idratherbeinwdw
11-29-2005, 05:40 PM
Well I have to say that jnrrt's report has me feeling woefully inadequate, but here goes with my Disneyland Paris report:
Cast of Characters:
Yours truly
Best friend Elaine who paid for the plane and the paris hotel using her Frequent Flier points as an incredibly generous birthday gift to Moi. She and her hubby own a very successful camera store on Long Island, and they pay the monthly bills with an Amex card that gives them miles, so they have literally Millions of FF points.
Parisian Native Will, who i met years ago on a Billy Joel newsgroup site, he's been to the US many times (camped out in my LR once) and knows me and my daughters quite well. (no romance whatsoever in case anyone cares, we are just buddies)
Air France took off on time from JFK and we landed at Charles DeGaulle airport in Paris at 6AM Paris time (midnight here in NY, 6 hour time difference for me). Got a cab right away to take us to the Hotel, 4 Seasons George V. (http://paris.fourseasons.com/paris/). The hotel was very elegant, but in all honesty (and don't tell Elaine this) I enjoyed the DL hotel more. I'm just not one that gets off on super fancy places like that, (just as I prefer the Poly to the GF). We slept for a few hours so we wouldn't be total burn outs, and we got up about 11 AM (from here on in I will be writing in Paris time). Elaine and I each had separate rooms and Will knocked on my door at 12 PM as planned. I took him over to introduce him to Elaine, and the 3 of us went out to tour the city.
We only had the one day in Paris, and had dinner ressies at 8, so that left us just until about 6 to do what we wanted to do and make it back to the hotel to change in time for dinner. Since Will is a native and Elaine had been to Paris before they left it up to me, the newbie to the city, to choose what to do.
First stop-Arc De Triomphe, which was in walking distance of the hotel. We took some pics there, but only stopped for a few minutes, not much to do once you look at the arch.
Next: We didnt have enough time for the Louvre, and I love impressiont paintings, so we took the Metro and went to the Musee d'orsay, an impressionist museum. I recognized quite a few originals that I knew from books, it was really cool to see. The museum is not that large, so we were back on the road after about an hour.
Next stop: Notre Dame Cathedral. Back to the metro and then to the Cathedral. . Very ornate, as I am sure most everyone knows, both inside and out. There were many statues and artwork. Had to take pics of the gargoyles in honor of the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame, LOL. I was at the 1964 world's fair in NY (same one that debuted the COP, IASM and great moments with mr lincoln) and La Pieta was on view there at that time. I still recall my mom crying when she saw it, she was so moved by it. I didn't know it was going to be inside at Notre Dame, that was a neat surprise to see it again after all those years. Again we spent about an hour there and that was sufficient.
Will wanted to show us some of the smaller streets in Paris and took us to an area that looks (to me) a lot like wall street in NYC. Small narrow streets, all the cars parked one very close to the other. And the cars there are soooo tiny! Most are half the size of a VW beetle and have no back seat whatsoever. At the end of this report I will put a link to some pics if you want to see for yourselves.
We walked around a bit, and then it was time to change for dinner. It was getting really chilly so instead of walking back to the metro we hailed a cab. Back to the hotel, changed and off we went to eat, but we stopped first at the Eiffel Tower. It lights up and sparkles on the hour after dark, so we planned to be there at 7. We took a cab and got there right on time, the tower looked very pretty all lit up and sparkling. Reminded me of the Castle in the MK when it glitters after wishes. Ok everything seems to remind me of WDW one way or another, LOL!
Will had recommended a very posh restaurant, and the food there was superb, the service not so very superb. Maybe it's just a European thing, or a Parisian thing, but it seemed to take forever for them to take our orders even though the restaurant was virtually empty. It also took a longggg time between courses. The menu btw, was in French, so Will had to translate for us. The food was great, so was the french (naturally) bread they served with it. You are basically forced to order an appetizer, as the main course was so tiny it wouldn't satisfy a 2 year old appetite. Luckily Will warned us abut this, so we had appetizers as well as entrees. And interestingly enough after dinner it is traditional to eat a cheese course before dessert. Dessert was heavenly, one of those chocolate things with warm chocolate fudgey sauce inside, mmmmm good! Although we arrived at 7:30 dinner wasn't over until 10:30. By then I had hit the wall and was pretty much falling asleep at the table waiting for the check. I do not do well on 4 hours sleep.
We asked the folks at the restaurant to call us a cab but they insisted it would be faster to go to the taxi stand on the corner. So off we went to the corner and there was not a cab in sight. Back to restaurant, they called a cab this time, and one arrived in 5 minutes. Finally we made it back to the hotel and I was in dreamland by midnight.
To sum up: I certainly won't say I hated it but I was not enthralled with Paris. I am just not one that gets awestruck by monuments or landmarks. I know most of you on this board will understand when I say I'd rather look at Wishes or Spectromagic than the eiffel tower. I'm not sorry we stopped in Paris, but I have no desire to return anytime soon.
