Adam Turtle, Freelance Web Design in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Adam Turtle

Since1986

4 Days in Paris

I haven’t had much to write here for the last while, and with good reason as I really don’t want to bore everyone with complaints on how boring university is going. I’m sure most of you have been in that situation, or currently are there at the moment so it’s hardly news.

With that in mind, Valerie went back to Paris for the festive season last Wednesday and at the last minute we decided that it’d be good for me to take a trip there myself.

Pictures of it all can be found on my Flickr.

Day One

The first day was a quiet one. Plane arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport and had to wait in a queue for ages to pass passport control. Met the parents at the end of it all and pushed our way onto the lift to the car park, confirming the rudeness of French people! To be fair, though, a lot of them weren’t French and just foreign people without much respect for other people. Was definitely a change to Belfast though.

In the evening we had dinner at home with Valerie’s sister and her fiancé. Food was good and tried quite hard to impress with my French, with limited success.

Went to bed quite early as everyone was tired and Day Two was going to be busy, so retired to bed around 10pm. Didn’t sleep very well at all though.

Day Two

Valerie and I took the metro around Paris and checked out all the famous sights – Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge… was really nice. Lots of walking and photos.

The weather was quite cold, and raining slightly so it spoiled it a little, but was still a great city to see around. Got our portrait drawn by a cliche French artist in Montmartre which was nice, and had an amazing pain au chocolat near the Sacre Coeur.

In the evening, we met up with some of Valerie’s family and went for dinner at the Champs-Élysées, which was great. Got back home and had another bad night of sleep, as I had a bit of a chest pain.

Day Three

Disneyland!

Got up very early, around 7.30am (ok, so it’s not that early but I haven’t seen that time on a clock since I was working!). Had breakfast and set off for Disneyland Paris. It’s not too far from where Valerie lives, but with traffic it took us a good hour and 15 minutes to get there.

Checked into our hotel for the night, the fantastic Hotel New York, themed with everything from the Big Apple. Had great facilities – swimming pool, sauna and steam room, gym, ice skating rink… and very nice rooms with huge beds.

Went almost immediately into the Disneyland park, and headed for Big Thunder Mountain first, which was awesome.

More rides continued throughout the day, most of them familiar to me as I went on holiday to Walt Disney World in Florida several years ago. The resort in Paris is essentially a summary of it, but some of the rides are better.

We had lunch with the Disney characters, and then did the rest of the rides in the afternoon. Space Mountain was a highlight.

In the evening, we went to the pool and relaxed for a few hours before heading out to the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, where we were treated to a huge helping of tex-mex food and a great show with cowboys and indians. Loved it!

Got back to the hotel afterwards, quite tired and watched the final moments of the Star Academy final, the French X Factor equivalent.

Day Four

Again, up early and a big breakfast at the hotel. Was excellent. Checked out and headed to Walt Disney Studios park, just beside the main Disneyland one.

As it was Saturday, the crowds were much worse and we had to wait in line much more than the day before. We did the Aerosmith Rock n Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror, as well as a few others. Unfortunately we had to skip the Finding Nemo ride as the queue was 4 hours, which way waaaay to long!

In the end we headed back home in the late afternoon and went out for dinner again with Valerie’s sister. Food was great and Santa showed up to give us all a present, and when we got home there were a few presents under the tree for me.

The next day was just travelling home, so not much excitement. The whole trip was great and just what I needed to clear my head from all the uni crap piling up. Valerie gets back on the 7th of January so I’ll look forward to that. Her parents were really kind to me the whole time so I’d like to say thank you to them for everything. That’s about it for now, happy Christmas!

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