Another Trip to DLP? Oh, go on then! Feb 12-16 2018 Day 4

[clochette]

Day 4 The rain never bothered me anyway! (Yes it did, actually)

Read Day 3 here: https://DIBB.in/13118232


We were going to Paris today so I allowed us to have a lie in, not that I really benefited from it because the children next door clearly weren't having a lie in. I got up about 7.15 and got ready before I got the other two up. We had a bit of breakfast and finally made it out if the room by 8.25. I had decided to go to Paris today because when I looked at the weather forecast about a week before we went, this was the best day by far and as we would be walking all day, I wanted to be dry. However, I should have known better than to trust the weather forecast and it was, of course, raining when we got up! However, plans had been made and it wasn't doing much so we went anyway.

We went via the hotel reception to see if we could meet a character without a long wait but we took one look at the number of people already milling around and decided not to bother. As there was a bus just about to leave, we saved our legs and caught it to the station. I remember now why we usually walk - it was very crowded and we had to stand anyway.

I had done some research about tickets and routes etc beforehand so I knew we wanted to get a mobilis ticket as this would allow us unlimited travel on the metro all day as well as covering the train fares to Paris. What I had neglected to do was find out whereabouts you got the tickets from so I was a bit confused when I went to the ticket machines and it said there were no day return tickets available (or words to that effect). However, I soon figured out that I was trying to use an inter-city type ticket machine and I needed to move round the corner to find the local trains. It took me a while to figure out how to use the machines because I thought they were touch screen but there was actually a little roller ball at the bottom that you had to turn; I've obviously got too used to this high tech lifestyle we lead! Once DD had pointed out the error of my ways it was easy to get the tickets. They were €17.50 each, which I didn't think was bad value. We signed and dated the tickets as instructed and it's just as well we did - but more of that later!

We went down on the platform for the RER A train and only had to wait a couple of minutes before the train arrived at 8.50. It was quite busy but we got a seat easily enough.

Train selfie

It took us about three quarters of an hour to get to Nation which is the first big station in Paris and where we needed to change to get the metro to Sacre Coeur (Line 2 to Anvers). I am not really a fan of the metro but we found it easy enough and were at Sacre Coeur by 10 am. I was all for walking up all the steps but I had made the mistake of telling DD that our mobilis tickets covered the funicular so we had no chance of getting her to walk.

I'm sure it looks better in the sun

I have to say that the Sacre Coeur wasn't as white as I was expecting it to be; maybe it looks whiter in the sun but I wouldn't know as it was still raining! We took the obligatory photos and then went inside, via the inevitable security bag check.

No photos from inside, I'm afraid, as they weren't allowed. (Not that it stopped some people but I'm pleased to say they were challenged by a member of staff). I liked Sacre Coeur; it actually felt like a church rather than a cattle market and isn't too grand. It was also very peaceful until somebody started hoovering, lol! It was good to be able to walk around and actually look properly; I'll never forget trying to look around the Basilica in Venice - it was like being on a production line!

After we'd soaked up the peace of Sacre Coeur, we went for a wander around Montmartre. It was still raining but not too much. We had a quick look in the tourist (or tat as DH would call them!) shops. I was looking for a new phone case for DD1. I had wanted to get her one from DLP as she used to have one but had her phone stolen but they didn't have any the right size, even though she has an I phone 6. I thought I would have no problem but they were all for 6S or 7. However, I didn't see any that DD2 thought DD1 would like - apparently my taste is not to be trusted any more as I still think they like cute girly things and they are way too old for that now! Oh the joys of teenage daughters. I couldn't believe just how many artists there were around Montmartre, all trying to convince you to have your portrait drawn. Some of the work they were doing looked really good actually but it was far too cold to sit around and we didn't really have the time. In addition, I hate being pestered to buy anything - it really puts me off. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of street sellers/ beggars in the area as I had read some horror stories before we went of people physically grabbing your wrist and tying bracelets on and then demanding money for them. We didn't experience anything like that and though there were lots of street artists, they all took no for an answer readily enough.

