Mickey, Evil Dolls and Snails

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  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Monday, September 29, 2008

Bonjour!  Dacouter, everybody! Don't worry if you don't recognize the second word, since I made it up.  I use it everywhere because it helps me sound French.  Tracy just shakes her head, but even she has to admit the power of this word...with a map in hand, and a puzzled look on my face, all I would have to do is approach someone and say "Dacouter Disney??", and he would point me in the right direction.  I would say, "Dacouter" to thank him for his help and with a little nod and a smile, our conversation would be complete.  It's too bad we are now in Greece, as I was clearly getting the hang of this language thing.  Come to think of it, it should work in Greece as well...I'll just say it with a little more phlegm in my throat.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  When we last blogged, Tracy was distancing herself from me as I was navigating the "France resident" version of the Disneyland Paris website to get a better deal, and book 5 of us into a 4 person hotel room

Minnie and the Girls

.  Well, I am pleased to say everything worked out just fine.  The only "panic" came when the Disney hotel check-in clerk started wondering why I didn't speak French, yet my "Disney welcome package" was printed in French.  A further "Spock-ian" eyebrow was raised when she noticed that I had a second confirmation number for the purchase of park entry tickets, even though our 4 person package deal already included park tickets.  I chose to stay silent (although I muttered "Dacouter!" under my breath).  Checking into a hotel room really shouldn't be that stressful!!

As expected, Disney was great fun (and no, we didn't "homeschool" while we there.  Unless you count the lesson I gave entitled, "Being Prompt is Important", with the subtitle, "If you are registered for the 7:00am breakfast sitting, you should be there at 7:00am, not 7:10am!").  Tracy thinks I'm too anal sometimes [Note from Tracy:  Maybe even most times].  The kids suggested that I should just relax, and open a theme park called "Grumpyville"...they had way too much fun with that idea.  I organize a highly cost effective, and only slightly immoral, trip to Disney and this is the thanks I get!  For the record, only four of us would partake in the breakfast so we didn't feel like we were taking advantage of Mickey.

Some tidbits from our three days at Disney:

·    While most of the rides are the same as what you would see at the North American Disney parks, there are a few differences, such as the attraction named, "Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains"

Disney Parade

.  Once we rode this attraction, I knew that the American equivalent was "Snow White and a Bunch of Dwarves";

·    Is it normal for your 6 year old daughter to say to you while you're trying not to vomit, "What's wrong Daddy? Wasn't it so cool to go upside down on that rollercoaster!!";

·    Tracy likes roller coasters...I don't.   I like watching hockey games...she doesn't.  It's okay to be different!  That whole yin and yang thing rears its head again...;

·    I give Michael huge marks for not being persuaded to go on Aerosmith's Rock'n Roller Coaster.  Hopefully, his immunity to peer pressure will continue in his upcoming teen years.  If only I had been that smart, point 2 above could have been avoided; 

·    Everybody really enjoyed seeing the High School Musical singers and dancers.  Tracy confirmed that the movie version of Troy was much dreamier then the swarthy Spaniard playing Troy at Disney.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should rent the movie...it's actually pretty good, even if you're an adult;

·    We didn't have the heart to try to pass the Disney castle off to our kids as one of France's famous medieval castles...there needs to be some integrity in our home schooling

Flying on the Magic Carpet

!  Also it didn't help that there was a big "15" right in the middle of it (marking the park's 15th anniversary);

The one ride that deserves special mention is "It's a Small World".  For those of you who don't know it, this attraction is a Disney classic.  You board a boat and slowly float through a world of brightly coloured singing, and dancing dolls, with the song "It's a Small World" constantly playing in the background.  Each section of the ride reflects a different country/culture...for example Canada included dolls skating in circles, some Royal Canadian Mounted Police with their heads going up and down, and some dancing moose(s?).  This attraction has always been a "feel good" ride for us, but it has now been forever changed for a number of reasons:

·    Tracy was talking to an English chap while standing in one of the lines.  His take on the ride is that it is just downright scary if you picture the dolls coming to life and seeking revenge on the humans that make them listen to the "It's a Small World" song 250 times a day!!  Thanks, but we didn't need that visual;

·    The last room you float through is "Perfect World" where all of the dolls have come together in one homogeneous, harmonious world

High School Musical Dancers

.  It was interesting (or troubling?) to note that only in "Perfect World" was "It's a Small World" being sung in French...hmmmm?

·    In another example of my bad judgment, just prior to entering the ride again, I joked with the kids about combining the Buzz Lightyear ride (where you shoot aliens with a light gun) with the "It's a Small World" ride.  They proceeded to "shoot" all the dancing dolls including Gandhi, the leprechauns and the giant pandas.  Oops!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Paris, and I will leave you with these miscellaneous thoughts about France:

·    It was difficult to go from our previous country of Peru where we could pay $2 for a full meal and $14 for a hotel room, to France where the costs are much higher.  It wasn't a surprise at all to us, but it did involve a change in mindset.  It also brought on a few discussions on the disparities throughout the world;

·    Speaking of meals, you may recall we had met an animated Frenchman, Vincent, in Peru who had decided to up and leave his life in Paris and move to Colombia and open a restaurant

Medieval French Chateau??

.  He recommended a few restaurants in Paris where he had been working...very enjoyable French food including "the great escargot" experiment for the children.  We had enthusiastic "thumbs up" from two of the children, and an emphatic "I'm not eating snails!" from the third...I wonder if Laura is going to become a Vegan?;

·    Notre Dame cathedral is a simply amazing building to walk through and is the most visited monument in all of Paris;

·    Sarah mentioned that she had been looking forward to seeing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, as much as she was looking forward to going to Disney...I'm skeptical!

·    Getting around Paris was an absolute joy.  We had "Paris Visite" passes which allowed us 5 days of unlimited use of their subway system, the Metro.  It made it very easy to see everything we wanted to see, and the kids really enjoyed figuring out what Metro lines/transfers to take.  Each trip was like a mini treasure hunt for them, until they figured out that often the "treasure" was the chance to look at more art;

·    In another example of "never really understanding children", when it was their turn to pick out a destination they seemed to gravitate to bridges.  This included the Pont de l"Alma bridge which had a sculpture on it called the Zouave.  Parisians apparently use this sculpture to monitor the water lever of the River Seine..."Oh, poor Zouave, the water level is up to his knees!".  Another favourite was the Pont Neuf ("New Bridge") which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris...not great planning by those crazy French!;

·    When talking about internet access in France, instead of saying "wi-fi", they say "wee-fee", which to me is infinitely more fun to say repeatedly...go ahead and say it out loud a few times;

·    You have to love a country where you can get 3 litres of wine for about the same price as 2 cans of Coke.  I won't mention that the 3 litres of wine came in a box...that somehow might make us seem less sophisticated.

Well, that's it for France.  As mentioned above we are now in Greece, where the first Greek we heard was the cleaning lady at the airport yelling at us for walking across her freshly mopped floor..."Dacouter!!"

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It's a Small World Leprechauns	Vincent's Recommendation	Notre Dame	Zouave, Pont d'Alma
Notre Dame Statues	1-Notre Dame	Paris Statue

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