Paris - Deuxième Jour (Second Day)

I wish I have a handicapped kid in a wheelchair, at least I can cut the queue - British teengirl's asinine comment in EuroDisney

For those in the dark, my OVERzealous fixation with Starbucks is attributed to its non-existence in Clogsland. Yes, they are unheard of. You have to go to either Germany or France to get your fix. Even Belgium is offlimits. These countries really put all the necessary measures to prevent this corporate mammoth from bulldozing their local coffee chains. Thus, when I saw Schiphol's answer to Starbucks and the ones in France, I was unquestionably over the moon!

Anyhow, second day was all about Disney and Notre Dame de Paris.

Eventhough Eurodisney opens at 10 a.m. daily, we decided to take it easy and left the hotel at half past 11. The previous day's fiasco left all of us tired to the bones. We ate some goodies from a neighbourhood boulangerie for breakfast, before trotting off down the street towards the nearest RER station from where we have to board the train to Disney.

(An aside: Along with a small fridge, the hotel room comes equipped with a kitchenette, which was handy for us to cook Sadia's meals as well as to make beverages for brekkie time)

As it turns out, that said station is located right after the river. Hence, we had to walk all the way 'uptown' which I didn't particularly mind since we'd pass by that Starbucks joint and I wanted to get my long-awaited cuppa. Hehe. I got my Venti! Caramel Macchiato, to be shared with hubby of course.....



The Malaysian tourists that we are, we snapped photos at every possible nook and cranny. Haha. Just jossing. Make that just anything that caught our fancy enroute to the station. Paris is such a beautifully-preserved city. The impressive markings of various schools of architecture and arts are both ubiquitious and ostentatious here. Gilded, ornate, elaborate statues, sculptures and reliefs, they are in stark contrast to the humble masonry works that are readily seen in Delft, or the Netherlands for that matter.

We lost our bearing for a while after the river crossing at Chatelet as proper signage for a RER-service line was not properly installed at Chatelet's roadside public map. The RER was in fact a bit further down the road from the riverbank than we had initially imagined. Underground, we engaged in the usual 'upper-body' and 'gluteus-toning' exercises carrying the buggy from that stop to its connection to the RER. To say the least, it was a long subterranean hike to the designated RER track.

Whilst I attended to Sadia, hubby lined up to buy return tickets to the Disney stop - the Marne la Vallee-Chessy. It's the last one along the RER 'A' line so you'd not have any trouble missing your stop! As hubby queued up, he overheard an American tourist - two persons behind him - saying to his kid, who had earlier nudged the dad to bring him to Disney (pointing to the subway's Disney ad), that it'd be an insult to go to a Disney Park in Europe. When hubby loudly requested for Disney-bound train tickets and simultaneously looked back at the guy, the American hastily added that it'd be an insult if Disney is right behind your house. Yeah right. Hehe.

The train ride took about 40 minutes and we arrived there close to 1 p.m. The legendary long lines to purchase entrance tickets in Disney are quite living up to its name! The multitude of people are indescribable. Luckily, one staff pointed us towards a ticket booth which was relatively empty. Spot-on!


By the time we entered Main Street, USA, we were already famished. A parade was just wrapping up on the said Street, with loud music blaring on the overhead speakers cum street lights, and I managed to click away at some characters on the parade floats.





After taking some must-have photos in front of Belle's Castle, we trudged off to the middle part of Disney Park and and saw the magnificent Lancelot Carousel flitted by in a kaleidoscope of colours. In this area, we ate some crepes sucre (sugared crepes) at one of many food kiosks located all over the park in order to tide us over. (Side note: Crepes are French's version of street food - a personal favourite is the yummy Nutella-filled crepe)



Taking cue from my low sugar count and obvious antsiness, hubby (thanks love!) suggested a proper, relaxing lunch. We were hesitant to eat earlier because of the huge crowd having their lunch at all available seating-down eateries. We settled down at Toad Hall Restaurant, eponymously named after that character in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Since Mr Toad is British, this fast food joint's stellar performer is its traditional fish and chips. I wouldn't go so far as to claim it is 'traditional' though.

