Last Day in Paris - Wayne's Birthday and Euro Disney!

Breakfast on our last day, just before heading to EURO DISNEY with Cousin Suzy!! Now this would not have been on our list for Paris but honestly.....honestly...it was the most fun we had. I expected Disneyland to be that experience you might expect - heat, coupled with crowds, coupled with lines and a toddler?? Well, it wasn't. Sure it was hot but lines were not that bad and we had a BALL. And in fact there were zero lines for the adult rides. The longest we waited was 25 minutes for the Dumbo ride.We felt like little kids, which is exactly the experience it is meant to evoke right?

Suzy offered to take us all there (any Disneyland park is her favorite place on earth) and it happened to be Wayne's birthday as well. One thing Suzy knows how to do really well is to conjure up that magical feeling you have as a child, upon walking into Disneyland. It wouldn't have been near as fun without her because her love for the place was contagious. Also Wayne has never seen a Disneyland park so it was doubly-fun to show him one that was also in Paris, France! I defy anyone to not find this place a little magical.

First we made our way to the Arc Du Triomphe to catch the train.

And here we go, on our way! (The train ride is one hour, twenty minutes from Paris)

 So giddy to be here with Suzy!!!

Notice Wayne in his "I Love White Center" tshirt from Uncle Marko. He thought it was the perfect birthday shirt for his first trip to Disneyland (and it was). :)

 Surprisingly excited to be entering this park and could not stop taking photos. Ahhh!!!

 Disneyland Paris! Tinkerbell! Ahhh!!!

Oh my gosh, a fire truck with people inside! Ahh!! It's so exciting!

(this was my internal state)

 "Where are we going? What do you want to see first? I want to see everything. Hurry up, let's go"

A little girl again.

 

La Blanche Niege (Snow White). The characters and rides' names being in French added a whole 'nother element to the experience. Loved it.

Norah, however, did NOT love this ride. We made the mistake of going into the first ride we saw - Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. Its one of those train-like rides where you're taken through these dark rooms on a wooden cart-train. Well....turns out...this story is VERY dark and we didn't exactly remember that. It only showcased the creepy witch with her glowing green eyes, dragons, the evil forest, the witch poisoning Snow White, and then, literally at the exit door, Snow White with her prince, looking happy with squirrels dancing, as if we didn't just take a ride through purgatory. Our poor girl was huddled in Wayne's lap, hiding her face and screaming that she wanted to leave. Oooo, sorry Norah...bad choice for the first ride...let's stick to 'outside' rides.

First things first, we got some juice, some candy and chips. :) At Disneyland you are not allowed to eat well-balances meals. Sugar is all you can have here. And meat in tube-form.

Still recovering from the Snow White ride, Norah spotted the evil queen from Alice in Wonderland in the distance and didn't like her one bit. She became fixated on where she was and wanted to keep her in her sights. In the video below (we're in the famous teacup ride) she is making sure the Queen is not near us.

Magic little Dumbo-bums.

Wayne: "I'm 32! This is the best birthday ever!"

Of course I'm holding onto Norah as if this thing is suddenly going to go upside down.

Seeing as how Wayne had never been to Disneyland, he knows nothing of Space Mountain! He went on it twice and thankfully, since this was one of the adult rides, we only had to wait about 3 minutes in line. I'm not kidding you here, one time, in California, I waited for 2 1/2 hours for this ride. I'm not joking. And at the time, it seemed reasonable. Humans!

 When Wayne went the 2nd time, with Suzy, Norah and I sat outside and I snapped this photo of the people being shot up the tube here. It was terrifying and so awesome! You start out in the pitch black and you feel yourself clicking up the incline (you know that feeling in roller coasters). Well then it stops and you're inside that lower tube, it's pitch black and they start a countdown like a space shuttle! Ahhh! So fun but I could only handle one ride. Wayne rode twice which seems fitting for a 32nd birthday but that was his max, as well.

Norah sitting in front of the photo of Simone de Beauvoir sitting in this very seat.

(more explanation below)

From Wikipedia:

Les Deux Magots is a famous café in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, France. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual élite of the city. It is now a popular tourist destination. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage of Surrealist artists, intellectuals such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, and young writers, such as Ernest Hemingway. Other patrons included Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht and the American writer Charles Sutherland.

The Deux Magots literary prize has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Deux_Magots)

St. Germain Des Pres (the oldest church in Paris). This is directly opposite Les Duex Magots, where we had dinner.

 The brought out the dessert tray for the birthday boy.

 At points, the ambience in Paris was so THICK you felt it was being "put on" for show. For instance, we're sitting outside this incredibly famous café where some of the most respected and famous writers and philosophers sat, and then we hear.....Opera... being sung, live, 15 feet from our table.

Oh cooommmmmee ON!

And they were unbelievably good. Incredible. Several times they brought tears to my eyes. These 3 set up here, across from the St. Germain des Pres church, as part of an Opera contest going on. They hard cards which showed how you could vote for them online. Anyway, whatever the reason, their singing, in that place, was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard.  

(In the first few seconds, a massive German Shepherd in the back of an SUV scares the crap outta' that poor woman.)

Also, as Wayne spotted, Mark Twain was joining us for dinner.

Ernest Hemingway

A very late night for our little sweetie on our last day in Paris. She had an absolute ball. Given the 14 or so blog posts on our five days in Paris, you might have gathered that I adored every moment of our trip. Hence my inability to NOT share every single one of those moments in picture/video form.

As I've told a few people since returning, if I spend the rest of my life working and saving money for trips back to Paris, I will be just fine. I want to go back when Norah is older. I want to go back, sans children, when Wayne and I reach retirement, and then again. And again. Now, of course, none of these things are guaranteed and so this trip absolutely meant the world to me. To be able to see Paris for five whole days, with nearly all of my extended family was completely surreal. Every time the seven of us were out walking together (near Notre Dame, at the Louvre, the Sacre Coeure, etc) I took a mental photograph (and 10 actual photographs), in hopes that I could keep that forever.  Needless to say, this was one of those trips I will spend the rest of my days conjuring memories of...