Paris...Take Two!

We had so much fun in Paris last time, we had to go back!  Mallory and I bought a tour of Versailles & Montmartre, so we had to come back…So Paris, take two!

Thursday, February 19:

            Today we had class as the AM shift due to the MOF being held at ENSP this weekend.  (MOF - Meilleurs Ouvriers de France – a nationwide competition held every three to four years to celebrate outstanding French workers in 100 different creative professions.  If you’re interested to learn more, a dvd called Kings of Pastry is a documentary of the 2007 MOF competition).  This weekend’s competition was to narrow down the finalists for the chocolate section of pastry arts. 
Because we had class in the morning, we were able to leave a day earlier, packing the night before, bringing all bags to class and catching a bus directly to Lyon.

            The bus dropped us off in Lyon, supposedly close to the train station, however it took us a lengthy hour walk to get to the station, while carrying our luggage.  We reached the train station with plenty of time to spare before our train would leave at 6pm.  We stopped by the ticket counter to make amendments to our tickets for this trip as well as check into ticket prices for Nice for our final weekend in France.  Mallory and I want to go to Carnevale, and since Venice is extremely expensive to fly or take a train, we settled on Nice (a few of our classmates went a couple weeks ago and had a fantastic time – for Carnevale).  Train tickets were similar prices to flying, and flying is a shorter round trip travel time we settled on flying.

            It was time to board our train, found our seats, and got situated for the ride.  I worked on catching up on my blog, and watched Friends.  Two hours later, we arrived at Gare de Lyon – Paris Station.  We found our hotel, checked in, grabbed our keys and unloaded our stuff in our rooms.  We relaxed a bit, before heading out to see the Eiffel Tower.  I honestly will never get sick of it, the most beautiful jaw-dropping site ever!  I am amazed at its beauty each time, day or night, just gorgeous.  After the tower we headed back to our hotel, it was time for bed.  A long day ahead tomorrow, we’re going to Disneyland Paris!

Friday, February 20:

            We got up bright and early, got dressed and ready to go to Disneyland.  We were all truly excited and pumped.  We walked to the train station, bought our train pass, found the train and off we went.  We had to transfer trains once, but didn’t get lost and successfully arrived at Disney!  In Paris, there are two parks, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios.  We started with Disney Studios; it’s the smaller park and closes earlier.  First stop, Tower of Terror, a ride I didn’t want to go on, but Kristina pressured me into it, and I’m thankful she did, it was a fun ride, I felt joy that I rode and didn’t die, but not a ride I wish to ride again, LOL.  After tower of terror, we rode Crush’s Coaster, CineMagique, Armageddon – The Special Affects, and Rock n’ Roller Coaster with Aerosmith.  

Next it was time to head to Disneyland Park.  It is similar to Disneyland Park in CA and Magic Kingdom in Florida.  The castle is a replica to the fairytale castle seen in Sleeping Beauty.  First we had to take ample pictures of the castle, and surrounding views, and of course check out the shops and sights walking through the entrance of the park.  Then it was time to each lunch, we stopped at a quick place, each grabbed a burger and again on our way.  Once we made it through the shopping district, it was time to ride the rides. 

We rode them all: Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Adventure Isle, It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, Space Mountain: Mission 2, and so much more.  The park is divided into different areas: Discoveryland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland & Main Street (shopping district).  The park closed at eight today, with a firework show taking place at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  The show blew our minds, projecting scenes from different Disney movies and characters onto the castle, with Disney music in the background, surrounded by fireworks, absolutely unbelievable, put the other Disney parks to shame. 

 

After the firework show, we shopped.  We all bought at least one souvenir.  I got a sweatshirt (of course) and some souvenirs for others.  It was finally time to leave, a long day had passed, my feet were extremely sore, tired, and ready for bed, but first dinner.  We had dinner at Earl of Sandwich.  Mallory ate at Annette’s Diner and I joined her after for dessert.  Finally it was time to catch the train and head back to the hotel.  Bedtime deserved tonight!

