Why hello there! Bonjour!
Paris......a rather busy city, with rugby world cup on its mind. It becomes slightly more crazy as the week progresses and the opening ceremony looms. Rumours of giant inflatable rubgy balls under the eiffel tower, big screens just beside the eiffel tower and fire works at Le Grande Arche. Lots of French flags being flown and of course everyone has an opinionon who the favourite is. And just between you and me the ol' AB's have been bandied about quite regularly in local converation!
In order to escape the masses for one day we thought we would take a look at EuroDisney. Well, at least it was escaping from masses of adults sometimes acting quite badly to masses of hyperactive children dragging their parents around, also funnily enough sometimes acting badly. The park is amazing. Everything you can think of that could be themed is themed. Right down to the expensive mickey mouse shaped pizzas we consumed for lunch. But it is quite something to be there. To see children dressed up as their favourite characters in costumes that cost a cool 50 euros each. And it was usually more than one child in each family. Somewhat mind boggling to think how much money must go through that place every day. But enough about the money.
What about those rides. The rides where you stand in line for half an hour to strap yourself into a rickety looking car and be hurtled around a track, at breakneck speed and be thrown around, to feel like the track has dropped out from underneath you and leaves you wondering where you left your stomach. All for a grand total of about three minutes.
im not a fan of rollercoasters......in case you hadnt already picked that up. The bad thing was that Mike is. So we went on them all. Me with my eyes sqeezed shut and my arms braced against the bar or harness (depending on whether you go up side down or not) - you see i have discovered that if i dont know what is coming next i cant get scared and so i can just concentrate on getting through it. This can be somewhat embarrassing when you pull up to stop at the end and you dont realise for a minute or so that you are sitting there with your eyes squeezed shut and arms braced for the next loop the loop and you open them to see a half empty car and people looking over the barrier at you as they wait to board the ride. Mike thought it was hilarious. funny that! You see if he gets the chance he'll sit in the front row of the first car so theres nothing in front of you as you plunge down yet another dip.
The unfortunate thing was that at the park there were the big thrillers (ie 5 rides) and then the family rides and the ones suited for the little ones so the rest of the rides were pretty darn lame. there is no nice middle ground. The one ride i did rate was the star wars simulator where you are a passenger in a star fighter that malfunctions and takes you on a crazy course through space and of course into a battle against the masked one.
The big roller coaster 'Space mountain' was unfortunately out of action for the day we were there.
Mike felt the pain a whole lot more than i did.
At certain times during the day music booms form the speakers that are positioned around the grounds and the hordes of people all congregate in Town centre and a parade will come through with the characters dancing along and Disney staff keeping the kiddies at bay. It's quite a spectacle to behold! Oh but one of best experiences at disneyland was meeting Ben and Jerry.
Ben and Jerrys Ice cream that is. You cant really get better than flavours than cookie dough, choc and cherry or chocolate fudge brownie..... thats the list of flavours mikes cone contained. i had to make do with berry sorbet since me and dairy products and extreme motion don't go well together. So after a day of pink disney (fun) madness and a couple of souveneirs ( sorry Saki, Mike did try very hard to find you a Princess costume but it wasnt to be...) we headed back on the train with tired grumpy sugar overloaded children behaving badly.
That night was the opening ceremony for the rugby world cup so we headed up to Le Grande Arche (which dwarfs the Arc De Triomphe by the way) for some fireworks action. There was a half an hour display in front of the Arch with a sound track that was quite hard to hear due to the fireworks, but one part of the track that did carry across was the sound of the haka - boy did that send shivers down the spine! - so Mike and i did our bit for kiwi patriotism - yelling and hollering and waving our arms around. We were so proud.
Following such a busy day, Mike decided to take a lazy day and spent a large portion of the day in bed, I headed off on an adventure of my own to Chateau Versailles. This involved me navigating the Paris RER train system - express trains to the 'burbs which run on a different system to the metro. I managed to get to the right place and i got on a train which said Versailles however after several stops i checked the handy diagram they have above the door and we were not going to Versailles.... In fact we were going in the opposite direction. So i thought, ok i'll get off at the next stop, but because those trains dont stop at every stop i was out in some random place by the time i got off. So after finding no one who spoke English i managed to find my way onto the right platform and got on the right train. After several stops some other Tourists got on and sat around me and i heard 'chateau' and 'palace' so i asked them if they were headed to Versailles. and you know what, they were. So, meet Esther and Vincent from Argentina who decided to take me under their wing despite the fact that they didnt speak much english and i spoke no spanish which made for interesting communication. go the hand gestures! And, meet Val and Sarah from Australia - mum and daughter who were off on adventure.
