Some Everyday Things

We are one stop away from Disneyland Paris via RER, but these photos give an idea of how far that is. There is a big air balloon that flies over Disney Village, similar to the one at Downtown Disney in Orlando, but I believe the one here came first. The top is the view from our apartment window, if you enlarge the photo you should be able to see a tiny red-yellow dot above the building on the left. The bottom photo was taken right next to the castle in the park and you can see the tiny red-yellow dot pretty close to center of the photo.

I love their grocery carts here! This one is posing with the cereal brands we're familiar with at home. You can either carry one of those baskets around by itself, or you can load it onto the black cart. Going to purchase tall things? Just put a basket in the bottom! But as the sign in the photo on the right shows, don't put too much weight in the carts! That happens to be the bottled beverage aisle where we find our Coca Cola Light.

Haven't gotten too adventurous with cooking here! Thought it would be fun to try this version of a croque monsier. Didn't have quite the same taste as the one we enjoyed at the Trocadero, but it was still good. :)

When I arrived, Josh had a few staples around like cereal, milk, and sugar. I saw this box and wondered, "Daddy Prime Time?!" Who knows!

 

A funny spot for a door knob! I pass this door whenever I go to meet Josh at work for lunch or dinner.

Soon I'll have some more things to share including our trip to the Louvre, Shakespeare and Company book store, Luxembourg Gardens, and our night at the Opera! This week Josh's co-worker Kevin is in town and we've been having a lot of fun together. This weekend, the three of us are planning on heading out to Giverny to see Monet's house and gardens.

Today I'm headed into Paris to meet a new friend! Camille of Papermode is going to meet me at a metro station, we'll have lunch, and then she's going to show me a street full of paper shops! Can't wait!

Our Sunday at the Parks

It's Disneyland Paris! This is a view of the castle from the side after viewing the grisly (but not too scary) dragon underneath. Josh and I just saw the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" on Tuesday in Version Originale (English with French subtitles) so we know that dragons are our friends!

Beautifully themed ticket booth & Gallery alongside/ behind Main Street. They have one of these behind the shops on either side of Main Street. This was heading toward the entrance when a parade was going on - so nice to have a clear exit! We saw glimpses of a parade as well as a stage show and both looked excellent, we'll be back again another day just for those.

Front of le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant, taken from Main Street, USA. Wouldn't be Disneyland without a choo-choo, right? I thought these candied apples would have been fitting next to the Snow White attraction, but these are in the heart of Discoveryland. In general Disneyland is themed to America, so I wondered if the candied apples were something thought of as a typical American snack, but I saw a bunch of them at Auchan (that hypermarket I mentioned a couple posts ago) so they must be the usual around here? We didn't get one (I'm allergic to apples!) but noticed several people having a hard time biting through the candy shell.

Loved the style and colors of these attraction posters. The lights reflected in the glass are from the main entrance turnstiles. 

More posters, thought that the steam coming out of the coffee cup was a nice touch.

And, more posters! These were in that gallery behind the Main Street shops.

The Nautilus was a walk through attraction and was one of my favorites. You walk down a stairway into a dark hallway and have no idea what is coming, whether it's a ride or if there's a big octopus waiting down there for you! To my delight it was a tour of sorts of the watercraft. Filled with treasure, furniture, books, luxurious rugs and musical instruments. about half way through there is a large round window where you can see an octopus is about to attack, or is it? Maybe they're our friends like those dragons ;).

I didn't know what I was looking at in the second photo since I'm used to our bright white mountain in Florida! Space Mountain is an explosion of color & I can't wait to ride it! It looks like you start out shooting through that tube on the right which can be seen in both photos.

The wonderful exterior of Videopolis makes way for a lunch spot! I didn't know what to expect inside, but it's where we took a break for a Fanta, which for the record tasted more like OJ and less like pop as it does in the US. The crazy thing about this place was that it was SO quiet! There were a ton of people in there enjoying their food with their eyes glued to the giant movie screen! We joined them and enjoyed the quiet. They have those old cartoons playing at a couple locations in Disney World, but I've never actually watched one all the way through. We sat through two here, and they were highly enjoyable!

Big Thunder Mountain was on its own island! You board the trains in Frontierland and then you speed down through the cold darkness and zoom up into the light and you're on the mountain! Somehow it felt like it lasted longer than the ride in Florida, probably because we didn't know what was coming next! Josh and I agreed that our favorite part was getting to and from the mountain.

