Yes Miss This is France 🇫🇷! June 18-July 1, 2023 (Disneyland Paris and other parts of France)

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

Today was check out day. So we all got up a little earlier so we would have time to drop off our bags at bell services. It was also rainy today, it was raining until around noon.

Here is an empty look at the lobby. We really liked Sequoia Lodge but didn't have time to enjoy any of the amenities. Both Brad and I had visions of relaxing a little in the lounge, walking the grounds, and even checking out other resorts but we were on the go. Being on the go was fun but tiring.

The lounge we never got to enjoy....

Breakfast this morning was at the Earl of Sandwich. It was pretty good but I think we all enjoyed our McDonald's breakfast a little better.

No walk down Main Street this morning, we were able to enjoy a covered walkway of the arcade, at least down to the hub. The plan was for T & A to go to Space Mt right away. B and I weren't feeling Space Mt, it is an uncomfortable ride for him and I had enough of going upside down. B & I decided to go on Buzz and wait for them. After we got off Buzz T & A were a couple people behind us. Turns out Space was closed but they had been told it would open soon. So we all rode Buzz again and then headed to Star Tours (it wasn't open) and by that time Space was open so T & A went on that. A rode twice in a row. B and I rode Buzz a couple more times.

After a lot of Buzz and meeting back up with T & A we headed over to Fantasyland, and saw the cool trolley. If B and I had been on our own we probably would have diverted and rode the trolley but there wasn't much interest from the others so we headed into Fantasyland.

Our fantastic Buzz pictures. I usually forget there is a picture and end up covering my face which is fine especially when I have a weird look on my face like here. It either looks like I'm scared or that I'm smelling something strange.

Brad's was slightly better.

We hemmed and hawed about bringing our rain covers for our shoes. In the end we brought them and I was glad. I hate walking around in squishy wet shoes & socks. Brad's are blue and mine were clear. Mine ripped when I took them off later, it was a bummer that they ripped but I have used them for at least 2 years and they had plenty of use at WDW. I do have two other back up pairs.

 

[PUSH]

June 22

Today was check out day. So we all got up a little earlier so we would have time to drop off our bags at bell services. It was also rainy today, it was raining until around noon.

Here is an empty look at the lobby. We really liked Sequoia Lodge but didn't have time to enjoy any of the amenities. Both Brad and I had visions of relaxing a little in the lounge, walking the grounds, and even checking out other resorts but we were on the go. Being on the go was fun but tiring.
View attachment 736201

The lounge we never got to enjoy....
View attachment 736202

Breakfast this morning was at the Earl of Sandwich. It was pretty good but I think we all enjoyed our McDonald's breakfast a little better.
View attachment 736203

No walk down Main Street this morning, we were able to enjoy a covered walkway of the arcade, at least down to the hub. The plan was for T & A to go to Space Mt right away. B and I weren't feeling Space Mt, it is an uncomfortable ride for him and I had enough of going upside down. B & I decided to go on Buzz and wait for them. After we got off Buzz T & A were a couple people behind us. Turns out Space was closed but they had been told it would open soon. So we all rode Buzz again and then headed to Star Tours (it wasn't open) and by that time Space was open so T & A went on that. A rode twice in a row. B and I rode Buzz a couple more times.
View attachment 736204View attachment 736205View attachment 736206

After a lot of Buzz and meeting back up with T & A we headed over to Fantasyland, and saw the cool trolley. If B and I had been on our own we probably would have diverted and rode the trolley but there wasn't much interest from the others so we headed into Fantasyland.
View attachment 736207

Our fantastic Buzz pictures. I usually forget there is a picture and end up covering my face which is fine especially when I have a weird look on my face like here. It either looks like I'm scared or that I'm smelling something strange.
View attachment 736208
Brad's was slightly better.
View attachment 736209

We hemmed and hawed about bringing our rain covers for our shoes. In the end we brought them and I was glad. I hate walking around in squishy wet shoes & socks. Brad's are blue and mine were clear. Mine ripped when I took them off later, it was a bummer that they ripped but I have used them for at least 2 years and they had plenty of use at WDW. I do have two other back up pairs.
View attachment 736210

I had never seen the covers for shoes until we were at Disney in June. I thought it was a genius invention.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

Here are a couple rainy castle pictures, even in the rain it is still gorgeous.

Peter Pan's line was about a 20 minute wait so we decided to do that. The umbrella worked very well for blocking the rain but I was a little jealous of my niece's rain jacket, I got a little cold. I even thought about throwing on my plastic poncho because that always make me hot. But I toughed it out, but I might look into getting a nice rain jacket in the future. I thought I bought a nice rain jacket at WDW once but it turned out to be more of a windbreaker and is not very waterproof which is why I didn't bring it.

