Disneyland Paris (and Paris in general) Trip Report

brifraz · Aug 23, 2024

Hello all!! Yup, I'm going to put together a Brifraz trip report for our family adventure in Paris and at Disneyland Paris.

I have a feeling that this may take a while, so don't get your hopes up for a normal paced Brifraz 'live' report. We got back from our trip a couple days ago and I'm right back into my 'normal' daily life of teaching. Technically, I don't report for duty until Monday morning, when we begin the dreaded week of meetings prior to students returning. But, in case you don't already know, I'm the band director and marching band has already been up and rolling since late July and last night was a (seriously jet-lagged) rehearsal from 5-9pm. Looking at my calendar for the next month or so, there's not a whole lot of opportunities to dig through all our pictures and get posts put together. But, I'll do my best to give you the finest in dribs and drabs until I finally get to our last (quite exciting) morning that was teased in my DLP for a Rookie thread.

Just some general notes to set this up for everyone while I wait to start going through pictures and piecing together what we actually did!! This trip has been in the making for quite a few years. We took a family trip to the UK in 2015 (if you want a taste of UK Brifraz trip reporting... https://fraziersuk2015.blogspot.com/2015/03/basic-trip-overview.html) and soon after were planning a trip to mainland Europe. We had plans for visiting at least 6 or 7 countries and riding the rails across much of Western Europe. At some point, it got put on the back burner behind trying a cruise. And then behind Alaska. It started to build up some planning steam in early 2020, and then... well, like everything else, it got totally shelved. Our daughter did a term abroad in Spain in 2022, which wasn't the best experience, but did revive our hopes of visiting some other parts of Europe. Given time and financial constraints, we narrowed the focus to our top priority city, Paris. The coincidence of a Disney resort nearby certainly didn't hurt.

When our daughter applied for DCP for this Spring into Summer, we decided it was time to make this happen and carefully scheduled an 8 day trip to Paris and DLP around all our other August commitments. When I say carefully scheduled, I really mean it. I have two weeks of marching band camp every summer and this year's calendar meant they would be late July through August 9, so it had to be after that, but before we report for normal school on August 26 AND fit into our daughter's schedule which includes brief trips to Cape Cod (currently), and Seattle (directly from Cape Cod next week), and then a visit to Mexico as part of her job with the music department at college (and the following week after Seattle).

So, we shoehorned in 4 days in downtown Paris and then 3+ days in DLP. While flights and hotel were booked back in January, the details didn't really come together until a few weeks before the trip. If you've read any of my prior reports, you know that we like to plan and it was a bit odd that these plans were vague at best until so close to traveling. But (spoiler alert), the trip turned out great and we hit all the things we most wanted to do and then some!

ajrwdwgirl · Aug 23, 2024

Looking forward to seeing some pictures and hearing about your DLP adventures.

Swissmiss · Aug 23, 2024

Can‘t wait to read more.

Sorry to learn that your daughter’s experience wasn’t the greatest.

brifraz · Aug 23, 2024

Swissmiss said:
Can‘t wait to read more.

Sorry to learn that your daughter’s experience wasn’t the greatest.

Thanks. So... Santander, Spain was her term abroad location. She's not a party kid and that is a party town. Especially in the summer. And of the other 8 kids in the program with her, only one was a friend. Her host family was nice enough, but their two early 20s sons were also both very into the party/club scene. It just wasn't a comfortable situation and just coming out of Covid times, even moreso. In the end, I'm pretty sure that she is glad she did it, but didn't really enjoy it (her classes were very good, it was just everything else that was less than stellar). Very glad, though, that it didn't kill her enjoyment of traveling!!

Swissmiss · Aug 24, 2024

brifraz said:
Thanks. So... Santander, Spain was her term abroad location. She's not a party kid and that is a party town. Especially in the summer. And of the other 8 kids in the program with her, only one was a friend. Her host family was nice enough, but their two early 20s sons were also both very into the party/club scene. It just wasn't a comfortable situation and just coming out of Covid times, even moreso. In the end, I'm pretty sure that she is glad she did it, but didn't really enjoy it (her classes were very good, it was just everything else that was less than stellar). Very glad, though, that it didn't kill her enjoyment of traveling!!

Totally understand her disappointing experience. I too, would not have been very excited to be in area like that.

brifraz · Aug 25, 2024

Alrighty, then. Let's get on the road to Paris before I'm on the road to school tomorrow morning!!! While the first half of this report won't technically be a Disney TR, I hope everyone enjoys our little adventures.