Saturday, February 21:

            Today was the day we’d tour Versailles & Montmartre.  Mallory and I woke up early, got ready, left early with plenty of time to arrive at the meeting place, just in case (our track record is terrible).  We stopped on the way for breakfast, hopped on the metro, got off and transferred, arrived at the correct station, exited and saw our meeting place directly ahead.  We had arrived in record time, not getting lost or anything…Success!  Now we had almost two hours to entertain before the tour would begin.  We shopped around at a local bookstore for a bit, then it started to rain, we decided to go to a café, and I ordered a crepe so we could sit inside in heat and avoid the wetness that was outside. 

            We started seeing people arrive for the various tours, so we paid the check, and gallivanted across the street to our tour.  We checked in with a guide, specifically stating we were for the Versailles tour, and we were the first ones to arrive.  We were told to wait for at least fifteen to twenty minutes and see if others arrive.  After that time had passed, we remained the only two, and the company needs at least four people to run the tour, we were issued a refund.  Now it was time to figure out what do to with the rest of our day. 

            The rest of our group was meeting at Notre Dame at 12:30pm, so we had an hour to waste.  We wandered through Latin Quarter, and walked to the square to wait for them.  We met up, some took pictures of Notre Dame, some went in and explored inside, others including myself waited at a nearby coffee shop.  Can I tell you, I think I’ve seen more churches in my eight weeks in Europe than I’ve been in back in the states in my entire life? 

            After checking out Notre Dame, and some grabbing a crepe, it was time to head to the lock bridge.  I visited the bridge the last time we went to Paris, but nothing gets old in Paris.  On our way we stopped at a few souvenir shops and bought some over priced Paris gadgets. We managed to take the long way, plus made many detours, but finally made it to the lock bridge.  Most of our group bought locks, signifying a certain relationship or memory.  After the lock bridge, we separated, and my portion of the group went to check out Montmartre.  Kristina wanted to see the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur.  I didn’t realize it was another church, but why should I be surprised now.  The view was absolutely gorgeous.  There were two options to reach the Basilica, either a steep staircase or the funicular car.  We chose the car, which was free with our day pass from the metro.   The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking, pictures couldn’t do it justice.  

     

            

 Following the photo op, it was time to meet up with the rest of our group, and head to dinner.  We made a slight detour at on of our group mates’ aunt’s art studio, then we needed to drop our stuff off at the hotel before heading to the restaurant.  We were meeting at Hard Rock Café, of all places.  When we finally arrived, the wait time was two hours for our group of 13.  So we walked further down the street, our two options were Italian or French, and since were in France, its obvious we had to eat French.  So we got a table for our large group, and ordered.  Dinner was decent, classical French cuisine; I shared a Caesar salad and Salmon dish as well as had to eat escargot, which were delicious as always.  

            After dinner, Kristina wanted to check out the Opera House (Paris Opera or Palais Garnier), which was supposedly down the street.  Along the way, one of my group mates noticed her purse felt light and then realized her wallet was missing…so a bunch of us went with her to search for it, while the remaining went to check out the Opera House.   We finally arrived at Paris Opera, a gorgeous site, as everything is in Paris.  Many pictures had to be taken, we walked around its entirety, although we couldn’t enter, only open during business hours.  I checked my phone to see what if anything was going on with the wallet situation, and after turning my data on, and messaging, we come to find out a police report was filed, and the wallet hadn’t been found. 

            

            Some of our group left, it was getting late (almost midnight) and wanted to make it home before the day pass expired, while Kristina and I wandered around trying to follow the map and find the police station to meet the rest of our clan.  Finally found our clan, and headed back to the hotel, it had been a long day.

Sunday, February 22:

            It was time to head home.  We got up, packed, checked out and off to the train station.  We were departing from a different station than the one we arrived.  This train, the slow train, would be five hours long.  We arrived at the station, grabbing some breakfast and snacks for the ride, and boarded our train.  No assigned seats, so we sat as a group.  Mallory and I set up ourselves, pulling out my laptop and beginning to watch Friends.  We each fell asleep, and slept most of the ride. 

            Two-forty-five we arrived at Lyon Station, grabbed lunch, and caught our next train to St. Ettienne.  We then took a train to Firminy, where half of us went into a cab to take us home, and the other half took a bus to Retournac and grabbed a cab home. 

            It had been a long but eventful and successful weekend.  We successfully had a weekend where we didn’t get lost.  It was fun and stressful to travel with such a large group of people.