Lesley Wake
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2017
"Don't Anger the Dolls" - A France and Disneyland Paris Trip Report, June 2018
Hello! And welcome!
I'm Lesley, and this is my third trip report on the forums, but my first visit to Disneyland Paris! You can read about my Pre-Trip-Report here: "Remy, Marie, and Me"
First, some basics about the trip, then we'll get into Introductions!
Trip background: The whole idea of a European vacation came from a combination of factors – my mom not wanting to take another solo vacation with my dad (ha!), my sister starting law school in the fall meaning that this would be one of the last times for a family vacation, my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary in the fall. It took longer to decide exactly where in Europe (this involved some Google surveys and voting...), but eventually we settled on 2 weeks in France (other options included Italy, Germany, Scotland/Ireland). While you could probably do a whirlwind tour of France in 2 weeks we didn’t want to totally exhaust ourselves, so we ended up focusing on three areas: Paris, Loire Valley, and Normandy.
And of course, because I'm a crazy Disney nut, I could not go to France without heading to Disneyland Paris! No one else was interested, so I ended up doing this solo!
Trip Itinerary:
There are several different parts to this trip:
Part 1: Paris, May 26 – June 1
The whole family spent 6 nights in an Airbnb in the center of Paris. This includes visits to museums, monuments, Versailles, and lots of walking and food!
Part 2: Loire Valley, June 2-5
Next we travelled to Amboise, in the Loire Valley, where we stayed at another wonderful Airbnb. We visited plenty of chateaus, as well as tried to take things a bit slower!
Part 3: Normandy, June 6-8
Then we travelled up to Normandy, staying at a third Airbnb in Courseulles-sur-Mer, the town where Juno Beach (Canadian landing site on D-Day) is located. We visited D-Day monuments and places of remembrance, plus a day trip to Giverny.
Part 4: Disneyland Paris, June 9-15
On June 9th, we all split up and I headed to Disneyland Paris solo (the actual DLP days are June 10-14), staying at the Sequoia Lodge in a Golden Forest Room. That was bookended by a 1-night stay in Val D’Europe and at the Sheraton Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.
Some notes on this Trip Report:
-Most photos in here are my own, taken via an iPhone. But when the whole family was together, we realized we had 9 cameras between us: 5 iPhones (mom didn’t use hers), 2 point and shoot (mom and dad), and 2 fancy DSLRs (Joey and Anthony). So rather than making sure everyone got photos of all the group shots, we just let one or two people take them. Then after we got home, I created an Amazon Prime Photos Family Vault – it allows me to invite up to 5 others to share photos and gives them all access to Amazon Prime Photos (unlimited photo storage). So some places I may be using photos taken by someone else.
-For some of the historical sites, I decided to include some more information on their history. I am putting that all in italics.
Read along to get the answers to find out the following:
Hello! And welcome!
I'm Lesley, and this is my third trip report on the forums, but my first visit to Disneyland Paris! You can read about my Pre-Trip-Report here: "Remy, Marie, and Me"
First, some basics about the trip, then we'll get into Introductions!
Trip background: The whole idea of a European vacation came from a combination of factors – my mom not wanting to take another solo vacation with my dad (ha!), my sister starting law school in the fall meaning that this would be one of the last times for a family vacation, my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary in the fall. It took longer to decide exactly where in Europe (this involved some Google surveys and voting...), but eventually we settled on 2 weeks in France (other options included Italy, Germany, Scotland/Ireland). While you could probably do a whirlwind tour of France in 2 weeks we didn’t want to totally exhaust ourselves, so we ended up focusing on three areas: Paris, Loire Valley, and Normandy.
And of course, because I'm a crazy Disney nut, I could not go to France without heading to Disneyland Paris! No one else was interested, so I ended up doing this solo!
Trip Itinerary:
There are several different parts to this trip:
Part 1: Paris, May 26 – June 1
The whole family spent 6 nights in an Airbnb in the center of Paris. This includes visits to museums, monuments, Versailles, and lots of walking and food!
Part 2: Loire Valley, June 2-5
Next we travelled to Amboise, in the Loire Valley, where we stayed at another wonderful Airbnb. We visited plenty of chateaus, as well as tried to take things a bit slower!
Part 3: Normandy, June 6-8
Then we travelled up to Normandy, staying at a third Airbnb in Courseulles-sur-Mer, the town where Juno Beach (Canadian landing site on D-Day) is located. We visited D-Day monuments and places of remembrance, plus a day trip to Giverny.
Part 4: Disneyland Paris, June 9-15
On June 9th, we all split up and I headed to Disneyland Paris solo (the actual DLP days are June 10-14), staying at the Sequoia Lodge in a Golden Forest Room. That was bookended by a 1-night stay in Val D’Europe and at the Sheraton Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.
Some notes on this Trip Report:
-Most photos in here are my own, taken via an iPhone. But when the whole family was together, we realized we had 9 cameras between us: 5 iPhones (mom didn’t use hers), 2 point and shoot (mom and dad), and 2 fancy DSLRs (Joey and Anthony). So rather than making sure everyone got photos of all the group shots, we just let one or two people take them. Then after we got home, I created an Amazon Prime Photos Family Vault – it allows me to invite up to 5 others to share photos and gives them all access to Amazon Prime Photos (unlimited photo storage). So some places I may be using photos taken by someone else.
-For some of the historical sites, I decided to include some more information on their history. I am putting that all in italics.
Read along to get the answers to find out the following:
- Would I eat more croissants or crepes?
- Which museum was my favorite?
- Did I visit everything I wanted to in Paris?
- What was my favorite ride at Disneyland Paris?
- What did I think of the food at Disneyland Paris?
- Overall where would I rank the Paris parks?
- What are my future plans for visiting international parks, and how did that change after this visit?
- How on earth did I come up with the title for this TR?
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