“To know Paris is to know a great deal.” – Henry Miller

Welcome to my second post about my wife and I’s first adventure to the fantastic country of France. We tackle Disneyland Paris, lack of bathrooms, my body trying to kill me, hotels, parks, and much much more.

Now let’s get this out of the way Disneyland Paris is enormous! We stayed at the Disney’s Sequoia Lodge which I will talk about later. When you get off the train Disney is straight ahead Hollywood studio (think of Disney California Adventure) is to the left a little. More to the left is Downtown Disney. Now to get to our hotel you walk through Downtown Disney, by a lake, and what feels like a 100 miles you get to our hotel. Now the Hotel is quite large, and the room was big but only so-so.

The hotel is based on the Grand Californian but is nowhere near as fancy. As we were walking over my wife sat down and told me she could not go on, which yeah I get it, it was that far. Much later in the trip, you found the ground transportation. Now if you and stay at any of the hotels in that area use the ground transportation. When you leave the train station go way to the left towards the parking lot. That is where the buses are, and it will save your legs big time.

I think one of the coolest things is how you enter the park, You walk underneath the Disneyland Hotel, it’s pretty cool. A side note one of these days I will stay at the Disneyland Hotel, it is in a fantastic spot and some of those rooms would have amazing views. But with that comes at a very steep price. Well back to the park, when you pass under the hotel, you go out on the main street, and you get your first view of the castle. Let me tell you this is one of the most beautiful castles of the Disney collection. It is my favorite of the 3 that I have been to, and I believe it is the most beautiful of all of them. I know I still have 3 more parks to see but from the photos, I have seen Paris is the one.

The park is similar to Disneyland, but France is spacious and they have used that to their advantage. There aren’t as many rides, and Paris doesn’t seem to be into shopping like we are here in the States.

I think the funniest thing was when we went on Stars Tours. When you walk in there is a ship and C3-PO is up there welcoming guest, but this C3-PO speaks French. Hahahahah the whole ride was in French. Yes, should have realized this but everything about the ride is the same as it does in California so we would assume that the trip would be the same.

It was pretty cool, all of the characters speaking French, even Darth Vader. It was the same in the Haunted Manor or Haunted Mansion. We didn’t get to Hollywood Studios, but we plan to go back. As the day worn on our feet were taking a pounding. My feet usually don’t do well, but they had held for a while. I had a huge blister, and so did my wife, Jodie. It was late, and the sun was starting to set.

We were waiting for the Fireworks, but Jodie was over it and went to the hotel. I toughed it outing stayed for the fireworks. The castle has some water features up front with a couple of fountains. Those fountains played a big roll in the Fireworks show, along with all of Disney’s trick. The show was amazing, absolutely amazing!

Now next day we were heading to the Train station to leave, and we were finishing up some shopping when all hell broke loose. There were police everywhere and the locked down Disney, all of the stores and the train station. Now like I said Macron had just been inaugurated and France was on high alert. It turns out they thought there was a suspicious package, or at least they thought it was suspicious. It was nothing and wow when they opened up everything it was just a flood of people. We got to the train, and Jodie was struggling, and her feet were hurting. So I got out my phone figured out which metro stop would get us to a shoe store. Yeah, I was spot on as soon as we got to the street a Foot Locker was across the street. Yeah, that’s how I roll (hahahahaha).

Now, this where the trip took a turn worse. We got back to our hotel went and ate some lunch all was well. As the day progressed, I start to feel worse I didn’t eat dinner and couldn’t be too far from the bathroom.

Now I know the trip was coming to an end we still hadn’t been to the Eiffel Tower. So I convinced Jodie that we should go to the Eiffel Tower, she knew I wasn’t feeling my best, but I wasn’t sure just how good I felt either. So we start walking over to the tower, which was the full length of The Champ de Mars. About 20 minutes, I wanted to die, but I kept going. We get in line for the tickets which took a lot longer than I wanted, but we get in and on the elevator.

We get to the first stop the views are amazing it wasn’t busy, but I notice a sign that said the bathrooms at the top were closed. I was worried, but my wife had, had enough of lines, so she was fine not going to the top. I took some pictures, bought some souvenirs, and found a place to sit. By this time I felt like a truck had hit me.