Here's the link to all the photos, including DLP. Next installment: DLP!!:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/idratherbeinwdw/slideshow?.dir=/9bb4&.src=ph
Cast of Characters:
Yours truly
Best friend Elaine who paid for the plane and the paris hotel using her Frequent Flier points as an incredibly generous birthday gift to Moi. She and her hubby own a very successful camera store on Long Island, and they pay the monthly bills with an Amex card that gives them miles, so they have literally Millions of FF points.
Parisian Native Will, who i met years ago on a Billy Joel newsgroup site, he's been to the US many times (camped out in my LR once) and knows me and my daughters quite well. (no romance whatsoever in case anyone cares, we are just buddies)
Air France took off on time from JFK and we landed at Charles DeGaulle airport in Paris at 6AM Paris time (midnight here in NY, 6 hour time difference for me). Got a cab right away to take us to the Hotel, 4 Seasons George V. (http://paris.fourseasons.com/paris/). The hotel was very elegant, but in all honesty (and don't tell Elaine this) I enjoyed the DL hotel more. I'm just not one that gets off on super fancy places like that, (just as I prefer the Poly to the GF). We slept for a few hours so we wouldn't be total burn outs, and we got up about 11 AM (from here on in I will be writing in Paris time). Elaine and I each had separate rooms and Will knocked on my door at 12 PM as planned. I took him over to introduce him to Elaine, and the 3 of us went out to tour the city.
We only had the one day in Paris, and had dinner ressies at 8, so that left us just until about 6 to do what we wanted to do and make it back to the hotel to change in time for dinner. Since Will is a native and Elaine had been to Paris before they left it up to me, the newbie to the city, to choose what to do.
First stop-Arc De Triomphe, which was in walking distance of the hotel. We took some pics there, but only stopped for a few minutes, not much to do once you look at the arch.
Next: We didnt have enough time for the Louvre, and I love impressiont paintings, so we took the Metro and went to the Musee d'orsay, an impressionist museum. I recognized quite a few originals that I knew from books, it was really cool to see. The museum is not that large, so we were back on the road after about an hour.
Next stop: Notre Dame Cathedral. Back to the metro and then to the Cathedral. . Very ornate, as I am sure most everyone knows, both inside and out. There were many statues and artwork. Had to take pics of the gargoyles in honor of the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame, LOL. I was at the 1964 world's fair in NY (same one that debuted the COP, IASM and great moments with mr lincoln) and La Pieta was on view there at that time. I still recall my mom crying when she saw it, she was so moved by it. I didn't know it was going to be inside at Notre Dame, that was a neat surprise to see it again after all those years. Again we spent about an hour there and that was sufficient.
Will wanted to show us some of the smaller streets in Paris and took us to an area that looks (to me) a lot like wall street in NYC. Small narrow streets, all the cars parked one very close to the other. And the cars there are soooo tiny! Most are half the size of a VW beetle and have no back seat whatsoever. At the end of this report I will put a link to some pics if you want to see for yourselves.
We walked around a bit, and then it was time to change for dinner. It was getting really chilly so instead of walking back to the metro we hailed a cab. Back to the hotel, changed and off we went to eat, but we stopped first at the Eiffel Tower. It lights up and sparkles on the hour after dark, so we planned to be there at 7. We took a cab and got there right on time, the tower looked very pretty all lit up and sparkling. Reminded me of the Castle in the MK when it glitters after wishes. Ok everything seems to remind me of WDW one way or another, LOL!
Will had recommended a very posh restaurant, and the food there was superb, the service not so very superb. Maybe it's just a European thing, or a Parisian thing, but it seemed to take forever for them to take our orders even though the restaurant was virtually empty. It also took a longggg time between courses. The menu btw, was in French, so Will had to translate for us. The food was great, so was the french (naturally) bread they served with it. You are basically forced to order an appetizer, as the main course was so tiny it wouldn't satisfy a 2 year old appetite. Luckily Will warned us abut this, so we had appetizers as well as entrees. And interestingly enough after dinner it is traditional to eat a cheese course before dessert. Dessert was heavenly, one of those chocolate things with warm chocolate fudgey sauce inside, mmmmm good! Although we arrived at 7:30 dinner wasn't over until 10:30. By then I had hit the wall and was pretty much falling asleep at the table waiting for the check. I do not do well on 4 hours sleep.
We asked the folks at the restaurant to call us a cab but they insisted it would be faster to go to the taxi stand on the corner. So off we went to the corner and there was not a cab in sight. Back to restaurant, they called a cab this time, and one arrived in 5 minutes. Finally we made it back to the hotel and I was in dreamland by midnight.
To sum up: I certainly won't say I hated it but I was not enthralled with Paris. I am just not one that gets awestruck by monuments or landmarks. I know most of you on this board will understand when I say I'd rather look at Wishes or Spectromagic than the eiffel tower. I'm not sorry we stopped in Paris, but I have no desire to return anytime soon.
Here's the link to all the photos, including DLP. Next installment: DLP!!:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/idratherbeinwdw/slideshow?.dir=/9bb4&.src=ph