rollercoasters - I was too short. We went on a car race and me and mum beat Harvey, Amelia and Dad. For lunch we went to the Hakuna Matata restaurant - after that I got a toffee apple. My favourite ride was the car race.

Paris

Our first taste of Paris was a whirlwind one night, arriving on the Eurostar, before we went to Corsica for the week. We stayed in my friend Gareth's apartment on Rue de Turennes - just around the corner from the Place des Vosges. We caught up with him and his wife Diva and 4 year old son Eliot for dinner that night. It was late for the kids - Zoe and Harvey had had a sleep in the afternoon so they were ok after a couple of Sprites and played with Eliot but Amelia was falling asleep at the table!

It was then great to get back to Paris and do it properly after Corsica. We had 3 nights and two full days, renting an apartment in the Marais, which is a lively area, right in the thick of it. We arrived on Friday night and the neighbourhood was humming. The apartment was tiny - Bill could hardly stand up on the top mezzanine floor and certainly there were no cats being swung around in there -  Zoe practising her gym in the top bedroom and almost breaking the lamp resulted in us both having conniptions and much admonishment.

We went out for dinner that  night -  although I really struggled to get my bearings and managed to get us lost within a small radius around the Centre Pompidou. The kids enjoyed the coke/raspberries, the carbonara and the story of the french revolution :

On Saturday we got up early and I went for a run to get my bearings and to source stuff for breakfast. We were staying just behind the Rue de Rivoli near the Hotel de Ville so once we got out and about it was easy to get the metro from there to the Eiffel Tower. At Trocadero, the kids got their first glimpse of it and we snapped a lot of photos and quickly got accosted by the peddlers of mini Eiffel Towers.

It was good to get in early as the crowds are massive - slight hiccup when Harv forgot that he had put his Corsican knife in the backpack - which meant we had to hide it near the ticket office before ascending the tower, but managed to retrieve it later. We took the stairs as far as you can go to the second floor, then took the elevator from there. It's much further up than you think - and a brilliant way to see the layout of the city.

After that we got the obligatory souvenirs (including Harv's selfie stick which - despite all abuse - has been a winner) - then walked to Charles de Gaulle Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees which was looking every bit as grand as I remember it.  The kids were immediately wowed by the shops and Harv by the flash cars - he was keen to take a ride in a Lamborghini for 100 euros but Bill was not so keen. We lunched at one of the tourist traps and the kids enjoyed the most expensive hot chocolate money can buy - but were excited that they each had their own jug of it -  it was pretty good!

french hot dogs

Then we all got drawn in by Zara and H & A ended up with styley euro puffer jackets and Zoe a pair of cool ripped jeans:

That afternoon we met Gareth and his family and Nath and her family at la Cite des Sciences where the kids all did an interactive session exploring a whole lot of cool stuff. Despite not speaking each others' languages, it took no time for our girls and Nath's girls to be flying around having fun together - Zoe pulled out quite a few "voilas"..

                                                           Amelia, Eliot, Zoe, Elisa, Diana and Harvey

Thanks to the selfie stick..

Then drinks and back to Gareth's awesome new refurbished apartment for pizza and red wine - great spot and such a lovely catch up with my old Parisian amis. So funny to get the kids together after all these years. Once again amazing hospitality - thanks so much Gareth and family and Nath and family for making such a huge effort to welcome us.

The girls with baby Rosa 

Eliot  (who speaks English, French and Spanish) and Harv 

We had a lovely chilled Sunday morning - it was a stunning day and Bill and I went running early along the river to Notre Dame (barely a soul was there) and over to the Ile St Louis then had un petit cafe in the neighbourhood. Paris is very calm and surreal in the mornings as the french are pretty slow to get moving at the best of times, especially on a Sunday. Then we walked with the kids along past the Hotel de Ville to the Palais de Louvre  - where the girls cartwheeled it up with gay abandon and gazed at the hordes taking their selfies....we carried on through the Tuileries gardens - the kids were pleased to see that Halloween was alive and well in Paris - there were lots of people dressed up in costumes and giving away lollies.

We went to the Orangerie galley and saw Monet's amazing oval rooms with the water lillies... and some other paintings by some guys called Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso etc

Then we walked back towards the Musee D'Orsay on the left bank to have lunch - and then chocolate crepes near St Michel, which Zoe managed to have all over her face by the time we got to Notre Dame

To top it off we had icecreams from Berthillon and then dinner in the Marais, which was buzzing even more on a Sunday than it was on Friday night. Did somebody say kilos? Paris, that's a wrap!

Harvey says:  I love the hustle and bustle of Paris and also the cosy apartments. I would like to have had our apartment a bit bigger though. Paris is an amazing place full of many tourist attractions including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. I loved hanging out with Eliot and going to the Science museum and dragon slide with him. Paris has really good carbonara! Here's some of my photos:

Zoe says: In Paris we saw a lot of  homeless people on the streets with some of their children - they looked so sad. I loved the Eiffel Tower. We had a nice crepe - I got it on my legs!

Amelia says :  Paris has great meals - one time I got wok fried noodles, they were divine. The Eiffel Tower was amazing, when we got up to the top I felt like I was flying. When we went to the Science museum with Eliot and Elisa and Diana I saw lots of cool experiments and things to do. It was so fun - I especially liked when we went down the dragon slide afterwards. Paris is great and I hope I get to go there again with my kids.