Paris Disney!!

There’s just something about watching little kids meet Mickey Mouse that make even the coldest hearts melt (haha, it’s a good thing mine’s stone, phew)

That’s right, today I explored Disneyland Paris with Agathe and her friend Samantha. It was a dream come true for 15 year old as well as 5 year old Kristen.

Obviously it was completely gorgeous, even in the fog and gloom. We had tickets to both parks, so we chose to go to the Disneyland Park first.

Magical and stunning, they were just starting up their “Spring into Spring” campaign so there were these cute flower figures all around. The front of Main Street U.S.A. was dedicated to Mary Poppins!

The square in front of the castle was also dedicated to the campaign, so they had these flower petal figures of a bunch of animal characters like Bambi and Dumbo, but I got a picture of Simba and Nala.

In the background, of course you can see what I’m going to come to next. The palace.

Just looking at the picture is making me emotional. Apparently I have a picture with the palace from when I was like 4 but I don’t remember, so technically this is my first time seeing Sleeping Beauty’s castle (besides the actual one I visited in Germany, but, like, this one was built by Disney, so.). I was, in fact, crying while taking this picture and that’s why I didn’t ask Agathe to take one of me with it. Unfortunately, my colleagues had such a tight schedule set out for us that day, that a return trip to the castle just didn’t fit, so (extremely sadly) I don’t have a picture with the castle (many tears have been shed, but still no fairy godmother). The castle was absolutely beautiful anyway, I’m glad I at least got pictures of it.

Next stop was Discoveryland!

(Obviously Star Tours)

Then we took the train cute little Disneyland Railway!

There wasn’t much to see besides when we stopped at the stations, so we got off at Adventureland. Went on the Indiana Jones Temple of Peril ride and then hopped over to Frontierland for the Big Thunder Mountain ride (Can you already see our trend of rides for the day? No Mad Hatter’s Teacups for me, we were big kids for the day).

After we exercised the extent of our attention on the “fun” rides, we made our way down Main Street U.S.A. looking for lunch.

We left the park, and went to this really cute sandwich shop (basically a high class Subway) and sat down for a few seconds.

Post lunch, it was onward to Walt Disney Studios which we all found a lot more exciting because the rides were geared towards our age group. We were interested in the big kid rides because we went to Disney today to be adults, like everyone does. Fantasyland would have been boring, right? I wouldn't have liked it. It looks like I'm finally finding some adult emotions. Denial.

Anyway, back to Walt Disney Studios.

Beautiful entrance, lovely Walt and Mickey statue. It was another magical experience.

We started with the Studio Tram Tour so we didn’t jump into a ride with our stomachs full.

Next, we went to the Backlot, and rode some rides, then we went to Toon Town and met Buzz

And Mickey!

We visited the new Ratatouille section which was Paris within Disney within Paris. After that, we wheeled our way around and went to The Art of Disney Animation which was really, really good (first you watched a few of the original Disney works and how they begin animation (Like Steamboat Willie)

Then you went into a theatre and watched this amazing collage video of a bunch of Disney’s most famous movies and songs and scenes, which rocked.

And finally you heard a speaker talk about the evolution of a characters design, using a very animated and interesting Mushu to help explain.

They also had this beautiful animation wall at the end.

Also I snapped a few pictures of some stuff that I saw...

No dancing on the rides. Especially no jazz hands.

 DENNIS QUAID WAS HERE. (I had to tell Agathe and Samantha that my mom loved Dennis Quaid so they wouldn't think I was weird for taking a picture of his hand prints)

In the end, I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted to, because of our tight schedule, but I did get at least one picture of everything I wanted to see. I had such a wonderful and magical day and I’m so, so happy that I got to go at all. Thanks for reading, love and miss you all!

Versailles

Today Agathe, Sabine, Agathe’s friend Paul, and I travelled to Versailles. The castle, as well as the grounds, were absolutely breathtaking.

First, we visited the gardens (a little bit dead at this time of year, but we passed through them anyway). The fountains and canal were spectacular (the large fountain at the beginning of the gardens was being refurbished)

Of course, the Apollo Fountain

We continued on through the gardens and eventually reached the estate of Marie-Antoinette. We only ended up visiting the Grand Trianon, and it was decorated with beautiful pink marble pillars, I guess the delicate femininity should be expected to accompany anything around Marie-Antoinette.

Welcome to my crib. I look really cold because it was really cold (Maybe not snowing or -34, but it was windy and we walked around for two hours okay?)

After our stroll through Marie-Antoinette’s grounds, we made our way back through the gardens and into the palace, which was equally as impressive as the grounds but not cold and dead.

There were a lot of portraits. A lot. Wonderful craftsmanship. Stunning likenesses I’m sure, although I would have been more inclined to take my own photo of all of them if it wasn’t for the fact that many of the faces were not ones I would really want to look at much more than once or twice. So I only took pictures of the amusing and/or extremely historical ones.

This one looks like me on a Saturday morning

And this one looks like the woman in the background is hard-core judging the lady in front. You're wearing that? To the party? (Please watch this Vine by Chrish to get the full effect of why I was snorting to myself infront of this picture https://vine.co/v/OXabJq25YO9 )

And this is Marie-Antoinette.

And this is also Marie-Antoinette.

And the Coronation of Napoleon (which isn't really a portrait but it was cool so)

Anyway, so there were lots of portraits. We wove our way through, stopping by the Chapel

And the Hercules’s room

Saw this cool table that I didn’t get a very good picture of because I thought the security guard was going to come over and tell me I couldn’t lean that far over the rope (but I tried)

And then we were in the Hall of Mirrors and it was amazing!!

And I got a cute picture (I don’t know why my face is so red and it’s distressing me)

And then we were being idiots

And trying to take a mirror picture which really didn’t work

Finally we reached the King’s chambers, with his giant bed and wonderful drapes.

Also the ‘spirit of France’ that watched over him as he slept

And then we walked a little and we were in the Queen’s chambers!

Very pretty and feminine.

There wasn’t much else left to the palace after that…

One thing that I did disappoint me was the fact that all of the statues in the gardens were all wrapped up to protect them from the weather so I didn’t get to see any of them, but there were plenty inside and around the gates.

Like the two on either side of the entrance gate

And the two on either side of the palace gate

And Diana in the Hall of Mirrors

Another thing that was pretty neat-o were the ceilings

A little artistic flare

And this baby looks like it's about to get down to some serious business (The one unsheathing the sword, ya, that kick ass baby)

And the wall decos

 (Agathe thought this looked like it belonged in Beauty and the Beast)

Over all, Versailles really was extremely beautiful and elegant, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to get to visit it. Thanks so much for reading (more so just looking at pictures, but you know). I'll be sure to write up something about our Paris Disney excursion tomorrow (I feel like a little kid, I'm so excited). Love and miss you all!