Showgirl Story Time: Paris Trip 2019 Day 2

Hello and welcome to another showgirl storytime. Welcome to day two of my trip to Paris 2019. We decided we would stay in the countryside of Paris, which is where Paris Disney is, for a couple days, and then go to the center of Paris for the rest of the time for the reunion.

So of course we hadn’t had a French breakfast yet because we hadn’t woken up in Paris. This was our first day. And so we went to this little cafe, (sigh) around the corner from the Airbnb we were at. And the Airbnb, we were at was literally the size of a small bedroom. The and that was the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bed that sofa turned bed. I figured, let’s stay cheaply at Disney, because I want to spend more money on like souvenirs and the experience rather than where we’re going to spend, sleep, you know. So we went, we had this tiny little room, and then we went to breakfast and Phelyx had his yummy coffee that he always has. And I had a pan chocolate and he had his first croissant. The basic goods in Paris, in France are just to die for like there’s, It must be like a combination of the elevation and the ingredients that are just like heaven.

So, I wore my little outfit. This my tiny little ears that I got on Amazon. I didn’t realize they were child size. They were perfect, but they were a little out of control. And this really cool Yzma bow that my little sister got me. Oh, she used to work at Walt Disney World. And then my Yzma Disneybound. So I was Disneybounding as Yzma. And I did that two years prior, when we went to Disneyland with my whole family. Actually, sorry it was the year prior. So we went in 2018. So it’s been two years since we went as a whole family. Mom Dad four sisters and all the grandkids. It was quite the experience. Anyway, Yzma is my is my favorite villain in the whole Disney World. I went as Yzma and of course my love went as Professor Phelyx, with Mickey ears on. And as you can see by the photos he wasn’t very happy to be there. I think he was playing. I hope he was playing because we I really did have the most beautiful day. Except for, I’m wearing my cute little Dr Scholl’s mules. And those are really the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn despite the fact that they are four inch heels. They do not work well for cobblestones and walking all day at Paris Disney. I never would have worn these to Disneyland. But I had heard that Paris Disney was by far smaller than Disneyland. So I wasn’t really worried about having any pain.

Needless to say, I was in tears by lunchtime, and I was traipsing the entire park with my love looking for a pair of flip flops to replace the painful shoes. Unfortunately, the only ones I could find were super extra large like for men, cheap, flip flops. But I was able to find them and that kind of helped my feet for the rest of the day. I still don’t recommend wearing flip flops to Disney, any Disney park because there really is no support. So, lesson learned proper walking shoes.

I wanted to talk about the differences between Disneyland and Paris Disney. So I’ve only ever been to Disneyland, no other Disney park. So, it was kind of a shock for me and I had read that it was different and I was excited to like feel that difference. It’s kind of like culture shock. We were experiencing culture shock every day, because it was so different. The people that were going to Paris Disney were from all countries. The one, for some reason in Disneyland, it’s a lot of, just from my experience, that I’ve seen a lot of a lot more Asians, and a lot of Americans of all races and ethnicities.

In, Disney Paris. It was like there was a lot, and everyone was speaking French. And it was, it was like whoa where are they from. There’s a little bit of culture shock, there was no tipping going on. A lot of weird things. The weirdest to me probably was that you could get a beer at any of the restaurants. Any of them! Like if you wanted a, kind of, it was kind of a hot dog. It was definitely not a hot dog in my book. It was like a French baguette sliced with a big weiner in it. So maybe it was more German style. But you, there was always an option for a beer. Of course you could have soda. But Disneyland, in, in LA is so different in that every time you get off a ride, you’re literally corralled into a store and like you have to go into a store, before you can get off the ride. That didn’t happen at a single ride in Disney Paris. It was late like it was blowing my mind how not consumerist that Park was.