It all began on Tuesday, 8/13. In the morning, we finished up getting things packed - both for our trip and for our daughter's ensuing trips and college. Sadly for us (but happily for out bank account), it was much cheaper to fly out of Newark, NJ than anywhere close to us and a 3 hour drive isn't all that terrible. Around 2pm we hit the road to Newark and got into the airport, ready to travel by right around 5pm. Grabbed a bit to eat in the airport - wouldn't quite call it a meal, but at least it was food!

A little frustration in the airport as IcelandAir evidently has some very, very specific rules about carry-on baggage. Well, at least some rules that they appear to apply to people seemingly at random. While our bags were certainly appropriate sized and our 'totally full flight' had multiple empty seats (including the one next to me), we were told that our bags would have to be gate checked. Not quite what we had planned for in packing, so there was some frantic re-packing on the floor by the gate. But eventually we got on and all settled.

Managed to enjoy some "uncommon" wine on the flight.

There was a little concern about making our connection in Keflavik airport, but luckily customs and passport control was extremely quick. Which gave us a few minutes to just casually walk to our gate and get some nice pics along the way.

It also meant that we had a few minutes to grab a very healthy and HUGE late night snack/breakfast (yeah, the three of us shared this).

And then hop into the line to board the flight to Paris. Second flight was smooth as well and we landed at Charles de Gaulle airport a few minutes early at just about 1pm local time. None of us got great sleep on the flights, but we at least got a little bit during the overnight so we were ready to enjoy our first afternoon/evening. First up, was getting to our hotel in downtown. After some initial confusion with the ticket kiosk, we got all set on the RoissyBus, which dropped off within a couple blocks of our hotel. And pretty promptly, we were on the road into town. See you in Paris!

brifraz · Aug 25, 2024

It's Paris time! hotel is just a couple blocks from the Opera House. Which looks absolutely beautiful and majestic from the side.

While the front is... in true Disney fashion... covered with a printed scrim.

A few floors up in the hotel, here's the view from the room. The large building directly across from us is now a business building, but used to be another theatre a little over a hundred years ago.

And, the room itself. A little bigger than we had been expecting - which is a very good thing with the three of us!!

We got into our room actually a few minutes before official check-in time, which was nice. We were all tired from the travel and knew that we were planning a busy night, so took about an hour nap to get our brains and bodies right! Once we had rested, we headed just a block away to our 'local' cafe, the Dalayrac. That's the front of the former theatre in the background of our beverages.

After dinner, we headed the couple of blocks into the heart of tourist-land. With the Olypmics having just wrapped up and the Para-lympics just about to start, there was a higher level of chaos in the city centre than usual - and certainly a far higher than usual number of closed roads (and sadly, closed gardens - the Tuileries). Just to prove that we were there when we said we were, here's the Olympic cauldron sitting (behind a number of fences and heavily armed guards).

Our first evening in Paris destination was still about two miles walk away, but it was just starting to peek at us from behind other buildings and the museums along the Seine.

jinx8402 · Aug 26, 2024

brifraz said:
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Hey look, its the Eiffel Tower on top of a rooftop. This must have been a mix-up on your part and and a picture of Epcot

brifraz · Aug 31, 2024

Let's get ourselves to that tower! We took a somewhat leisurely walk along the Seine to get there, taking in as many of the sights as we could.

And being a little bummed out at times that the security perimeters for the Olympics were still in place (thus, not able to get closer to this one).

But, after that long walk, we found ourselves here!

We had splurged a bit for a guided tour and full access, so we headed off to meet our tour guide. Got lots of great history of the tower and definitely enjoyed learning a bit more about it. And, after the security queue and then the elevator queue, we were up on the 2nd floor and taking in the view.

@MeffysMom is not terribly positive about heights and we had to stand so-as to block her view during the elevator rides, but eventually we found ourselves up at the top. She only ventured to the edge for a few seconds, but we did get some nice pictures up there!

Just an incredible view in all directions... and very kind of the sun to do it's setting at the right time!

It was pretty crowded up there, so we headed back down somewhat quickly and then wandered around the tower grounds and area for a bit before setting off back to our hotel. Those pictures will be up soon!

brifraz · Aug 31, 2024

While we did consider hanging out right at the tower for the illumination (for those that don't know, they do tons of twinkle lights on the tower at certain times after dark, starting at 10pm on this night), we were pretty tired and knew we had a long walk ahead of us. In hindsight, it likely would've been smarter to hang out there and then get some kind of ride back to the hotel, but... well, we are a bit crazy and another 4+ miles of walking was what we decided to do!