Pirate's Beach, a playground for the kiddos with Skull Rock as a backdrop. Star Tours, oddly located in Disneyland Park with a very different, but awesome facade, was the exact same ride as in FL. We almost tricked ourselves into thinking we were home and had imagined our whole trip. Then the little robot said everything in French, so that was cleared up pretty quickly! Then Spooky Phantom Manor! A very grand entrance... how much should I tell?? Can I say that the stretching room might actually be stretching?!

Another piece of photographic evidence of Josh's great aiming skills, and p.s. we were really there!

We got over to Walt Disney Studios Park at the end of the day and it felt like everything was closing. We'll have to start out there next trip. There was a five minute wait for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, so I hopped in line and had a thrill! We also did the Armageddon attraction, which except for a spiel by Michael Clarke Duncan was all in French. It really could have been Armageddon for all we knew, and we would have just giggled along with anything that happened.

We've only just scratched the surface, so I'm sure there will be more Disney posts to come! Let us know if you have any specific questions about the parks for us to find out or if there's anything you want a picture of :)

I'm off to do the oh-so-French task of finishing our laundry and then I might go get a haircut, after brushing up on hair salon vocab, of course!

Paris Tour Avec Les Cars Rouges

Brunch at the Creperie down the street. I had no idea they would be so big! That's Josh's in the foreground on the left. It had potatoes and chicken in it among other things, and mine across the table had spinach and smoked salmon in it. The waitress helped us decide on our beverage of cider which she told us contained un peau de l'alcohol, and that nothing tasted better with crepes. Josh and I generally don't drink, so our description might not be accurate, but I would say that if beer could taste fresh that's what it was like! See that beauty in the top right? That was my second crepe! Oh yes, I had another! We both ordered one savory and one sweet at the beginning of the meal. We ate slowly with a break in between, so luckily we didn't feel stuffed afterward! Anyway - inside of that Chantilly topped golden triangle was chocolate, bananas, and coconut! The coconut had the slightest bit of saltiness to it which made for the perfect combination of flavors. (Josh learned at work that whipped cream is called Chantilly after the French town that is well known for it.)

After our outdoor brunch we took the train into Paris and found the closest big red bus! We had read about a couple different tour buses, but this seemed to have the most consistent positive review.

It seemed like every corner we turned there was a proud man and his horse!

Lots of wheeled things to be seen! On top are the bicycles that we can access with our train pass, which seems like an amazing service, but I only saw people riding in the middle of busy roads without a helmet in sight. Luckily I don't imagine that we'll need to see anything in a hurry, so we'll probably just let our dogs take us around! A cutie pink car, many petite modes of transport here. And a little round-about of sorts that conveniently doubled as scooter parking. They all seemed very fancy, probably because the sun was shining on them just so, and we were in Paris, after all.

Nice design. Top, an ad in the subway. Middle, a poster for an antique book fair/show - I'm trying hard to figure out what designer this reminds me of, I even sent a picture to my friend Cait to see if she knew. We both thought Kandinsky right away, but then took it back because that's not what most of his stuff looks like at all!! We're guessing it must have been in the same chapter of our Graphic Design History books. Anybody know? And bottom, a really interesting company name on a building.

We saw glimpses of museums. Toward the bottom center of the top photo, I'm thinking you can spot the famous derriere!

I'm not sure what the building on the left is. It seems like it might be a place to stop and rest? Josh guessed that it's an oxygen bar! Breathe is written on the side in huge letters. Middle, 3,000 year old obelisk! Right, another towering monument that doesn't look like it belongs! I need to look up the name of it, Josh and I were more focused on who died at the nearby Ritz Hotel.

After we completed the circuit on our big red bus we walked down a little bit of the Champs Elysees (which until I typed it just now, always thought was the champs de lysees) and went into the Louvre and explored the mall underneath. We weren't quite ready to tackle the museum! Afterward we sat next to a pool in the Tuileries and read our books for a while. Then it was home again jiggity jig!

Next: Disneyland Paris!

First glimpse of Paris

Josh had a meeting until 6:30, so I met him at his building and we rode into Paris on the RER. The top photo is the Val D'Europe station where we live and the others are two more we saw during our evening.

When we got into the city and were riding up the escalators at the Charles De Gaulle Etoile stop, Josh, who had arrived at this stop last week, told me to be sure to look up as we were exiting. I knew it must be something good, so I switched the video function on my camera on & low and behold! My first glimpse of the Arc de Triomph. Unreal.