Then we went to Snow White. We joked about going on Dumbo because the line only had a handful of people but we weren't really prepared to ride it in the rain.

I wanted to go on the tea cups next but I was out voted and we didn't end up going on them today which made me sad. The vote was to go on small world. I couldn't remember if I took a picture of the Canada scene before so I snapped one but I had because I posted it earlier. But really can one have enough of Canada? Right @amjt660 ?

We wanted to ride the train next and the Fantasyland station was closed so we headed back to the Main Street station. The character cavalcade was out and the characters were all wearing clear plastic rain gear which is pretty smart.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I had never seen the covers for shoes until we were at Disney in June. I thought it was a genius invention.

We've had them for a couple years. I read about it on the DIS Disneyland forums, which is weird because it never seems to rain at Disneyland (it has only rained for a short time 3 times I've been there). But I thought it was be great for WDW. The only time we had them fill with rain was when we rode Slinky Dog. I don't know if we didn't have the drawstring around the ankle secure or what but the water just seemed to stream down our legs and into the rainboots. They are great though, we never travel to WDW without them. And I've never taken or needed them in Disneyland. Oh and they are fairly cheap too.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

The wait wasn't too long for the train. The style of seating is different in DLP than it is at MK/DLR, it is more of a box with benches on three sides. We did a grand circle tour and then continued on to the Frontierland station. The cast member moved us to a different car when we stopped at Main Street again. The move was not good for me because I was the last one in the car, there were already people in it and the only seat available was really wet with rain, so now I had a soggy bottom.

Here is a view from the train station. Notice the logo is still from when it was Euro Disney.

Coming into the station....

Looking at the River from the train. I think this one is called Rivers of the Far West if I remember correctly (I could look it up but I'm being lazy!).

On the train.

Once back at the Frontierland Station we headed over to the Molly Brown boat and luckily they were just getting ready to load. We had a nice cruise on the river, and stayed under cover.

 

[PUSH]

We've had them for a couple years. I read about it on the DIS Disneyland forums, which is weird because it never seems to rain at Disneyland (it has only rained for a short time 3 times I've been there). But I thought it was be great for WDW. The only time we had them fill with rain was when we rode Slinky Dog. I don't know if we didn't have the drawstring around the ankle secure or what but the water just seemed to stream down our legs and into the rainboots. They are great though, we never travel to WDW without them. And I've never taken or needed them in Disneyland. Oh and they are fairly cheap too.

Last year we were walking by Slinky when it was lightly raining. The ride was down, probably for thunder/lightning, but just happened to open back up as we were walking by. So we got to walk right on to Slinky and rode it in the rain. It was actually probably the most fun I've had on that ride. The rain was just heavy enough to feel it as you're zipping around, but just light enough to not make it miserable.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

A few more pictures from the scenery along the river. I really like the geyser area and the rock arch.

I think I mentioned before we had thought about eating lunch at the little food stands at the Studios but because of the possibility of rain we decided to keep our reservation for the Plaza. We didn't think eating in the rain would be fun. We were correct. The check in to the Plaza took quite awhile and didn't seem too organized, but soon we were seated. I think the placemat and napkin were festive.

Here's a look at the seating area around us.

The meal was a buffet and here is a sampling of what I ate. The buffet had a decent variety and the food was good for a buffet. It wasn't as good as Pym's but we all found stuff we liked. We all agreed that breakfast might have been better because there are characters at breakfast.

I think the potato Mickey's were super fun and they were tasty.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I have long maintained that DLP is the most beautiful of all castle parks. Your photos are proving me correct. Just beautiful! Thank you.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

The deserts were pretty good at the Plaza, except for the macarons. They were dry but they had a nice design on them. Ice cream was available too but you had to ask for it and it came prepackaged in a cup. So in the end we were pleased with our Plaza lunch and now we can say we have eat at 3 different Disney Plaza restaurants.

After were were done with lunch it had stopped raining and it didn't look like it would start again since it was sunny with blue skies. So we found a bench in the arcade nearby and removed our rain shoes. This was a window display in this arcade.

Then we rode Phantom Manor one last time and I got stuck near the singing busts (lower left corner) and the Frontierland town scene.

Then we moved a couple feet and got stuck in front of this guy. His voice is that of the regular ghost host in the American parks. He was saying the "Ah there you are" line.

