October 10th: Paris, Day 5

I slept in a lot, and it was much needed. But! Off to the races!

Disneyland Paris

I left the hotel around 10am and walked to Gare de l'Est to catch the 4, the Bagneux - Lucie Aubrac Metro Line, to Les Halles before taking the RER A, the Marne-La-Vallée Chessy Line, which took me directly to Disneyland. When I say directly, I mean I walked out of the station and was at the front gates.

For the metro, I just used my Paris metro card, the Navigo card, and loaded it through my phone. Each ride on the metro was around 2 euro and I would load it before I left every day. I would plan my travel lines and load my card accordingly, and thank goodness transfers between lines didn't cost anything extra. However, with the RER, I bought a paper ticket because it was the only time I was going to take it and it doesn't run on the metro line. It's more akin to a train than anything. The confusing thing about the RER ticket is that you need to know exactly where you're going so you are charged correctly. You need to know which zones you will be traveling to, and you will most likely be traveling from Zone 1 in Paris to Zone 5 for Disneyland, which was ~5 euro one-way. The train took about 40 minutes and I got a window seat so I got to watch the countryside go by.

It was the 30th Anniversary!

The train drops you right outside of the gates for Disneyland and I was lucky enough to get

a free ticket from a friend of mine who works for the WaltDisney Company. It was super easy to use; once I got in, I asked a cast member where guest relations was and headed over. I gave the my voucher that I had printed out and they checked it out before handing me my ticket and I was off to the races.

I will say, I definitely did not do as much as I probably should have when I was there because I don't do rollercoasters, especially the big ones. I did some research beforehand, and decided on the Phantom Manor, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, the Dragon, and "it's a small world" for sure. I tried to pick things that we didn't have at DisneyWorld that also weren't huge rollercoasters so those were the absolute must-see's for me. I definitely should have checked out Blanche-Neige et les Sept-Nains, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, and Les Mysteres du Nautilus, but I will just have to do those next time I go ( ;) ). I also wanted to get myself a special souvenir from Paris that also took some time out of my schedule.

The plaque outside the ride

Almost all the lines I stood in were around 30 minutes long which really weren't too bad in comparison to the lines in Florida. I took a couple pictures of the castle, which was little and pink and adorable; then, I started off with Phantom Manor. I started here because the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride and I wanted to see how it compared. It was TOTALLY different. Different story line, different decor, the only thing that was the same was the ride mechanics, it was the clamshell style ride. Personally, I loved it, as confused as I was. I went in totally blind but it was worth it. Then I wandered around a little until I got on Les Voyages de Pinocchio. It wasn't a ride I was planning on doing, but I saw that it was something we didn't have in Florida so I hopped in line. It was similar to the Winnie the Pooh ride in which it was a sort of darker ride that followed the storyline of the movie. After that ride, I headed to the castle for the Dragon. It's quite literally a large dragon, inspired by Sleeping Beauty, that lives underneath the castle. When I got there, it wasn't open and I was so upset. All the photos and videos I had seen made it look epic and I was disappointed I wasn't able to see it. After this disappointment, I went to go get my special souvenir.

There is a shop inside the castle that sells blown glass ornaments and gifts. I had seen that you could get a custom glass wand made there and I was determined to get one. I looked at the samples they had and for some reason, they didn't have the specific base that I wanted. I asked the cast member behind the counter if they happened to have any more but they said they didn't so I looked at some of the premade ones. For these wands, you get small crystal/glass pieces to fill the wand and then it's sealed shut by melting the open end of the glass. The premade one that I chose had gray, purple, and white crystals inside, which was basically what I was going to choose anyways. I didn't spend money on other souvenirs because this is the one that I really wanted and it wasn't entirely cheap. The cast member got it ready for me and asked if I wanted it engraved. I didn't know this was an option but I said yeah! and she asked me what I wanted engraved on it. I told her I wanted my name, Camille, and she immediately asked me if I was French. Sadly, I told her I just have the French name and I speak a little bit of French. We had a little conversation about living in/visiting France before she told me to come back in 15-20 minutes to get my souvenir. I went to go pay and as soon as I was done, they showed me my engraved wand. It took less than 2 minutes to do and it was in beautiful script on the side. They packaged it up for me in a special box and I put it in my backpack before going out to watch the parade.

