A tale of two cities… and a few other places… COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

I love that you guys are able to be with each other during this time. Passporter is the best.

Isn't it just? We've made so many wonderful friends during this community and I love the way everyone's checking on people during Hurricane Irma. It is such a wonderful family spirit.

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part two: what is Jan going to decide?

I left this saying that Jan would have a decision to make if we were going to fit London into this itinerary. So what was the decision? Well, I just could not see how to fit London in unless something else went out of the itinerary. Trust me, I tried and I tried and I tried to make it all fit, and if you’ve read any of my previous trip reports, you know that I can pack a heck of a lot in!

The problem was really that it wasn’t just one day in Disneyland Paris, as I know Jan thought. You know Disney parks, you ideally want more than one day, especially when it’s your first time there. I had programmed a whole day, and the following morning. That’s fine, except then it would take the rest of the day to get home. Yes, we can do Paris in a day, but only if we’re on the Eurostar train that runs between Kent, where we live, and Paris. We were planning on driving, as we had some places we wanted to see on the way, and that adds considerable time to the journey, as it takes about three hours to get back to Calais. That’s the French terminal of the Eurotunnel, and then it’s a 35 minute journey (plus half an hour check in time beforehand), then a 40 minute drive home, so you can see where the rest of the day goes..

There was nothing for it. I asked Jan if she wanted to ditch Disneyland Paris, so that we could do London. I know I’d already asked the question, but this time, I pointed a few other things out and asked her to give it some more thought. The reasons I gave were:

• Disneyland Paris isn’t really that impressive after WDW – and I’m being honest here, it’s not. Don’t get me wrong. We always enjoy it when we go, but it can’t shine a light to WDW. Everyone who’s been there has enjoyed it, but equally people enjoy London as well.

• It allows us to head back to the UK a day earlier, which gives Jan a much more relaxing day on the Monday, rather than tearing around a park. After all, it’s going to be the first time she’s flown internationally and none of us know how jetlag will hit her, but all we do know is friends in the past who’ve dealt with it for the first time when coming to see us have suffered.

• The day I wrote the email to her was also the day that this year’s Buckingham Palace display and it was all over the news. From the media previews we saw, it looked very good, and we both said we wouldn’t mind going to see the display.

However, I made it very clear to Jan that it was her vacation, and she needed to be happy with whatever we decided. Had she come back and said it was her lifelong ambition to see Disneyland Paris, then of course we’d have stuck with the original plans.

She came back to me and said that she trusted our judgement, and she was fine with London instead of Disneyland Paris. She acknowledged she had no idea how she’d feel after the flight, so now we were set, and we had some finalised plans.

I know this is the right move, especially as I’ve spoken to friends, and they’ve all said to me that if you’re coming all this way across the pond, you can’t not visit London. Ok, so I’m biased, as it is an amazing city, but even so, it’s one of those must-do places in the world, along with Paris, and now she’ll get to do both.

So let’s move on to our plans for the week…

Saturday 16 September

Although Jan doesn’t fly in until the Sunday morning, we’re starting our vacation a day early, as we want to make the most of our time off. We’ll head off on the Eurotunnel, which is about 40 minutes away from where we live. We’ve got a couple of places we want to see on the way down to Paris, as we always see places near Calais and say “we’ll go there one day”, but every time we’re heading to somewhere further afield. Well today will be the one day that we finally get around to seeing some of those places. However that was a challenge in itself…

Luckily, I had written down the names of a couple of places we’d said before we wanted to see, but honestly I know there are so many more. Could I remember any of them? I even went on Google Maps to try and find some of the brown and white tourism signs, but that failed. Do you have any idea how soul destroying it is to keep clicking on Google Maps to move 100 yards or so further down the motorway. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I did that, all to no avail. Oh well…

The first place we’re going to see is Le Block Haus, which is home to the first V1 and V2 launch pad, which used to run bombing raids across England.

Next on the list is La Coupole, which was also used for launching V2 rockets on bombing raids, but the difference here appears to be that it’s very much focused on the slave labourers who built it under the Nazi regime.

I appreciate this does all sound quite depressing, but the Second World War is a huge part of history in this part of France. Our final stop will be to visit the Commonwealth Memorial in Thiepval. It was built with 10 million bricks, and is 45 metres high, and is described as the most majestic British war memorial in the world. It should certainly be quite the sight.

After all this, we’ll head to our hotel for the night, which is the Hilton at Charles de Gaulle. We figured as Jan’s flight is early the next morning, it made sense to spend the night there. We’ll probably get something to eat at the hotel or at the airport. Let’s just say TripAdvisor reviews of places to eat around there are a little slim…

We may well also use their swimming pool and sauna to relax and chill out for a bit, as that was another attraction of staying there.