Our last ride was Big Thunder Mt. The line was long but Brad bought a premium pass for it because we all wanted to ride it but didn't want to wait in line, we hadn't wanted to ride it in the rain, and the ride picture was actually working today. Then we headed out of the park, did a little last minute shopping and got our VAT tax refund document at Guest Relations. I told B to keep his receipts for the tax refund and he didn't listen to me but the rest of us got a decent amount back.

Then we made it to the Sequoia, got our bags and waited for our driver to pick us up. I hired the same service that we had used to arrive from the airport. I really liked this company the driver was early again by about 10 minutes and drove us safely to our apartment rental in Paris. So goodbye DLP and Sequoia!
This is the last picture I took at DLP, I guess I liked the design on the door handle?

The ride into Paris was uneventful, which is good, although traffic was fairly heavy. B & T napped most of the way but A and I enjoyed looking out the window, especially as we got into Paris itself. At one point in the city we stopped in front of a flower shop and I thought the display was pretty.

Our apartment was in the Saint Germain area of Paris. It was a fantastic location, near metro stations and lots of places to eat and shop. If you look up the famous cafes of Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots our apartment was on a small side street about a block or so away from them.

When we arrived at the apartment the managers were there, apparently there was a plumbing issue. The first manager started talking to me about it in rapid French when I said hello to them in French. I was only able to catch a few words but I was able to use a little of my very basic French to tell him I didn't speak French and asked for English. He went and got the female manager I had talked to the other day. They only expected the plumbing issue to last an hour and offered to buy a coffee for us at a cafe if we needed to use a rest room, but we were all okay. And sure enough an hour later the plumbing issue whatever it was, was fixed.

So we hauled our suitcases up the winding 64 steps to the top floor where our apartment was. The apartment was 2 levels and thankfully the bedrooms were on the first level and the living room and kitchen were on the second. I guess I had misread the explanation of the apartment and it turns out there was only one toilet but that worked out okay. But there were two showers, one in each bedroom. Which the shower in the bedroom seemed weird and maybe it is but it worked out great. The showers did look to be different sizes so we took the bedroom with the larger shower. But the apartment did have the washer/dryer that we were wanted.

Here is a picture of the living room area.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

Here are a few more pictures of the interior of the apartment, they are screen shots from the VRBO (vacation rental) site. I thought I took some more interior pictures myself but I can't seem to find them. I know I have a picture of the steps up to our apartment somewhere and the view from the windows, when I find them in the camera roll I'll post.

Also for those of you that were just reading for Disneyland Paris, that part of the report is over now. So now it will be Paris, Loire Valley, and Normandy. I will point out Disney related things in some posts though.

This was the toilet area. There was one roll of toilet paper and one extra for the 9 nights for four of us....I had brought one of our double rolls from home just in case. Well not to provide too much info but that was not enough.

This was mine and B's bedroom. The beds were double/full sized. Smaller than all of us are used to but it worked. Also the bedding pictured here was not what we had it was plain white and a little scratchy. My pillow was pretty flat and I let B have the one extra and I used my airplane blanket folded up to bolster my pillow. Also there were just enough bath towels (1 extra that T & A used as a hand towel in their room) and no hand towels or wash cloths. B and I ended up buying a hand towel at the Louvre so we had a hand towel and didn't have to use our bath towel anymore for hand washing.

This was our shower area and it was nice to have a sink in the room too. Both bedrooms were about 3 steps from the toilet area.

Probably a more accurate picture of the bedding.

This was the stairs leading to the living room/kitchen area. This also had the closet and storage area. There were no closets in the bedrooms. We had some small dresserlike like things and T & A's had some built in shelves.

Horses were a big theme in the apartment

Living room area

Kitchen. No bananas were supplied for us (which was fine) and no green plant or hand towel either. The washer/dryer was located under the microwave.

This was T & A's room. Their bedding ended up being plain white like ours too with cruddy pillows but they had been smart and squeezed in some old pillows from home into their suitcases.

While there were certain things we would have preferred to have in the apartment, like more towels and better pillows and less stairs. It was a fine apartment. The price we paid for the location we got was more than enough. It was very clean too, although my sister insisted on spraying everything with a spray of Lysol disinfectant. Some of which settled into film on the countertops and she did not wipe it off so we had to clean it because the smell of the Lysol spray was so strong I was starting to get a headache and scratchy throat from it within a couple minutes of her spraying it. Luckily she didn't spray it again, I guess it was finally clean enough.

Up next our first dinner in Paris and our first trip to the Eiffel Tower.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

They did a holiday one at DS a few years back, so they have the tech there.

I saw that at Disney Springs and thought it was a nice holiday show. I was looking forward to seeing more drone tech at WDW but it hasn't happened yet, maybe some day.