Following lunch, we strolled towards Adventureland, passing by Pirates of the Caribbean ride, the Swiss Robinson Family's tree house as well as the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. Despite all the audio-visual stimulations that a Disney Park has to offer, Sadia fell into a slumber which lasted for almost 2 hours. We found a quiet spot for which she could sleep uninterrupted, a dull photo-taking area nestled somewhere in between Adventureland and Frontierland.

As usual, we took turns roaming about the nearby areas - taking toilet breaks and window-shopping for souvenirs at the sundry shop. I actually even contemplated on the prospect of going on one of the theme park's rides. For parents (or the general public), the Park has a system whereby you could take a 'Fastpass' token at one of the rides and are required to come back for your time slot on the ride. Two drawbacks on this service are that the 'Fastpass' is only available on certain rides - usually the not-so-famous ones - and the limited number of tokens for each cycle which could work to your disadvantage when a throng of visitors have the same idea. There is a 'Baby Switch' service on offering too for rides that are not suitable for baby/toddler such as thrill and/or scary rides. However, in our haste to get into the park, we had forgotten to inquire about it from the ticket booth.


Needless to say, our Disney outing was mostly spent strolling around the park, soaking in the scenery and simply hanging out. Perhaps, we have passed that stage where getting that adrenaline rush is uppermost in our minds. Or maybe we have to wait until our kid is much, much older! ;) And the Park is a little less crowded... :(

Post-nap, we walked briefly through the darkened caverns at Adventure Isle before taking the closest exit as some naughty kids were making ghoulish howls inside the cave hideout which might scare Sadia in turn. We enjoyed some ice-cream cones instead outside the coves. It was during our purchase of said desserts that we overheard a teenager telling her equally heavily make-up friends about her wish to have a paraplegic child so as to enable her to be first in line at her favourite attractions. That was sheer adolescent stupidity!

As the Malaysian Malays would say "Cakap itu doa", which loosely means you should be careful what you wish for as it will come true.

We dropped by a beautiful and lavish Moroccan-style oasis to view Aladdin's series of diorama and thereon ventured into Discoveryland and reminisced about old times after seeing the thrill ride, Space Mountain Dome and the virtual reality ride, Star Tours.

Thereafter, we temporarily exited the Disney Park and headed straight to the other main attraction, Disney Studio. The place however appeared to be a pandemonium - chaotic, disorganised and very loud. Sadia, who by now had fully woken up from her nap, was more than ready to explore the grounds. We had to contain her excitement lest she got lost in the maddening crowd. Oh did I mention it was a scorching hot day? It was even more so when we stepped into the Studio. Must be the noisy uproar - it brought temperatures up a few notches.

Enough is enough. We darted out of there in a flash and found shelter in one of the grassy mounds, randomly planted alongside the pathways between Disney Studio and Disney Park. Kicking off our shoes, we momentarily lied down on the ample grass. It had been a long day. Sadia was however displeased by our state of inanimation and demanded that we got a move on. Believe it or not, we lugged our feet back to Main Street, USA and indulged in some shopping.



We had originally wanted to wait for the 7:30p.m. parade before hopping the train back to Paris proper. However, the hordes of people were really getting on our nerves that we resolved to go back as soon as we finished feeding Sadia her dinner. One pit stop before we were out the doors was the toilet. I have to say that for a world renowned household brandname like Disney, the women toilet (near the exit) was in such a deplorable, dirty state. I'd expect this back in Malaysia's public toilets but not at a Disney Park! There were toilet papers strewn all over the place, wet splotches on the floor and suspicious-looking liquids on toilet seats. Egad! Hubby however countered that the men toilet was in tip-top shape. Is it just a woman thang?!

Inside the bathroom, a girl asked her mummy as to why the toilet was dirty to which the mum replied it was almost the end of the day. Utter rubbish! It was close to 7 p.m. and the Park only stops operating at 10 p.m.! Toilet rant aside, at 7 p.m. we were well on our way back to the city of love. Whew, what a day!


