Disneyland: Paris

Maïté and I somewhat alternated between visiting each other since, as mentioned before, she was now based in Paris [at Ipsos], and as it would seem, it was my turn to visit. I visited Paris twice on this account, and this is my narrative of the two memorable stays there.

[Click on the bolded-italicised-title-links for more pictures]

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Disneyland Paris [8 August]: The main reason for this particular trip was Disneyland Paris. I have always wanted to go to an amusement park with Maïté and it just so happened that her cousin worked in Disneyland Paris. It was the perfect excuse to go: free tickets & entrance in addition to accommodation in Maïté's place in Paris; it was either now or never. It was amazing with activities such as the hardcore vomit-inducing rollercoaster rides, as well as gay romantic ones and kids' ones, and a Hollywood vehicle stunt show. We saw Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck [my favourite, since he is so angry all the time], and I even saw Cinderella [in her full blonde hotness]!

It was indeed a magical experience, they put a lot of effort into the ambience and theme, surrounded always by annoying music and fairies, but it was impressive. This brought me to wonder why it had failed in the beginning, remembering my case study in International Management class. The lines were a bit extremely long though, which forced us to skip some rides since there were lines with as much as 4 to 5 hours waiting time. After a day of fun, games, and eating a Mickey Burger, we had the privilege of witnessing the fireworks display, incredible.

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Paris, Je t'Aime [11 September]: The city of love is not what the world thinks it to be, I personally don't quite take to it with all its noise, exorbitant crowds and the tremendous discourtesy and impoliteness of people. However, I have discovered that there can be some hidden districts and corners, which never fail to charm. Even when it begins to rain, the soft reflections of street lamps on the wet roads under the darkening night can touch the coldest of hearts and thrust you into a state of nostalgic reminiscence of this typical European ambience.

On this memorable day of September 11th, we visited a green park atop a hill, somewhere in the north-eastern part of Paris: Parc des Buttes Chaumont. At the top of the hill, we were rewarded with a beer garden bar [Rosa Bonheur], it was, as the French would call it, très sympa [very nice]! There was the most magnificent sunset view of Sacré Coeur from here. After our pint-of-beer "aperitif", we ironically had dinner in an Indian Restaurant, l'Elephant Rouge [it was quite good; it just felt odd that I could make all the same stuff at home :)]. The following days, we simply floated around a few districts, discovering places and restaurants along the way. Paris is not that bad after all.

For more pictures, see: Disneyland Paris Paris, Je t'Aime