I think it would be lovely to sit and watch the world go by here in summer

We spent a bit of time looking for the Moulin Rouge but I hadn't checked where it was before we left and we couldn't find it so we headed back down to the Metro as it was 11am by now and we still had lots to get through on my plan! DD was most put out because I made her walk down the steps this time. She did count them but I didn't write down how many there were (bad note taking there) and now I can't remember - does anybody know?

The funicular. It certainly savws the legs!

We found our way back to the Metro and put our tickets in the barriers and nothing happened! We tried again at another barrier but they stayed stubbornly shut. I started to think that I had for the wrong type of ticket and they weren't valid on the Metro at all but I knew really that they were the right ones so off to the ticket office I went, trying to get the French straight in my head as I was waiting. Luckily, there was a lady in front of us who was obviously having the same problem. The member of staff spent quite a long time with her making her find her receipt, checking the date on the ticket (which is why I'm glad we remembered to sign and date them) but eventually she gave her a new ticket. When it came to our turn, I just said "I think we have the same problem as this lady" (but in French, of course) and she just looked at the date, yelled something over her shoulder to her colleague about there being a problem with mobilis tickets and gave us new ones.

We got back on the Number 2 blue line to Charles de Gaulle station where we had to change to the Number 6 green line for the Eiffel Tower. As this is the stop for the Arc we Triomphe, we came up to street level for a quick photo.

I had been toying with having a wander down the Champs Elysées to have a look at the designer shops but, surprisingly, DD wasn't that bothered so we just took the photo and went back down again. We got the train to the Trocadero which isn't the closest stop for the Eiffel Tower but the one where you get the best view, in my opinion anyway. It really is quite impressive when you turn the corner and have an uninterrupted view of the tower right in front of you.

First view of the Eiffel Tower

A little bit closer

DSis was most impressed with her first sight of the Eiffel Tower which I think was the highlight of the trip for her. Unfortunately it was absolutely bouncing it down by now so we had to have a rethink of our plans. We walked through the gardens to the base of the tower in the hope that it would ease off a bit but, if anything, it just got harder and harder. Maybe because of the weather, there weren't that many people waiting so I asked DSis if she wanted to go up, even though we hadn't booked. Unsurprisingly, as she is afraid of heights, she declined. To be honest, you probably wouldn't have seen very much anyway as it was raining so hard.

My original plan had been to walk along the banks of the Seine to Notre Dame but we were pretty wet and miserable by now so after wasting a few minutes trying to find a closer metro station (I know there's one there somewhere) we turned round and headed back to the Trocadero station to make our way to the Louvre as I knew we could get some shelter in the shopping centre there. On the way there we passed some street sellers who were selling umbrellas for €5. Although we were absolutely drenched by now so it was probably too late, I decided that I would feel better if the rain wasn't bouncing off my head so I bought one. It was quite nice, actually, black with a gold Eiffel Tower on one of the panels. Not to be outdone, DSis bought one too. Unfortunately, she bought one from a different vendor and when she opened it, it was broken, with one of the spokes poking through the material and another completely bent out of shape. He obviously knew it was faulty because he disappeared pretty sharpish! I don't know where he went, but we couldn't see him at all. The chap I had got my umbrella from offered to sell her another one for the bargain price of €4 but she wasn't happy with that at all and decided to stick with the broken one as it did keep some of the rain off her.

I consulted the metro map I had saved on my phone and found out that we needed to go back to Charles de Gaulle station and then get the yellow Number 1 line to Palais Royal Musee du Louvre. When we got there, we again had to go through a bag check and then we were in the Carousel shopping centre. The queues to get into the Louvre were huge! As we were on a whistle stop tour I had decided that we wouldn't go inside the Louvre as you need to spend a whole day there to really appreciate it. I have to confess our first stop was much more mundane - the toilets! They were very nice toilets, though and so they should be at €1.50 each! I will leave you to decide whether it was worth it from DDs photos. In fact she spent so long taking selfies in there because she looked good in that light (how would she know - why take your phone out at all in the toilets?) that she didn't even use the facilities as she thought we would have long since finished and be waiting for her! We had, but at €1.50 I'd have waited a bit longer so she could actually do what we had gone in there to do in the first place!