And yet, we had scheduled in one final stop before heading home to the hotel. The Notre Dame Cathedral. On the way, we took a picture at Place du Chatelet, a fountain famous for its sphinx heads and its long column on which a gilded winged figure stands aloft (We dropped by there earlier in the morning as well). Notre Dame de Paris was a magnificent sight to behold. Its Gothic architecture as well as intricate sculptures and reliefs depict dramatically a long gone French era. While Sadia and hubby busy chasing pigeons, I sat there marvelling at its aesthetic form. But the Cathedral's height is not as awe-inspiring as we would have visualised it to be. Yikes! Is it sacrilegious even to say that? Haha. In the end, we couldn't help but to cry out "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"







Till my third entry, I bid you Au Revoir!

Paris - Premier Jour (First Day)

If anything can go wrong, it will - Murphy's Law Number One

Ah Paree! I'm still recuperating from the whirlwind affair of it all. Mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. Yes, if I have one word to describe our Parisian jaunt, it would be WHIRLWIND. The sheer madness and exhaustion, not to mention undue warm climate, are the perfect ingredients to test one's patience and endurance. Will I ever come back again? Well, you have to read on and judge for yourself...(this is part One of Five)

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We woke up around 6 in Monday morning in order to catch the train to Schiphol at 6:50. Despite our flight's departure time at 9:30 and the fact that for inter-EU countries, we were only required to check in one hour earlier, we gather it'd be practical for us to be there early, what with the tight security measures at the departure hall.

However, long shower and other unforeseen, last-minute circumstances caused us to miss that aforesaid train. Correction: the time spent in the bathroom by none other but moi was the main culprit. My father can easily attest to this habit - us children take our own sweet time to get ready whenever we're travelling. :)

On the way to the station, hubby admonished me for making us miss that train. While I felt mildly remorseful, I was comforted by the knowledge that there were other services available to get us to the airport on time. Or was it too premature of me to say that?

Turned out, the direct train from Delft to Schiphol was out of order that particular Monday morning! Apparently, the heavy rain the night before, brought along with it a bout of lightning of sheer intensity which had damaged the electrical lines for the tracks bound for the luchthaven (airport)!

Of all the days that this could happen, it took place on the day we're supposed to leave the country.

We counted on our alternative plan which was to catch the 7:24 train to Den Haag Centraal and from there to take another train for Schiphol. However, at estimated arrival time of 8:28, we were cutting it close to the aforementioned check-in rule for EU countries. At the airport, we sprinted to the designated check-in counter only to find a throng of holidaymakers filling up almost the entire space on our terminal. Whew! So this is how it looks like when you travel during the summer.....

After a long queue to check our luggage, we got our boarding passes and made our way to the ridiculously longer line to pass through the security checkpoint. Luckily for us, the flight was delayed to 9:45.

The security procedure went without a hitch and we gathered our stuff and briskly walked to our departure gate. Enroute to the gate, I exclaimed to my husband "Starbucks! Starbucks!" True to their words, Starbucks finally made its appearance in Schiphol's departure hall from June 2007. But, the timing wasn't in our favour to drop by for a cuppa. Or so I thought...

It was drizzling by the time we sat down at our gate. Gate 9. As I was catching my breath at the usual fabricated seats, hubby quietly informed me, with his forehead furrowing in that familiar pattern, that he inadvertently left his hoodie at the security clearance area. Shucks!

He had recently bought that hoodie after losing his favourite grey one during the Den Haag class session back in early June. It'd be a double whammy if it vanished again! Fortunately, by giving the guard specific details on the hoodie like "It has bird shit on its hoodie" worked to his advantage! The hoodie was automatically retrieved!

Anyhow, we boarded the plane around 9:30 which was noticeably late for a flight leaving at 9:45. Fine and good.

We settled into our airplane seats, looking forward for the flight to be done and over with. And yet, like Murphy's Law, that failed to happen. You see, the weather purportedly took a turn for the worse, thus disabling the plane from taking off and holding its passengers captive. We received updates on the situation on and off, each time promising that we'd be leaving in "3-5 minutes" or "in the short interval of 15 more minutes".

The string of promises was just plain-out lies and empty! In the end, the airplane only flew out one and half hour later!