When we finally arrived at the Chateau and we found the tourist information i found out the Garden was free and the line for the palace tickets was an hour long, so after quite a bit of trouble i managed to explain to Vincent and Esther that i didnt need to queue for tickets and i could just go straight on into the gardens. I was on my own. Well on my own amongst the thousands of tourists that had also invaded Versailles. These gardens are amazing. in fact i would go to the extent of almost mind blowing - it might have been if the fountains had been going. When i say fountains, i dont mean 4 or 5 - its hard to say how many there actually are. But take it from me - there are many! Lots of classical sculptures and topiaries and parterres ( patterns shaped out of garden beds or in this case turf) and arches and huge urns and the main canal. i found it quite amusing that you can hire a row boat to go out on the main canal. i'm not sure why. but when you are standing on the upper most terrace with the palace looming behind you and the main axis cutting a straight line down to the distance and a large canal filling this main axis down on the lower terrace and there are these little dots that look like bugs skating around on the water - i had to laugh!
It took me the best part of three hours to explore the gardens and that was with one of the terraces closed off for 'Boom' as a guard told me - apparently the following night there was a water and light extravaganza with the fountains all lit up and going and fireworks to compliment! talk about bad timing!
After successfully getting back to the hostel with no unwanted or unplanned side trips, Mike and i headed back out to the Eiffel Tower to find the rumoured big screen and to meet up with Sophie Huber - a dunedinite who had mutual friends with me - as it turns out we both know quite a few of the same people - gotta love those New Zealand connections! Mike and I went into a real french brasserie (sp?!) for dinner - with time against us what do we order - pasta. italian food in a french restaurant. well done! To make up for our crime we went all out for dessert - Creme Brulee for Mike and Creme caramel for me. A little golden syrupy for me but not bad!!
We met Sophie and after quickly ascertaining there was no big screen at the Eiffel tower - there was the big blow up ball however - we crossed the river Seine to a big tent that was set up and there were all these people milling around. they had tvs in there. tvs. and not even big ones!
So we got the official word - big screen - Hotel D'ville (town hall) so jumping on the metro we found what we were looking for. a big crowd of french people all acting patriotically and cheering madly when the big hairy lock on the French side had a close up - you know the guy i mean! They had a big artificial grass mat laid out in front of the screen so that was packed with people and surrounded by people standing, which is what we did - this isnt surprising when we arrive with 20 mins left to play! It was a sad crowd that night leaving the square. Quite a few didnt even stay to watch the end but walked off in disgust. There's some good losers for ya!
Saturday dawned grey and overcast as usual but that soon changed to brilliant sunshine. We met Sophie again to go to a local outdoor market. It was a sensory overload. It was amazing. Butchers with piglets to be roasted on a spit, fishmongers with conger eel bodies that were as round as a saucer, Fromagries selling cheeses, and dont get me started on the patisserie (pastry) stalls. We found our lunch and headed back to Hotel D'Ville for the ABs versus Italy. We had a random Kiwi Helen, from Kaitaia join our group so she could sit with some kiwis for the game. We stood up and sang the national anthem and the italians did likewise. It was a fantastic day - i actually got sunburnt it was that hot. And the game. Well done Mr McCaw. Well done.
Following the game Mike and I bought a box of Macaroons and sat in a park and ate them all. Macaroons are my favourite thing about Paris. No really. they are just too good for words and i'm going to have to try and make them when i get back because macaroon love needs to be shared out!! A macaroon consists of two halves and a filing - usually a flavoured cream. oh and they are usually bright in colour! Pistachio, lemon, coffee, raspberry, vanilla and chocolate. scrummylicious!
Now before i finish off paris i have to desrcibe what i have come to recognise as quintessential parisian. There will be the plume of cigarette smoke following them and a ciggie between the fingers, a handsfree cell phone thing in their ear and they will be talking on it and their shoes will be pointed and heeled and they will be wearing black or white. Yeah it would seem white pants are making a comeback - or maybe they never went out in Europe! aggh. Just say no!!
Slightly stereotypical i know but sit on the metro and see how many people fit the criteria!
We said good bye to Paris and found our way to Gare Nord to catch the Night train to Hannover.
Tune in next time for 'Sausages and Sauerkraut'
Love KJ
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