Well, after a few obligatory 'this thing is so cool' pictures of the tower with it's normal nighttime lighting.

We enjoyed our stroll for a bit and made sure to find ourselves on a bridge at 10pm to get some good pictures (and some video as well). You can't tell all that might, but it is pretty impressive and beautiful.

And then one last parting picture a little ways further along when the next illumination happened.

We also started to realize that we hadn't eaten in a few hours and since our meals had been a bit off all day, we stopped at a little shop and picked up some bread and cheese to enjoy back in our room. Not a whole lot of excitement as we walked. We had planned to walk through the Tuileries gardens either on our way to or back from the tower, but it was still fully closed due to the Olympics.

However, we did have one very interesting sight along the walk back. We had noticed while way up in the tower that we saw a couple motorcades of police vehicles and large black vans or sedans. Obviously, some important folks were still in town from the Olympics. And, almost back to our hotel (just around the corner from the Louvre), a similar motorcade passed us. In fact, it was quite grand.

While that picture only has 4 or maybe 5 police vehicles in it, we counted. There were 28 in line moving together. No other vehicles (at least that we noticed) just a steady string of 28 police vehicles.

By the time we got back into our room it was about 11:30pm and we were crazy tired and hungry. Enjoyed our bread and cheese and got to sleep pretty quickly. Needed to get some rest as our first full day in Paris was going to be 'all museums, all the time.' Au revior, a bientot!

cgersic · Sep 6, 2024

Wow, I just stumbled across this and soooo happy I did! It looks amazing so far and I can't wait to see/hear about the rest! Your wife and daughter look like twins in the plane photo

brifraz · Sep 8, 2024

Time for our first FULL day in Paris (as if our flying in and then walking to and from the Eiffel Tower wasn't a 'full' day), which is all about visiting the museums. The two biggies - the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay. Seeing as the previous night had exhausted us, the girls slept in for a bit and I (who am unable to sleep in), got up and headed to the closest Eric Keyser patisserie for some breakfast goodies.

We had Louvre entrance reservations at 10am, but decided to take the scenic route and walked there through the Jardin de Palais Royal and enjoy the cool Paris morning.

It was a nice, low key, way to start off the morning before the big crowds of the museums. After walking around the gardens for a little, we headed to the Louvre. Oh, look... there it is!

It was a little confusing figuring out exactly where we were supposed to enter with our reserved visit time, but eventually we found our way down underneath and through the little underground mall and into the museum.

I'm going to hold off on posting pictures of all the art until my next post where I'll just do a mass post of art pictures from the Louvre. Instead, I'll just share that we spent a couple hours walking around and enjoying things. It was pretty crowded and the crowds didn't move terribly well, but we got to see all the things we wanted to make sure to see.

For those who have never been, the Louvre is HUGE. If you want to actually see everything, it's definitely a couple days and quite a few hours in each of those days. This is the view from one corner looking toward the other side - note that you are only seeing about 1/3 of the whole building and (obviously) none of the underground portions.

By the time we finished exploring, we were famished, but it took us a little while to get out - a couple of the exits were blocked off due to some emergency (never figured out what it was). We didn't want to go far before refueling ourselves, so we stopped in the little underground Louvre mall and grabbed some pad thai - not terribly picture worthy!! But, as you can see, we were obviously much refreshed and looking happy to start walking over to our next stop.

brifraz · Sep 8, 2024

Let's check out some art from the Louvre! Just a few highlights (or at least things that we thought were highlights).

One of the pieces from the French crown jewels.

A little winged victory. Not totally sure how @MeffysMom got this picture as there were large crowds all around it all the time.

Surprisingly, the crowds were not quite so crazy (although it certainly was crowded) around the Venus de Milo. Evidently, looking at her backside doesn't draw the same crowd!

Of course, no visit to the Louvre is complete without seeing the Mona Lisa. We opted not to actually go into the room since it was solid humanity from wall to wall, but here it is!

brifraz · Sep 8, 2024

While this was our museum day, we planned a rather circuitous route to get from one to the other to visit a site that sadly is still quite unaccessible.

If you already know your way around Paris, you might have figured out our destination already. That's the heart of France, the Ile de la Cite. In my mind, that boat is the same one that you ride on under Pont Neuf in Impressions de France (okay, so maybe it's going the opposite direction and it's mid-day instead of late evening, but still...).