Of course, like a whinging grown-up with no caffeine in her system and equally sleep-deprived, I grew annoyed of the waiting game as well as the narrow, confined spaces and wished instead I was in Starbucks nursing my grogginess. Unlike her mom, Sadia was a good sport and happily played with this lovely girl - no more than 9 years old - who sat behind us. She had eyed Sadia even while we were at the waiting area and instantly took a liking to her.

Sadia only started to get restless and tired when the plane taxied down the runway for take-off, and thankfully only woke up when we got off the plane. We alighted in Paris' Charles De Gaulle airport close to 1 p.m. and scooted off to the baggage claim area for our luggage.

Remember what I wrote in the beginning about Murphy's Law? Only one of our two baggages turned out on the conveyor belt! After waiting for about half an hour for the other one, hubby decided to fill up a form for our missing luggage. Sadia was travel-weary, agitated by the lack of sleep and wailed uncontrollably as we waited for hubby at an empty seat. She wanted to follow this Spanish girl - about 6-7 years old - who suddenly propped herself next to us on the waiting seats and 'volunteered' playing with Sadia. The girl also cried when her mom took her away. She even came back again to say goodbye to Sadia which caused Sadia to cry even louder by the time she was gone. Gosh! I wondered if Sadia's hungry.....

Since she was inconsolable to my pleas, I walked into the baggage complaint room and passed Sadia to hubby. Thereupon, I took over answering the luggage-related inquiries from the staff on duty. As she was about to ask for the stubs we had obtained in Schiphol for our luggage, hubby hollered from outside the room and gestured to our misplaced luggage! Due to the flight delay, many suitcases and bags went missing in the long baggage loading queue. By the time we exited the baggage claim area, two ladies were still waiting for theirs. I hope theirs would soon turn up too!

We rushed to the taxi stand but doubled back to this booth selling bakery goods and sandwiches called simply Paul, situated near the exit to the stand. It was a quarter to 2 and Sadia needed some food for lunch. We didn't count on to be this late. Our flight was originally scheduled to arrive at 10:45!

One great thing from this helter skelter is finding my macaroons at Paul! Make that chocolate macaroons. Hehe. Little that we know at the time that Paul is presently a successful bakery cum patesserie chain in France.

After practically inhaling a macaroon in the taxi (Sadia even fancied it better than her croissant), we arrived at the doorstep of our boutique hotel at 2:30 and plonked straight to bed. It was only an hour later we made a move to see Paris' premier shopping hub at Boulevard Haussmann. Like a regular Parisian, we took the underground Metro there.

But unlike a typical Parisian, we didn't count on the underground transport system to be very STROLLER-UNFRIENDLY. You have to heave your stroller from one staircase to another inside the serpentine tunnels and walkways that are Paris Metro/RER (Regional trains). (If you google stroller and paris, you'd be surprised of a number of hits of grievances). Only a few stations are equipped with lifts and even the simplest task of going through the turnstile to go down the subway is wrought with difficulty. Unless you wait for the station staff (if there is one on duty) to open the stroller/handicapped door for you, you most likely have to fold your stroller to get in. I think we should have lost a few kilos carrying the stroller up and down a flight of stairs!

In Lina's Cafe

How we were glad when we at last settled in Lina's Cafe in Galleries Lafayette for our teatime sandwiches :). And Sadia was fast asleep too so that gave us ample time to shop for her Raya clothes, each time taking turns while one of us waited with sleeping Sadia. Almost everything was on sale that we were spoilt for choice! And speaking of choice, Galeries Lafayette has the biggest selection of clothes - women, men and children - that I've seen so far.

Palace of Justice

Palace of Justice

After that arduous task just to take the Metro, we decided to walk halfway back to our hotel which was situated across the river and a short distance away from the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was raining by the time we got off the Metro at Chatelet, the last station before crossing to the other side of the river. We dashed through the sidewalks teeming with pedestrians in the falling rain. In spite of the blinding rush, I managed to locate a neighborhood Starbucks in one of the row of shops. Yippee! I'm stoked! Going to get my kick first thing tomorrow!

Neighbourhood Starbucks!

That is, before taking the RER for our Eurodisney outing the next day....