I do look good in this light!

Anyway, enough about toilets. Our next stop was Pylones. I really love this shop they have such quirky things in there. I first came across it when DD and I came to Paris a couple of years ago but I have since found out there is one in Covent Garden, so although I found lots of nice things, I didn't actually buy any of them, thinking I probably wouldn't be able to get them in the suitcase. We came across Starbucks next but there was quite a large queue so we decided to browse a bit more and then go back. I don't know whether we went out a different way, but for whatever reason, we didn't make it back there and had to do without our coffee.

Inside the Carousel Shopping Centre

Next we ventured back outside to see if it had stopped raining, which it had so we took a few photos of the Pyramid - is it just me that thinks it looks very incongruous to have a modern glass sculpture in the middle of all those beautiful old buildings? - and of the Tuileries and then decided to revert to our original plan and walk along the banks of the Seine to Notre Dame.

Does everyone take this photo?

Unfortunately we couldn't walk right on the river bank as the paths were still very badly flooded. There were no sightseeing boats operating either, or not that we saw, and I think it was probably because the river was too high for the boats to get under the bridges.

We arrived at Notre Dame just as the bells were striking 2pm. I know this because DD managed to record it and is absolutely thrilled that she now has the bells of Notre Dame as her ring tone. (It's the little things in life!) The first thing we noticed was the huge and I mean huge, number of rats that were all around the bins there. DSis took a photo but she had problems with her memory card and that is one of the ones she lost so you'll have to take my word for it. I live by a river and see rats quite regularly but I have never seen anything like it. Maybe it was because the river was so high that it had forced them to move but it wasn't very pleasant - I thought DD was going to have hysterics. Again, there were large queues to enter so we contented ourselves with just walking round the outside and taking lots of photos - as you do!

We were quite tired by now and still rather soggy even though it had stopped raining, so we decided to head back to DLP.I consulted my trusty map to find the nearest station but it let me down! Well, that's not quite true; the RER C station that we were aiming for was closed due to flooding as was the closest metro station. You could see all the water from the entrance at the top - I dread to think how much damage has been done. We walked a bit further and got the metro at St Michel (Number 4 purple line) to Chatelet Les Halles which is an absolutely huge station but we managed to find the right platform easily enough and were on a train back to DLP at 3.15. It was a very quick tour of Paris but it was just a taster for DSis really, as she has never been before. I think she enjoyed it but it would have been better if it hadn't rained so hard - everywhere looks better in the sunshine! As for me, I have to say that Paris isn't my favourite city in the world and it's not somewhere I would rush back to but I can cope with it for a day.

We were back at DLP just after 4 and as we hadn't eaten, we were absolutely starving so decided to have an early dinner before hitting the parks again. Elinor wanted to try out Five Guys so we went through Security to get into the parks area - very tedious and time consuming, it’s definitely much quicker when you are staying onsite-and then straight back out the other side as Five Guys isn't in Disney Village but down the side on the way to the car park. For some reason I didn't write down what we had but it was obviously a burger of some sort and fries and a drink each and the bill came to €47. They have the new coke freestyle machines in there - who knew there were so many different flavours of soft drink! Between that and the bewildering choice of accompaniments you can have with your burger, my mind went into a bit of a meltdown! That's probably why I didn't write down what we had - well that's my excuse anyway.