I didn’t see strollers everywhere with bags and bags and bags of stuff that people had bought. There were strollers, but they just weren’t like in California where there’s like bags hanging from everything and branded cups and you know branded, anything and everything from Disney. It was, it was really weird. And there were little girls dressed princesses and little boys dressed as Marvel characters and princes and all that. Of course that was still there, but the, it just wasn’t as consumerist. Everyone wasn’t just like buying everything.

I thought that was really odd because usually when I buy when I see things in, like I see someone wearing, like the the lanyards with pins on it. If I saw a pin, I’d be like, oh, where’s that pin or I’d ask, ask someone in LA, I’d ask, “Where’d do you buy that? Where did you buy it?” and then go to that store and buy it. That wasn’t happening. There were some people with their own personalized Disney shirts, they had made the family shirts, you know, is the trend in America, I guess. But there weren’t a lot of like things that people were wearing that you could tell they had bought that day or the day before, and they were doing their second day there, or whatever. So that was really, really weird for me.

Oh, another thing that was really weird. Was the food was different. Okay like I talked about the hot dog the hot dog, literally was like a really long French roll sliced with a wiener on it. They didn’t have snack carts everywhere. Like in LA, they have a snack cart literally or no every 20 to 50 feet. You can buy churros, popcorn, cotton candy, pickles, you know, fresh fruit, water bottles. You couldn’t find water bottles, anywhere in the park. It was the weirdest thing. So you always had to buy Evian, when you, if you wanted water you had to buy it with your meal or whatever. That’s the only place they had water was like, it’s just, it’s hot, it was humid. It felt very much like LA, it was really interesting.

I was really craving a Pickle, Pickle and churros. Because those are my two favorite treats, when I go to Disney. I have pickles like two or three times in a day. And then churro, like, at least once. No pickles, no churros just fresh fruit and baked goods.

So the baked goods were very different from America, they were of course Mickey shaped, I don’t think they had the beignets, the Mickey beignets, but they had, they were just very French little petite, things that were just very French. And they were just wrapped in things and you could just go grab one and pay for it. So that was really weird.

The churros that they attempted to do were the only place you could give them was a Mexican restaurant. You got them as part of your meal. And it was literally a bag of loops of cinnamon batter loops. They were not sure us in my opinion. They tasted, okay, but they’ve just we’re not churros. So it was really weird and a bummer, because I, I really wanted a churro, and my pickle. I didn’t understand why there were no pickles, but there were no pickles.

And then of course, like I said the beer, at the end of the day, we attach champagne to watch the fireworks. That was, like, probably the highlight of the day. I was in so much pain and I was in tears, but I was going to stay for the freakin fireworks and have a glass of champagne with my love. And they weren’t glasses, they were the plastic flutes, but anyway. The guy had a little cart, he was pushing, and it had the champagne and I was just like you have got to be kidding me. There is a champagne cart, rolling around before the fireworks, so that people can have champagne before their fireworks. Amazing. And of course there’s differences in the rides. And the most notable to me was that they didn’t have an Alice ride. I love the Alice ride, they had the teacups. The Alice section of the park Fantasyland, it was a labyrinth, which was interesting. And I don’t know, I thought it was, it was almost like, wah, wah. A labyrinth? Okay. So that was, that’s kind of a bummer but it was still cool just to look it up the details and go through it and of course my feet were really killing me at that point, so it was hard to be there and be present and enjoy it.

And then the Haunted Mansion is called the Phantom Manor in Paris Disney, and of course, everything, funny, funnily enough is in French and in English. It wasn’t so for pirates. Pirates, those are my two favorite rides, by the way, the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Like I will just ride those all day and all night. Oh and the Astro Blasters Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters favorite rides, hands down. And they actually had one similar Astro Blasters at Paris Disney, and so that was a lot of fun. But everything was in French. So, that was fine.

That was Disney, we only get one day in Disney, and it was quite the culture shock. And I really actually am excited to take my daughters there one day. Because it just, it was very different and it was not as crowded as LA. It was lovely. So thanks for listening to day two of my Paris trip 2019. I will see you on the next one day three—going to the center of Paris.