Joyeux Noël à tous et à tous bonne soirée!!

I have to say I feel incredibly lucky to be sharing this Christmas with Jason in Paris, but there is a little bit of sadness that comes with it since I’m away from my family. This isn’t the first time I’ve been away from my parents on Christmas, but it really does feel like just something is missing without them, as well as the rest of my family. There’s something to be said for being at home and close to all your loved ones; to wake up, unwrap the carefully selected gifts you spend so long picking out, seeing that excitement in your loved ones’ eyes, and of course rejoicing that Christ was born (although most likely not in December). It really is a great time to come together and love one another. So on that note, I will now go on with today’s regularly scheduled blog. ;)

We slept in after being out till 2:00 going to midnight mass and awoke to find our yummy Petit Beurre knock offs, this time surfers instead of skaters and we had our plans all laid out for us to go to Disney Paris. Here in the city there is no more snow except on grassy areas, and most of the ice on pathways has been cleaned away. (I know for sure they worked on our stairs this morning!) But as we watched the landscape pass by, we were seeing more and more snow still on the ground. I figured since it’s Disney, all the sidewalks would be cleaned off, but boy was I wrong. We, as well as many other people, spent the majority of the day sliding around – nothing like in the US, and now I know for sure Walt made the correct decision placing our major parks in Florida and California. We did have an amazing time – don’t get me wrong – but holy crap was it cold. The high was 27 degrees but the wind chill was 17 or so. Brrrr!! So I’m sure you’re wondering what type of rides they have at Disney Paris, and the answer is there are a lot of the same rides at the parks in Orlando that we’re all so use to. It’s so funny because most of the rides are like the leftover or old rides form when we were younger, and almost all of them are in English. The rides we went on were Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Star Tours, Les Mystères du Nautilus, Captain EO (the Michael Jackson 3D movie from the 80s), It’s a Small World, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Pirates of the Caribbean and Phantom Manor (the haunted mansion). We wanted to ride Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) but it was having technical difficulties. We also wanted to ride Peter Pan, but I didn’t want to wait 40 minutes, and they were out of fast passes.

I forgot how to take pictures with the sun around.. this is the first time in 7 days I've seen it!

This is what the all th walk ways looked like. You should have seen the strollers. ;)

I totally kicked his butt. I love this ride!!

How many leagues under the sea?

Ready for EO. So funny how 80's it was.

Darth was totally hot for me. haha

Paprika chips. They are pretty good.

Waiting in line.

Totally frozen.

When you wish upon a star...

We kissed during the 2nd plunge but were too cheap to buy the 22€ picture.

Main Street USA, France.

After we finished the rides we went to the Disney Village and did some shopping. By that point we were really hungry and ended up experiencing one of the weirdest restaurants ever. It was called Billy Bob’s Wild West Saloon, and let me tell you, the Parisians must think all of the “states” are just Wild West and saloons, because that’s the representation that Disney proudly displays. So yeah, this was a very pricey all-you-can-eat buffet of “tex-mex” including paté, terrine de poisson, pasta, chicken nuggets, roast beef, green beans, taboulé , crème anglaise and all kinds of French desserts. It was so weird. I can’t express that enough! And then the waitress totally hit on Jason – hilarious actually. He asked for a carafe of water for me, and the waitress asked him “Have you been good?” Jason then gets this weird look and they both look at me… and I have not a clue what’s going on. So the waitress asks “In English?” and I’m still not sure what to say, so she starts laughing and Jason’s face turns red. Jason figures out that she’s kidding around and does the same in reply, telling her that he has been good and that he hopes she’ll have the kindness to bring us some water, if it’s not too much trouble. She said “I’ll see”, grinned like a true Wild West saloon dame, and took off. It was crazy. Like I said, a really weird restaurant that was crazy overpriced.

This is the movie theatre. Told you they are obsessed witht he Wild West.

The ride back into the city was quick and painless, and we’re both very grateful to be home and in our little apartment for the night. Joyeux Noël à tous et à tous bonne soirée (Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night)!

Train Ride home