About the time we decided to leave the heavens opened up, I had not seen rain like that in a very long time. So naturally as we are trying to head back, people lose their mind about getting wet. I didn’t I just wasn’t sure I was going to make it back to the hotel. We were going to eat on the way again, but that was not going to work for me. Luckily our hotel had room service because when we got back, I proceeded to die.

After a very miserable night, it was our last full day in Paris, and I wanted to go to the Musee L’Orangerie to see the Monet room. My wife realized by now just how sick I was, I didn’t move, I slept for about 17 hours. Bless Jodie my fantastic wife, just sat there with me, occasionally going to the store to get what Europe considered Gatorade. It was gross and artificially sweet. Jodie ordered room service a couple more times. But as the day wore on she was starting to get worried, we were checking out the next day and taking a train back to Brussels.
To make matters worse I decided I needed to bring a large backpack and a fulling loaded messenger bag full of electronics. Which none of made Jodie happy with the prospect of carrying to the train by herself. No one listened and granted me death like I was hoping that final night.

The next morning I had finally started feeling better and was able to pack things up and carry my own gear. I was not very happy and felt bad that our last day in Paris was stuck in a hotel room. We pack up went and downstairs and called a cab. Now the cool thing about the cab ride was the road we took to Gare du Nord was the same street that the Bourne Identity used in the movie so I may have geeked out a little over that. Hahahahaha! We boarded the train for Brussels and was on our way, with no real complications.

Now Jodie is awesome about picking hotels. This one well let’s say that the hotel was charming, but the location suffer in things to do around it. We wanted to stay close to the airport, and the Van Der Valk hotel was just that. The hotel was close, and they have a convenient shuttle service. My only issues staying there was, there just wasn’t anything around the hotel. Like I said the hotel was very nice, the rooms were big and nicely equipped.

Now my stomach was feeling better, and I was getting hungry. The Van Der Valk had some great food options. Jodie and I went to one of the hotel’s restaurants The Pink Ginger, which happens to be a great sushi restaurant. It seemed like one young lady was running the place, but wow it was great. The presentation was just fantastic and tasted great. If you ever find yourself in The Van Der Valk, I entirely suggest eating at the Pink Ginger.

After lunch, we had quite a bit of the day left and being so far from the city center we called up a cab heading out. The last time we were in Brussels, we went to the Grand Place, so this time we wanted to check out some other parts of the city. So I had the cabbie take us to the Park Mont des Arts. This place is pretty cool, and as we were checking things out, I saw the spire of the Hotel de Ville de Brussels and how close it was. So Jodie and I headed over to the Grand Place once again. We check out the Musee de la Ville de Brussels. Very cool, lots of history of Brussels and important historical art. On the top floor, there is a cool Manneken Pis exhibit.

When we finished exploring the exhibit we made our way to the nearby park. It is quite small, and when we were there, the basin was under construction. Which was a little disappointing, to say the least? Now we had made our way back to the Grand Place, and Jodie wanted some ice cream knowing that there was a Haggen Dazs close by. After some ice cream, we went around the corner to probably one of the most significant streets known to man. Hahaha! Around the corner is the Galeries Royales Saint Hubert shopping mall. Why is this great, because it is just one chocolate shop after another. Oh my if you like chocolate, this is the place to be. Wow, I ended up buying about 4 pounds of chocolate to bring home. Fantastic!

We got back to the hotel called at night and took the shuttle back to the Airport the next day. This trip was fantastic even with getting sick. Jodie and I love to travel, but now with our first trip internationally we are fully hooked.

My whole life I knew I would fall head over heels in love with Europe and it did not disappoint. Paris what a city, I absolutely love Paris. It has to be my favorite city at the moment.

Brussels was great, everywhere I went was an opportunity to take a photo. Disneyland Paris was well amazing. I truly loved this trip, and my travel mate is the best. This is the life I want to continue, travel, take pictures, and enjoy every moment with my best friend which happens to be my wife. So keep moving forward and happy shooting. If you enjoy any of these photos check my gallery for this trip.