Five Guys

I wanted to watch the Star Wars show on the Tower of Terror this evening (though the other two weren't that keen) so when we had finished at 5 Guys we headed into the Studios. We did a little browsing in the shops not actually buying anything for once, and then we went to see if we could do another animation class. Unfortunately, there were too many people but as it was the last class of the day, the CM very kindly let us and another lady sit on the floor at the front. We got to draw Mickey this time - not that you can really tell from my picture. He looks a bit like a cross between Mickey and Winnie the Pooh. I almost wasn't going to include the picture but in the interests of impartial trip reporting, I have!

My Mickey

Elinor's Mickey

Maybe it was because we were sitting on the floor, but Elinor's was much, much better than mine this time. But then again, maybe it's because she is a much better artist than me!
We thought we would have another go on Crush's Coaster but the wait was 45 minutes and we decided we didn't want to do it that much - far too much time to worry about what was ahead! Instead, we went to our trusty favourite Ratatouille SR. There was absolutely no wait at all for this. In fact they were waiting for us and we all walked straight onto a rat. The main queue had a wait of 30 minutes and it had gone up to 40 by the time we came off, though the line looked shorter to me than it had when we went in. I think they were trying to put people off going on so they could get rid of the line before closing time. After saying goodbye to Ratatouille for the final timed we took a few atmospheric photos of "Paris" but they didn't turn out too well.

Next we went for another of our favourites - Slinky Dog. This just had a 5 minute was it. I've never ridden this in the dark before - in fact I don't think we've ever been in the Studios after dark before. When we came off we noticed there ward only a 15 minute was it for the Parachute Drop so we decided to go on as that is the shortest we have ever seen it. Well, Elinor and I did. DSis, with her fear of heights, decided not to risk it. I don't know where they got 15 minutes from; we were waiting a good 25 minutes and I was starting to get twitchy, thinking we would muss the Star Wars show. However, all was well and we made it in time. Those of you who have read previous trippies of mine will know that I have a secret yearning to go on ToT but always chicken out because I get scared on Parachute Drop! This time, I really enjoyed it, maybe because it was dark, and if we had had time, I might even have convinced myself to go on ToT! Hmm, maybe not, but I think trying it in the dark may be the way forward.

It was about 7.45 by the time we got off the parachutes and we headed straight round to Production Courtyard to watch the Star Wars show. To be honest, there weren't as many people watching as I thought there would be and though we were at the back, we still had a really good view. I enjoyed the show and thought it was clever and I liked the use of characters but it wasn't a patch on Illuminations. I'm glad we watched it and I would watch it again if we happened to be there at the right time but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. I am sure there are lots of people who would disagree, though!

We were very tired by now, but not too tired to detour to World of Disney on the way back. DSis was looking for a t shirt that she had seen in the shoo at the Cheyenne but we couldn't find it so we had to go to the Cheyenne shop, where she found her t shirt and I bought a sporty 25th Minnie Mouse that I had been eyeing up all week. She was just so cute, I couldn't resist. I also fought a fold up rucksack, which I have already found to be very handy for those impromptu purchases (usually of milk and other essential supplies on the way home from work rather than anything exciting). We had a quick look through the windows if the Chuck Wagon Cafe to see what difference the renovations had made. There are some prairie type wagons in there now but we couldn't see what for - maybe food/ drink stations and some new "leather" banquette type seating by the windows but apart from that there was very little difference that we could see - certainly not enough to warrant being closed for so long. At least the tent that was there in August has gone now. We finally made it back to our room at about 9.30 to play Tetris with our purchases, not very successfully on DSis's part as she had to put some of her stuff in our case.

Steps taken: 25 326
Distance walked: 10.23 miles

[MrsSilverStar]

What a busy day! Shame it rained so much for your trip to Paris but sounds like you still enjoyed it.

We never managed to watch any of the Star Wars stuff, one to aim for next time I guess!

[clochette]

We did have a good day in Paris and I was impressed by how easy we found it to get around. In fact, I was so impressed that I would even consider getting the Eurostar to Paris and then the RER to Disney.

I would recommend the Star Wars show - I feel I maybe didn't do it justice but then give me fairy tales and princesses over sci-fi any day.

Thanks for reading along.