I have long maintained that DLP is the most beautiful of all castle parks. Your photos are proving me correct. Just beautiful! Thank you.

Yes, it really is a beautiful. Thanks for the compliment on the pictures.

 

[amjt660]

But really can one have enough of Canada? Right @amjt660 ?

Notice the logo is still from when it was Euro Disney.

Nice catch!!

So we hauled our suitcases up the winding 64 steps to the top floor where our apartment was.

Love the fact you actually counted the number of steps!!


And with respect to these two pics.....

(too easy - going let this one go)


Max

 

[Kevin_W]

I love the rainy/empty streets pics of Main Street.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Nice catch!!


Love the fact you actually counted the number of steps!!


And with respect to these two pics.....

View attachment 736431View attachment 736432


(too easy - going let this one go)


Max

Counting the steps was one way to get myself up there. I was comforted though that my sister, who is only 5 years older than me but much thinner than than me, had a more difficult time with the steps. I suppose that is a bad sister thing to say, but tt made me feel less out of shape.

Kind of curious on the zingers you could have come up with for our Buzz pictures but that's ok.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I love the rainy/empty streets pics of Main Street.

I didn't mind the rain because it did make the park feel empty, until we got to covered areas!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 22

We decided to walk over to the Eiffel Tower after settling into the apartment and unpacking. It was a little longer than we had expected but with all the walking at DLP we were up to it. Eventually we came to a parklike area that gave some good views and even our first sight of the Tower (not that I took a picture in that direction)

All of us were getting hungry so we headed to Rue Cler, it is an area that Rick Steve's (he is a well known travel expert for Europe for those not in the know) recommends. B and I had visited this street on our previous trip and had found it fun. Once we got there most of the shops were closing for the day but the restaurants were open. A was being really picky on the menus of restaurants, even when we looked at some before we got to Rue Cler, so the rest of us made a joint decision and just picked one.

On the previous visit to this street this flower shop had a huge display of peonies and my favorite flower are peonies so of course I had taken a picture. That picture was one of my favorite pictures of that whole trip, it was on my background for a long time. I was hoping for peonies again since it was around the similar time period. No peonies but there were still some pretty flowers/plants on display.

At the restaurant there was a special martini that caught my eye and I knew I had to order it off of the name alone.

I thought it was unique to the restaurant but I did see it other places in France. It was tasty though.

I got a steak that was on special and it came with a gorgonzola sauce and I'm not a huge blue cheese/gorgonzola fan but I decided to give it a try. The whole meal was good. The potatoes were roasted nicely too, with a little crisp but softness inside. I don't remember what everyone got, although I remember I got Bolognese. It was decent, she let me have a taste.

We made it over to the Champs de Mars and the Eiffel Tower. There was a huge concert going on in the auditorium there, I guess it was a free concert (people got tickets by a lottery system) but it had lot of big names like Lenny Kravitz and Billy Eilish and other. There was also an area constructed for some big equestrian event too. There was A LOT of activity! But we finally made it to the part of the park to get a good view of the Eiffel Tower.

Turns out the Eiffel Tower is bent just like on Soarin!

Just kidding! I was trying to do a panoramic shot of the Tower, and I thought I had nailed it but as I looked back at pictures later I saw that I didn't. But when I saw the picture I quickly showed Brad and we both made jokes about Soarin'.

Here's a proper picture of the Eiffel Tower.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Since I mentioned my favorite Paris peony picture I thought I would include it here.

 

[amjt660]

At the restaurant there was a special martini that caught my eye and I knew I had to order it off of the name alone.

Wait, I didn't call for a plumber!! - but I will have a martini!!

Turns out the Eiffel Tower is bent just like on Soarin!

It looks like it is trying to escape by walking down the hill!!

1) Quick Brad - more striking Disney CMs !
2) l'empereur zurg fait peur !!
3) Amy: I don't know if I can do this !!
Brad: The second amendment says we can!!!


Max

 

[fractal]

Catching up. Such a stunning park!

I wonder how long until a drone show for WDW.

I LOLed at the Eiffel tower.

 

[MinnieM123]

All of us were getting hungry so we headed to Rue Cler, it is an area that Rick Steve's (he is a well known travel expert for Europe for those not in the know) recommends. B and I had visited this street on our previous trip and had found it fun. Once we got there most of the shops were closing for the day but the restaurants were open. A was being really picky on the menus of restaurants, even when we looked at some before we got to Rue Cler, so the rest of us made a joint decision and just picked one.

You can't ever go wrong with a recommendation from Rick Steve! (What caught my eye there was the brick street -- very nice.)