Of course, our walk is taking us to Notre Dame. Now, had it been open, we would've planned half a day there, but since all you can really do is walk around the exterior (and not even all of that) it was just a part of our path across the river. However, it is still stunning!

Once across the river, we had one more little pit stop before the next museum visit (reserved time, of course) and that was one our daughter really wanted to do. A true French cheese shop. So, we diverted a little bit out of the way to pay a visit to Fromagerie Laurent DuBois. After walking through and looking at every cheese they had, we opted for a simple cheese plate. Much to zero surprise, I was the only one who really liked the stinkier, softer French cheeses. The big winner with the girls was the aged gouda. Sadly, no pictures of the cheese!

But one last picture for this post from a little garden along our path to Musee d'Orsay.

It might be a little while before I get to our next stop in the TR as the next four weeks all include a full slate of marching band activities, so my weekends are pretty booked up. But, I'll try to find some time to sort through some pictures and get you a visit to Musee d'Orsay soon!

ajrwdwgirl · Sep 8, 2024

Been to the Louvre on two different trips and it is so impressive. There is so much we never saw. We hit a lot of the same highlights as you. Last time though there was a queue line set up for Mona, that was nice it wasn't just a crush of people. We couldn't see the crown jewels last time though because it was too warm and they closed down the room, which I was sad about because that and Napoleon's apartments were two of my favorites.

I did like the Orsay better than the Louvre, Impressionism is more my style.

Kevin_W · Sep 9, 2024

We were in Paris a little under 2 years ago - Notre Dame is much farther along now! I know it's expected to reopen some time in 2025, It's great to see the progress.

Did you visit Sainte-Chapelle, which is nearby? Highly worth it!

brifraz · Sep 29, 2024

Okay, for those of you who have been following this only partially Disney trip report, I've very sorry for the 3 week delay in getting back to you. And, honestly, even tonight I'm a bit exhausted and pondered just waiting and trying to do some more reporting later in the week. BUT, I have a feeling that it's not going to get terribly better, so I'm pushing through. Yup, the struggle is real. (in all seriousness, been at school about 60 hours this past week and that's with taking a 'sick' day on Wednesday to deal with car repairs)

Enough about my day-to-day life, let's get back to Paris!! We were on our walk to the Musee d'Orsay to take in some more culture when I left you. For anyone who isn't familiar, the museum is built in an old train station and is just a beautiful building to begin with!

We spent a few hours enjoying the exhibits, which were much more 'our style' than at the Louvre. I'm going to do a second post with a number of art photos for those interested, but right here I'll continue on with the day. In addition to all the art, the view from the upper level of the museum is exceptional!

And the little restaurant/cafeteria also has an excellent view!

After getting filled up on culture, it was time to get filled up on food. We walked back across the Seine and shopped for a creperie somewhere nearby. Of course, there were quite a few, but the reviews of Happy Caffe really intrigued us. And, it lived up to those reviews. The crepes were delicious and the drinks as well, but the highlight was the very entertaining owner/waiter who claimed to be Tom Cruise. Very entertaining!

I think he figured out where we were from!

We decided that before heading back to the room, we would hit up a streetside cafe for one more adult beverage for the evening. And this little spot right back near the Louvre had some very good drinks - although, it was a let down being back to the more standard level of French service (perhaps Tom Cruise spoiled us a bit).

After our drinks, we were getting pretty tired after a lot of walking and knowing that the next morning was going to be somewhat early and include a lot more walking. So, we headed back to the hotel and got ourselves some good sleep.

brifraz · Sep 29, 2024

Musee d'Orsay art!!

And that's just 10 of about 100 that we took. We are definitely a family of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art fans!

Hopefully it won't be three weeks before I get back to you. Our next day features a LOT of walking all over the city!

ajrwdwgirl · Sep 29, 2024

brifraz said:
Musee d'Orsay art!!

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And that's just 10 of about 100 that we took. We are definitely a family of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art fans!

Hopefully it won't be three weeks before I get back to you. Our next day features a LOT of walking all over the city!

The Orsay is more my speed too. I have been to the Orsay and the Louvre twice but I don't know if I would need to go to the Louvre again but I would go to the Orsay.

brifraz · Oct 13, 2024

Finally getting back here to share our third day with everyone! This was a big walking day and started very early. Once again, I was first awake and walked to the patisserie (Eric Keyser again) to pick up some breakfast goodness.