We left Monday for Paris, where we arrived around 12.30. We checked in to the hotel, dropped our stuff in the room and went to get something to eat. We walked around a bit, and decided to hit the Champs-Elysees, for the Disney store. We walked around for the rest of the day, and ended up in the Quartier Latin, around the university of Sorbonne. We found a cosy restaurant and had a lovely meal, then went back to the hotel. We're actually quite boring, we don't go out normally, and didn;t go to any nightclubs or anything in Paris either.
Tuesday we wanted to go see the Musee National du Moyen Age (the museum of the Middle-Ages), but when we arrived, it turned out to be closed on Tuesdays. Hmm, bummer. We went for some coffee and a sit down to think about what to do, and ended up sitting next to a lightboard stating the current affairs in Paris. It turned out there was an exhibition on George Eiffel (yes, from the tower) in the Hotel de Ville, and it was free too! So, we decided to walk to the Notre Dame, took a look inside, and went to the Hotel de Ville. The exhibition was really cool, it showed some of the early projects the Eiffel company worked on, and a lot of stuff about the tower. It's 120 years after the Grand Opening, that was one of the reasons for the exhibition. The best thing was a series of photos taken with 15 day intervals of the building of the tower. It showed the progress over the entire build.
For lunch we went to the Japanese area nearby, and grabbed some great food. I had sushi, and we both had skewers with chicken, beef and cheese (which was pretty strange).
And then, the bento-shopping. I was tipped about Komikku, a manga store that sells bento stuff. I ended up buying foodpicks and a mini-steamer. Across the street there's a Japanese grocery store called Kioko, so that was the perfect occasion to get some furikake. I asked the lady in the store where they were, but then standing at the section realised that of course I can't read Japanese, and had no idea what to buy! I ended up with a pink package I figured would be salmon, a yellow one I'd have to ask about, and one with 5 different flavours with pictures on the package. The yellow one was egg, so I hadn't picked badly really!
My shopping done, we didn't really know what we wanted to do next. We walked around some more, and decided to check out the Marais, the neighbourhood where we were staying. It was really nice, lots of people, little shops (mainly touristy crap, but nice ones too), generally a good atmosphere. When we entered Les Halles, the big mall there, we found out there was a Q&A with Eric Cantona, a soccer-player turned actor. We checked it out and stayed for a while, but since Mr B doesn't understand French that well, and it was too fast for me too, we left after we found out mr Cantona wouldn't be doing a signing session. We did take some pictures of ourselves with him in the background...
We found a pub for dinner and had the worst meal I've ever had in france. I had "andouilette", which is chitterling. It wasn't that bad, but they put so much sauce on it it didn't taste like anything but the sauce. Mr B had spare ribs, but they were so dried out, you could have broken a window by throwing them. And the strangest thing about this meal? I added some salt to my fries, and they got LESS salty. I don't know what was in that pot, but it certainly wasn't salt!
This pub might have good beer (I don't know, I don't drink it), but it certainly doesn't have good food!
On our way back, we stopped at the local supermarket for some snacks and drinks, and then went to bed.
Wednesday was traveling and Disney day. We arrived at Disneyland around 11.30, checked into the hotel and went straight to the park. We both hadn't been to Disney in several years, so we did all the things you "have" to see.
"Sleeping Beauty's castle", "Peter Pan", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Indiana Jones", "Big Thunder Mountain", "Phantom Manor", "Space Mountain", "Buzz Lightyear's Laser blast"... Everything except Fantasyland, because we were coming back the next day anyway. We got tipped about having dinner at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant. An all you can eat buffet, but the we found the quality poor. Most foods were either fatty or sweet, and there were too little vegetables for our taste. The canneloni was good though, and so were the chicken wings. Too bad they ran out of jello before we went for desset, I just love the stuff. Hmm, I think I might make some tomorrow...
That night, we went to check out the shops. We're always on the lookout for nice Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, so we were quickly drooling over the nice NBC things... After a visit to the Arcarde we went for a swim. A very SHORT swim," as the water was just freezing, and we weren't allowed in the much warmer jaccuzi for some reason. So, within ten minutes we were having a shower and went to our room.
Thursday started us at Walt Disney Studios Park. We went to see "Stitch Live", which was awesome! Mr B is now officially "Crazy M", just escaped from Space Prison. Very nicely done, and really funny.
"Armageddon" was so-and-so, but "Art of Disney Animation" was really cool, and "Crush's Coaster was Awesome, totally! It was a loooong wait though, but worth it. After an hour or three we were kinda done in this park, and we went back to Disneyland. We did "Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast" again, that ride is so much fun! We also did "Star Tours", "It's a small world" (That song is SO annoying!) and "Pirates" again, before having a wonderful meal at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. It's really cool sitting right beside the water, and seeing the boats from the ride come through. The food is caribbean in style, not too spicy and really good! Nice prices too, but I'd have gone anyway.
We decided to do the shopping tonight, so we could repack in peace. We bought NBC bronze statues, salt & papper shakers, pyjamas (they have really cool t-shirts), a shirt, socks, earrings and a book. We went kinda crazy I guess...
Friday we went to Val d'Europe, the shopping mall nearby. We wanted to do some outlet shopping there, but apparently outlets are allergic to anything above a size 8... I wanted some lingerie, but you guessed it, everything was too small. But, I did find something. At the outlet center, there's a stationery store, that had some punches on sale. I bought a star and a flower shape, for 2 euros each (about $3).
Then we were underway home... We had dinner at the Gare du Nord, a rather nice hamburger meal, and then got on the Thalys for Amsterdam. We were in a compartment with a large group of kids aged around 16, and they were pretty noisy. It didn't bother me, but one of the other passengers blew up after asking them to quiet down a couple of times. She got thoroughly ignored, and I can imagine how annoyed she was. She shouldn't have yelled like she did, but I can understand her sentiments.
Around 0.30 we got home, after a very nice honeymoon. We've got a few days off still, and then normal life will start again...
What a trip :P. Even studying in Paris, I haven't done all that there. By the way I hate andouillette (erk).
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