I watched the parade go by and it was lightly Halloween themed, it being mid-October, and there were come cute floats and costumes that went by. I watched the end of the parade then made my way to Alice's Curious Labyrinth. It's essentially a giant hedge maze filled with different character statues and florals and the quirky castle in the middle. Before I went in, I saw a popcorn stand with two different types of popcorn. Me, being a big popcorn girl, decided to take a look at what they have. It had a section that was split in two, but I couldn't tell what they were. Either way, I went to practice some of my mediocre French and asked the cast member for one popcorn and a Coke. She asked me "avec ou sans sucre?" and I was like "huh?", thinking she was referring to the drink after I had already seen that they didn't have Light Coke (which was and is still disappointing), and she repeated the question and gestured to the popcorn. It was then when I realized that it was either buttered popcorn or kettle corn. The lightbulb went off and I answered with "avec sucre", for a kettle corn. If given the option, I will almost always choose kettle corn. I get my snack and my drink and start the maze.

The smoking caterpillar

Painting the roses red!

The quirky castle

A little heart archway

A card archway

Huge floral Cheshire Cat motif

It was beautiful to walk through and something that was cool to experience. They had speakers around with different characters saying different lines as if they were on the other side of the hedge, there were children running around while trying to dodge their parents, and there was a group of girls in front of me who asked me to take their photo for them. Overall, it was a great walk-through attraction that I would definitely do again, especially if I was looking to pass some time.

After making my way out, I decided to go on "it's a small world", my father's "favorite" ride. In Florida, there's one animatronic that is truly iconic and it is the hippo that has a singular working eye. I had to know if it was the same here. Sadly, it was not the same but there was something that was 100 times better than that. An America section of the ride. It was the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life. I would ride it again just to see that 1 minute section of the ride.

I went to the gift shop after this and got some Phantom Manor merchandise of course, because I am predictable, and it was then starting to get late so I left the park, got another RER ticket and headed back to Paris. I had no issue until I went to put my ticket through to get out of the station. Apparently, it hadn't printed dark enough for the machine to read it and it decided I was trying to just stick a random piece of paper through. I was blocking the flow of traffic so I wiggled my way out of the crowd and looked for a guest relations type area. It took a minute to get my point across in English then French but they eventually got what I was saying and printed me a new ticket to get out. Luckily, that one was dark enough and it worked to get me out to the metro then back to the hotel.

Le Relais de l'Entrecote

The walnut salad and bread

An amazing steak frites!

This was a dinner I had planned for the whole trip and was so excited to go to. I went to Le Relais de l'Entrecote in the Montparnasse neighborhood by the 4 line Metro from Gare du l'Est to Vavin station. This restaurant has two things on the menu: a Walnut Salad and Steak Frites with a special sauce. The really interesting part was that you could get more of the steak and fries if you wanted and I, of course, took advantage of that. The waitress was amazing, speaking at least 4 languages that I heard, and was always walking by asking if I was alright and if I wanted more. The steak I ordered medium was perfect with the sauce and the fries were delicious as well. After I had seconds, there was still sauce on the plate so I used the bread to mop up the rest. I couldn't tell you what is in that sauce but it was herby and delicious and it worked so well with everything. I also loved that it was open late as well. I chose to have a later dinner so that I could see the Eiffel Tower light up at night. After I finished dinner, I got some gelato (which was definitely mid) and took the metro across the Siene.

Eiffel Tower at Night

Eiffel Tower from the Seine

If you are heading West, on the 6 Metro line to Passy station, stay on the right side of the metro car and keep an eye out the window. As you are going by, you will be able to see glimpses of the Eiffel Tower lit up between the buildings until you see it in it's glory as you cross the Seine river. The lights are on from dusk to 1am and sparkles for 5 minutes on the hour every hour. I was so lucky to be passing about 10 minutes before 11pm so I had enough time to leave the station and park myself along the walls on the river and just waited. When the clock struck 11, the light show started and it was magical. I stood there, leaning on the short wall, just watching it as people went by. I watched a couple dance on the sidewalk in the sparkling lights and couldn't help but admire them as they did. The light show stopped and I headed back to my hotel. Considering I was a woman alone at night, I honestly felt quite safe while I was walking around and taking the public transportation. I never felt like I was in danger so I was very grateful for that. I took the 6 and the 4 back, showered, and got ready to head to Amsterdam in the morning.