This time the it was time to be spontaneous, so I booked a last minute trip to Paris but Stéphanie only got to know about the temperature and not the destination. She found out what destination we were travelling towards by reading this text on the blog while waiting for the flight at Arlanda airport. In the blog below you will see pictures and read about a long weekend in Paris with Disneyland as one of the main activities.
After a long weekend in Paris it's now time to leave and get back to Sweden but we do so with many happy memories and it feels like we also got enough time to do what we wanted while being here. I like variation so even if we would have had more time I think we would be doing something quite different with the extra time in such a case.
Stephanié hade some ideas about getting a photo at Moulin Rouge when her skirt blows up in about the same way as in the iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe. The underground air outlet is running, the weather is good but it was just this tiny issue that without the right type of cloathes it's not that easy to cooperate with the air. Some photos later and with the help of a little bit of extra post processing it became a cool shot that I really like. It was a little tricky to clean the photo of other people but I think it turned out good in the end.
Our walk continues behind Sacré-Coeur through small streets were several people are selling art both along the streets and in small stores. Some dessert along the way is also boosting our energy.
A lot of stairs, sun and people is a short but accurate description of this place but it provide some nice views as well.
On all trips we usually have some phisical things with us home even though we try to keep it at a minimum. This time, when walking around at the streets, we found table mats with Paris theme as well as cats and who doesn't love cats.
Almost lunch according to our normal standards but today this time is breakfast.
It's the 25:th anniversary of Disneyland and the new light show named Disney illuminations is running for the first time. We didn't plan for this when going on the trip but we got a truly amazing bonus when we realised we were going to be able to see both the old and new light show. In this new light show the show is taken even closer to the audience by utalizing effects that show even in the air above everybody. That is some new thinking for sure when it comes to deliver an immersive experience to a lot of people at the same time.
Now we are really tired, it have been a lot of walking the latest days and it feel more like it would be the time to head back to the hotel. At the same time we really can't miss the new light show so we sit here and eat a few sandwiches to boost the energy level before the show is to start.
Every day it's a parade along the main street in Disneyland park, too crowdy for me in ralation to the experience but still fun to see all different kind of Disney characters doing a show along the street.
Now we are in the middle of Fantasy land and at this place a lot of work have been put to special decorations.
To the left of the Sleeping beuty castly their is a Dragon lair, so of course we needed to check it out. While walking in to the darkness we could see some smoke along an under ground water section further in, it was coming from the dragon that was guarding the place. We were allowed to pass through to the other side without being attacked, but it made some movements to indicate that one should not get closer.
In Disneyland Park we didn't explore all sections the first day so this makes for a good second chance to see some more of it.
Waiting in que is as much as the actual ride, at least when it comes to decoration, in this case. It wass a walk through the basement of the hotel until we got to an elevator that was the actual attraction. Without spoiling what happened I more enjoyed viewing the decoration than the actual main attraction in the building since it was lasting for a very short time.
We have just taken a ride in the Ratatouille ride where we felt like being a little mouse running around in a kitchen from a big world. It is partly a roller coaster and partly a cinema with extra effects such as wind timed to the video content, but the thing that makes it so great is the good correspondence between the movements and what we saw on the screen. It really made us feel like we were in the movie rather than watching it.
The first day at Disneyland we only were in the Disneyland Park so now we start with the Walt Disney Studios park instead.
Now we are standing on top of the Montpernasse tower outdoor terrace, 210 m above the ground, after been getting up with the festest elevator in Europe. The elevator took us up to the 56th floor in 38 seconds and then we had to walk up to the terrace where we now enjoy a 360 degree view of Paris in open air. An extra bonus for photografers is that the glass fence around the terrace is divided in two sections so you can take photos outside of the glass and get the maximum clarity in any angle. Many people focus on getting up in the Eiffel tower but I this must be a better experience since if being up in the Eiffel tower you would not be able to see the light show it has, from Montparnasse tower we are getting a perfect view of the Eiffel tower and its shiny show at night.
We passed on going up in the Eiffel tower in favor of getting some time in the Eiffel tower park during the sunset.
Before getting in to the Eiffel tower park we felt hungry and just needed to stop for some crepes.