Next: Paris… in a day…

[purplegal]

Good thing Jan has you as her very own travel planner, I bet you can hit all the highlights for her.

[Colexis Mom]

I'd definitely pick London over DLP! Sounds like great plans for your first day!

[disney_duke]

That's a tough call, but I think she made the right one with London. DLP would require too much time to explore it properly. Based on all I've read, it sounds like the 2.5 days Amy and I will be there should be just about perfect for an amount of time! Still bummed we will be just missing you guys though!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by purplegal

Good thing Jan has you as her very own travel planner, I bet you can hit all the highlights for her.

I hope so!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

I'd definitely pick London over DLP!

Phew, that's good to hear. You always think you're making the right decision, but when others agree, that's a relief.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

That's a tough call, but I think she made the right one with London. DLP would require too much time to explore it properly. Based on all I've read, it sounds like the 2.5 days Amy and I will be there should be just about perfect for an amount of time!

I'd agree with two and a half days, and we'd only have been able to afford a day and a half with Jan, which really wouldn't have been enough.

Still bummed we will be just missing you guys though!

I know, so near and yet so far. I'm sorry, but hopefully our paths will cross again sometime in the future.

[Cam22]

Glad London is working with the plans! So nice that you can use the day before Jan arrives to get in a few places you've wanted to see.

[SuperDave]

I haven't been to DLP since 1998 as my only visit there but definitely London over it! You have some nice plans lined up and I'm sure it will be difficult for Jan for the second anniversary of Bill's death. Good way to keep her time occupied.

When I saw your ticker I thought all of your time would be spent in DLP and Paris. I thought you were going to DLP as they are just now introducing their French version of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, which will be going during your dates. Not on the scale of Epcot's but seems good for an intro. It's basically broken down in to some of the various French regions between food and wine. I know a good about the regions and these things and there are probably a few more regions they can add such as Britanny and the Loire Valley. Looks good otherwise. I think it was the DFB I saw this last week.

Thought you may be interested as you're going to Paris, while it's going on.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

I haven't been to DLP since 1998 as my only visit there but definitely London over it!

Good to hear.

You have some nice plans lined up and I'm sure it will be difficult for Jan for the second anniversary of Bill's death. Good way to keep her time occupied.

That's what I hope.

When I saw your ticker I thought all of your time would be spent in DLP and Paris. I thought you were going to DLP as they are just now introducing their French version of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, which will be going during your dates. Not on the scale of Epcot's but seems good for an intro. It's basically broken down in to some of the various French regions between food and wine. I know a good about the regions and these things and there are probably a few more regions they can add such as Britanny and the Loire Valley. Looks good otherwise. I think it was the DFB I saw this last week.

Interesting. No doubt laid on for the Disneyland Paris races they have taking place over the weekend of 23/24 September. I know some PassPorters are flying in for that.

Thought you may be interested as you're going to Paris, while it's going on.

It's just not something we'll have time to fit in. Maybe one day, but probably not next year either, not with our three week cruise plans!

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part three: Paris… in a day…

Sunday 17 September

This is the day that two becomes three, as Jan flies in to join us. Her flight arrives early, although of course there will no doubt be time added on to that, given she’ll have to clear immigration and customs and collect her luggage before we can greet her. I have to say here that I do think she’s really game. She’s flying into a country where English isn’t the first language (ok, so just about everyone speaks it, but even so…) having only left the States once on a cruise. Fair play to her!

Once we’ve met up with her, we’re going to head back to the hotel, as we’ve also booked her a room for the night. Now there’s of course a chance that her room may be ready, given it’s an airport hotel, and I’m sure that they do their best to turn rooms around as quickly as they can, depending on what time people check out. If there isn’t a room available, then this is where the next part of our cunning plan comes in. We’ll have our room, so Jan will still be able to leave her luggage in our room, and she can also grab a shower. We know from our regular return redeye flights back home that’s one of the first things we want to do when we get home.

Anyway, she’s going to need her strength, as despite having flown in on the redeye, she has a busy day ahead of her, which I feel bad about, but honestly it’s the only way to do it, as we don’t have a day to waste. Equally, I tend to find that if you have a lot to do, you can run on adrenalin. Having said all that, I want to stress that Jan will have the opportunity to sleep on the way into Paris, as that’s where we’re heading today.