Lovely details everywhere, and look at those signs on the right. Real live Art Nouveau originale!

We spotted a couple fa-mouse icons!

A neat sign on a pretty building & for Disney fans, this little bike/scooter reminded me of half of a doom buggy a la haunted mansion. :)

The Tower peeking through! I just had to post the second photo because it was a triomph of our own! Somehow centering it between us was a real challenge for me, that was Josh's aiming job.

Dinner: We bought croque monsieurs after I told Josh that I'd been waiting to have one all of my life! I'll admit, that was a bit of an exaggeration. I took French class in middle school and high school and always wondered what all the hype was about for a ham and cheese sandwich - and why was it that all of the characters in my French book always ordered them? Now I know. Delicious! It seemed to be that the ham was between the two layers of bread and the cheese was melted on top. And even better? The nutella filled beignet that we split for dessert!

The Trocadero Gardens were green and grand! Look how tall those trees are with J in the picture!

Cue Dramatic Music

It was about this time that we were walking from the gardens toward the larger than expected Eiffel Tower when I turned my ankle in a pothole and went careening face forward toward the ground! Two men vending tower replicas rushed toward me as Josh tried to catch me from behind. As they helped me to my feet, I said, "I think I'm fainting," and promptly blacked out. Poor Josh! Luckily I didn't hit the ground again, and as I came to, it was just like a sequence from a movie - Josh saying my name trying to wake me up and two hovering unknown faces gradually becoming clear, "C'est bon? C'est bon?" Amazingly, C'est tres bon! I had to sit down for a while to completely regain my sight and feel like I could walk around again, but the only lasting effects are that I'm typing with three purple, chubby, sausage fingers! I have a couple of scrapes that were bandaged neatly with our first aid kit. To commemorate the occasion I asked Josh to go buy a little "I Fell" Tower replica from the men that helped us. Somehow we ended up with five keychains and a larger knickknack!

I have a couple more images to share when I return - 'til then! :)

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Here are those other photos I wanted to share! Beauty shots of the Eiffel Tower!

We took our bus tour of Paris today and I had my camera on for so long that it died before our day ended! I should have plenty of pictures to sift through. Hopefully one or two turned out alright since I took most of them from the top of speeding bus!

First day in France

Projects are finished, loose ends tied up, and the kitty is at Aunt Lisa's. Let the adventures begin! I arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport yesterday morning, and somehow with the time difference it feels like I've already been here 3 days! Here are some photos of my first journal entry upon entering Paris. (Click on the image to increase size)

Below are a few things I saw yesterday!

A moving walkway with mini-hills at CDG and long slopped walkways at the massive local grocery/everything store.

Happy Birthday, Luke! Yesterday was my brother's birthday and I thought of him as I took the top picture in the kid's party section of the store. Luke, if I had been there I would have made you this cake of gummy candies...

Look at that! All of those bottles on the left are different kinds of milk! I found a very small fresh milk section nearby and purchased one from each section so we can do a taste test! I'll keep you updated.

Cute things! I have a couple of friends who are pregnant, and I can't help but think of them as I'm seeing darling baby things everywhere! In the mall down the street, I've counted about five shops just for babies. The plushies above were just in that grocery/everything store. I should find out the name of it next time I go! Next, those are two little notebooks that I couldn't resist for a euro each. The one on the left has a clear plastic cover and is filled with pages that are gridded so thoroughly that I'm intensely curious about what types of things people use it for. I'll have to take another shot of the inside. The book on the right is a music composition book that made me think of the kids I'll be seeing at piano camp in a couple of months. Finally, a miniature train that was pulling adults from one end of the mall to the other. 

Beauty & nice packaging at a local flower shop.

Treats! A pudding type dessert, in honor of Luke's birthday & some little herbed cheeses, yet to be eaten. Do you see those little tooth picks in the container? Next is the photo of my Coca-Cola Light, that I was drinking in attempt to stay awake and ward off future jet lag. The Paris city walks cards in the background (on loan from Carly & Richard - thanks!) kept me awake for a while!

I managed to stay awake until almost nine last night, and then slept a great deep sleep! I just returned from meeting Josh for lunch (above) during which we ordered entirely in French! I had the Sandwich Classique Poulet-Curry, tres bon!

Tonight will be my first trip into the city where we'll take in a view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero! We're planning on going on a Paris tour on Saturday and then taking a day for Disneyland Paris on Sunday.