It feels good with something extra tasty after a long walk in the sun.
Three words were enough for the que to get up to the top, not worth it. There are other view points in Paris so we quite quickly gave up the que to get up in the Triumph arc and settled with the views from the ground.
It's just a long straight path to get to the Triumph arc from Louvren but it's a well placed tree alley along the way with music from street players.
We continue on Louvren and take the opportunity to take some funny photos at the site.
Just walking along Seine is giving us a good view of the big old buildings on the other side, making for a good view while stopping for a snack.
Notre dame became our first stop on the walk, making for a nice scenery very close to the hotel.
After a late night yesterday the morning started off by just relaxing at the hotel while preparing for the day, not a full schedule but some targets points to aim for while walking.
At the 25:th anniversary of Disneyland at Sunday a new light show will start so now we could see the lightshow named Disney dreams before it will be shown the last time. It's amazing what can be done with light projections on the castle.
During the day we tried to make use of every hour of the opening times at Disneyland to explore everything they had to offer in the park. As you can see in the pictures it is mostly on the brink of starting to rain but here is a tip from the pro, always go to amusement parks in bad weather if you want as many rides as possible. With good cloathes it's not a problem and we got sun as well, just not all the time. Right now we are a little tired but we still have a little time left to try different rides before we need to prepare for the light show by taking a good spot in front of the castle.
We walked to a station for RER A, headed for Disneyland and arrived at the entrance 2 min before opening. With our pre-booked tickets we didn't even need to wait to get in, but it was raining a little during the morning so that might also helped us to reduce the number of visitors.
Eating breakfast buffet is always a good way to start the day, this breakfast at our hotel.
When we earlier walked around we saw this little restaurant quite close to our hotel and now we are back here to try it out since it looked quite cozy from the outside. It was equally cozy on the inside as we earlier thought it would be and we got a place far from the entrence to not have any unecessary passings by a lot of people. Delicious dishes and very good wine recommendation to taste well together with the choicen food is my short summary of the experience.
Our first impression of the room was really good; with great space, a walk in closet, toilet, bathroom with a shower for two, minibar and a balcony in the mini garden we couldn't complain. After a while I found out that the water pressure was quite low when I wanted to shower, but we had access to both a water jet massage bed as well as a sauna.
Checking in would be possible from 14:00 and we were hungry so we headed for a little cozy restaurant we thought looked nice when we walked to the hotel. It was delicious and gave a precious boost to our energy levels. After that we walked around the nearest neighborhood, Stéphanie looked at some makeup as always and then we walked back to the hotel.
The flight from Arlanda in Stockholm to Copenhagen is short but it was a full plane and with a slight delay the time to our next flight started to shrink. Not a real problem but enough to get us thinking about it. The first plane was an A321 with quite decent seats on row 20. The sound level was good and if you want to compare it to other planes a picture is posted with the sound spectrum, recorded on Sony experia z5. From Copenhagen to Paris we were flying in an A321 again but this time on row 20, which probably was the reason to the higher sound level for higher frequencies as you can see in the picture. Low frequency sound is not as easy to block, hence more equal for all positions. After a while we got to the airport CDG in Paris, I got my bag directly, Stéphanie got her bag as one of the last persons and then we headed for the nearest information desk to see how we could buy train tickets. I must say it was a very interesting architecture of the luggage arrival building with escalators, using rubber belts instead of steps, in all directions to cross the circular centre of the building. All of that was seen through windows. It wasn't easy to know which ticket that was best suited but we got good help and ended up with a single ticket that was valid for 5 zones. I already downloaded offline maps back in Sweden but we got one English papermap at the information desk as well as buying 1gb Internet credits so that it would take as little time as possible to navigate. From Notre Dame station it was a 750m walk to hotel Atmosphere but if you can't walk in stairs I would not recommend that train station as a last stop. The hotel had a nice entrance with luggage room as well as a bathroom to freshen up even if arriving before check in.
At the time of writing Stéphanie don't know where we are going but the taxi have anyway picked us up and we are on our way. The flight will depart at 06:10 so we left with a good margin since it feels much better to start the trip that way.
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