We’ll take the train into the centre of Paris, and then our first stop will be to see the beautiful buildings that make up the Louvre, including the ultra modern pyramid. I will confess I wasn’t sure about it when it first arrived, but I really like it now. It wasn’t one of the places Jan said she wanted to see in the city, but I figured it’s visitors to the city should see. You’ll probably see quite a lot of that in this trip, as we’ve done what Jan’s asked, but added a few surprises in too. There’s absolutely no point in going into the Louvre, as there’s just far too much to see in there. In all honesty, in all our visits to Paris, and frankly I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been to the city now, we’ve never been in. Part of it is that we’re not great art fans, but also I know you’ve got to have enough time to really justify a visit there, and time is not something we usually have a lot of when we go to Paris.

Next, we’ll walk through the Tuileries gardens, which are beautiful, weather permitting anyway. There is no way we’re doing that if it’s sheeting down with rain, let’s put it that way! At the end of the Tuileries, we’ll come to Place de la Concorde, which is one of the city’s main squares. It’s home to an Egyptian obelisk, which once stood at the entrance to the Luxor Temple and it’s over 3,000 years old, so basically it’s a pretty cool place.

From here, you also get a nice view of the Champs Elysees, and you get a grasp of how big and insane this road is with traffic, as it’s something like six lanes each way! We’ll then catch the Metro further up the Champs Elysees, as I’ve played the game before of thinking the road isn’t really that long. It is. Trust me on that! Anyway, once we’ve been on the Metro and eliminated close to a mile of walking (see what I mean about it being a long way?) we’ll still be along the Champs Elysees, and we’ll either head straight for the Arc de Triomphe in one direction, or the other way to the Disney Store. It’ll depend on how Jan feels.

We’ll also take our lead from Jan as to whether she wants to go up the Arc de Triomphe, as you have to climb up there. We’ve done it before, albeit many years ago, and Mark’s made it very clear that he won’t be going up the stairs, but I’m game for it. Mind you, if Jan does decide to do it, and I accompany her, I’ll probably regret it halfway up there!

Now of course there’s one place you have to visit if you’re going to Paris, and I’m sure most of you have already guessed what I’m talking about. It is of course the Eiffel Tower. Now these days you need to book your tickets to guarantee getting up to the top. As I understand it, they do still sell tickets on the day, but as we’re not going to be there super early, and I can’t stand in long lines waiting for tickets due to my chronic fatigue, I wasn’t going to chance that.

Our tickets are booked for 3:00pm, so we have a fair bit of time during the day before we get there, but I didn’t want to miss our slot. I have to confess we haven’t gone up the Eiffel Tower since we took Sue and Steve there when they came over to visit us back in 2008. I’m sure the view won’t have changed that much, at least not as much as the London skyline, where there’s constant construction. Somehow Paris seems to be one of those cities where a lot of the work has already been done, plus it’s full of historic buildings in its centre. I suspect the work is still going on, but probably further out of the city. We’ll be going right up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, so I hope Jan doesn’t have any phobias about that… It was her who requested it, so I guess not.

We’ll then make our way over to the Notre Dame on the train, as that’s the final thing Jan wanted to see. This was the thing I really had to work our day around. Because it’s a Sunday, there are a lot of services during the day, and I don’t feel it’s appropriate for us to turn up as visitors while there’s a service going on. If I was at a service, I’d feel uncomfortable with people walking around taking photos. Understandably, there are a lot more services in the morning, but there’s a gap up until 5:45pm in the afternoon, so I figure we’ll probably spend an hour at the Eiffel Tower, and then it shouldn’t take us that long to get to the Notre Dame, maybe half an hour, so hopefully the timing will be perfect.

By this point, I would imagine that Jan’s going to be flagging, having been going all day, after a redeye flight, so we may just call it quits at that point, but if she is still running on adrenalin, we could take a boat trip along the River Seine from outside the Notre Dame. We’ll see how she’s doing, as it is a very neat thing to do, but I don’t want her to push it too much, and I also don’t want her falling asleep as we cruise along…

We’ll then head back to our hotel, and I suspect Jan will probably only want something light from the hotel bar, and after a very full day, we’ll head to bed. We’ll probably all be shattered by then… after all, we will essentially be doing one of the world’s major cities in a day!

Next: time to visit our second city

[purplegal]

Sounds like a great plan. I like to stay awake when we land in Europe in the morning and go all day, helps to deal with time change.

[Colexis Mom]

Great plans for Paris! I think you covered all the highlights of the city!

[disney_duke]

Sounds wonderful! Jan is sure to survive on adrenaline for most of it, but I'd be willing to bet a nap would be had on the River Seine boat cruise.

(Amy and I are covering much of the same things, but seeing St. Chapelle instead of Notre Dame!)