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Our Flying Visit to Disneyland Paris

January 30, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

Last weekend (20th-22nd Jan) we took a flying visit to Disneyland Paris. I have to admit that it didn’t turn out to be our best trip there, but considering it was raining the last two times and freezing cold the times before that, I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much. In all honesty, the trip itself was enjoyable for many reasons – one, that I got to spend time with the girls – two, that I finally got to stay in a Disney hotel and – three, my best friend Amy and her daughter were there at the same time as us. Aside from that though, there was a bit of an epiphany moment where I realised I had been trying to fill a hole that Florida had left, ever since we visited two years ago. I also realised that DLP is unfortunately not that replacement for us. Anyway I’ll save all that for another time and just fill you in briefly on our trip.

For the two nights we were away, we stayed in Hotel Santa Fe. It’s the cheapest of the Disney Hotels, having paid only £100 for 2 nights (no park passes included, but using discount from my annual pass) but actually it was pretty great. The whole hotel complex is themed around the movie Cars and we actually had our room in the row belonging to Lightning McQueen.

On our first day, the girls had decided to Disney Bound as Rapunzel and Flynn. Lily was Rapunzel and Megan was Flynn. This was actually my favourite of their two outfits for the weekend, but I definitely loved both. Lily’s “Best Day Ever” t-shirt was one she had already, so she only needed a pair of purple jeans and a new cardigan. Megan on the other hand needed all new bits, but I didn’t mind as I knew she’d get wear out of some of it. We did have a dilemma with the trousers though and ended up purchasing a boys pair from Tesco, the day before we left home.

On our first day in DLP, we spent the whole time in the main Disneyland park. We sorted out annual passes, went on loads of rides, bought Mickey shaped food (believe it or not, we’d never done that before), had our pictures taken in front of the castle (a firm tradition) and watched the parade. Of course we ate dinner, browsed shops and all the other things you’re supposed to do. Sadly, though we had intended to watch Dreams, it was definitely far too cold and we ended up heading back to the hotel early.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel (this was included in the price). We also stashed a few croissants and pain au chocolat for a cheeky light lunch later. We got up early and headed into the park for EMH (Early Magic Hours) as this is something we have never been able to do before. It was amazing to be in the park while it was so quiet but I have to admit it may have been partly to blame for me not enjoying much of this day as I started out so cold and never really thawed!

During EMH we managed to meet both Stitch and Chip ‘n’ Dale. The girls were dressed as Mickey and Minnie for their Disney Bounding this day (which seemed to go down well with the character, plus Olivia was Daisy Duck which was so sweet) but sadly it was so cold that you never really got to see much of their outfits.

At 10am we headed over to the Studios as there were a few things we wanted to do there and this was our last day. We queued for Crusher Coaster for over an hour, only to end up feeling sick – and then got FPs for Ratatouille (our favourite ride by far) but not till 4pm that afternoon. We tried to meet Moana at 11.30am but her queue was already closed so we made an effort to waste time elsewhere. We went to the Armageddon special effects show, browsed the shops, ate lunch and saw the Art of Animation theatre show. After that it was time for a second wave of Moana queues so I joined the line while the girls played on the machines in the Animation building.

The queue for Moana seemed to take forever and even took a break right before it was our turn. However the girls seemed pleased to meet her as it was a character we hadn’t been able to meet before (being that she’s new and all). It was also the only time the girls actually got to show off their Mickey and Minnie Disney Bound so I was pleased to get a picture of that.

Finally it was time to ride Ratatouille so we headed over to that. The queue still took a while even on fastpass but it was worth it as always. After that we decided it was time to eat and ended up heading back to the other park and to Hakuna Matata as the girls had enjoyed it when we’d eaten there previously. We then did a little last minute shopping and headed back to the hotel.

As well as eating something Mickey shaped, drinking a Glowtini was also on my list of things I’d like to do, so with the girls in tow, Amy and I headed to the hotel bar and treated ourselves to a drink. It was actually really nice (I had red and Amy had blue) but it was expensive for what you get. The ice cube is funky though and at least you get to take it with you. After about an hour in the bar, we all headed back to our rooms and got an early night. I packed first as we were heading off early.

In the morning, we went for breakfast and then met up with Amy and Olivia to head to the park. We did a little more last minute shopping (for pins) and then said our goodbyes as they had one more day and we were heading home. Everything went perfectly to plan – catching the train, checking in for the plane, the flight etc. We were making great time for getting home — until I hit a barrier in the airport car park and completely broke my car. After a very long wait, a slow journey home and arriving back about 5 hours later than planned, we finally made it home. Sadly the last part put very much a dampener on the weekend for me and definitely made me think hard about whether or not our trips to DLP were worth it or not!

Overall though, it was a good weekend away, if not a little rushed. I truly wish it hadn’t been so cold as I know we all would have enjoyed it so much more.

June Round-up

July 7, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Watching: Fringe (I started back at Season 1 and I’m up to 4), Orphan Black (catching up on Season 4), Orange is the New Black (had to wait till after Paris but then binged Season 4), re-watched Season 5 of OUAT with Nat before we went to the convention, The Great British Sewing Bee, of course Game of Thrones (last episodes!!), the usual Casualty, Holby City, Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow etc. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Just Go With It, Zootropolis, Twilight, Olympus has Fallen, Deadpool,
Reading: Wait for Me, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Ears!! It’s still been all about the ears. I announced the last day of £6 ears and my social media blew up. In total I think I took orders of over 50 sets in the end. Other than that there was a Woody dress, a Jessie dress, a Belle dress and apron, a Baymax dress and jacket, a custom Sleeping Beauty fabric dress, some custom pencil cases, plus the usual bows and jewellery orders.

And in other news…
– We went to see Zootropolis at the cinema and I loved it.
– We spent a whole day looking for a new car for Chris but he ended up with a really nice one and it was totally worth it. We also got ice cream from Blyton on the way home!
– Lily got a short story printed in a book. It’s not technically printed yet but we got a certificate and I had to give my permission for it to be published.
– Megan had her first day at secondary school on a taster day. It didn’t go as well as she’d hoped but she has another in July.
– I helped Nat to pack up all her belongings and load them into my car and hers. She then moved in with us a few days later.
– Nat and I went to Paris for a very long weekend. We saw loads of tourist attractions, plus attended a OUAT convention and spent the day at Disneyland Paris. It was a great trip but it was lovely to be home.
– We got new broadband. Not a major event in itself but its all connected to Chris now having a BT contract so its all good. Also it seems faster which is great.
– Had our first viewing on the house since being on the market since April. It didn’t come to anything but at least it’s a start.

Looking forward to in July:
– Honestly, nothing really. Most of July is busy with school things, like Sports Day, Transition Day, school reports, end of year service, Leavers Party, Leaver assembly etc. but otherwise I have nothing planned myself in July.

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Travel Diary – 21st June 16 – Paris Day Five

July 5, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Day Five was the last of our holiday and really just a short day as it literally consisted of heading home. We were awake early, as the shuttle bus from our hotel was 7.15am and we didn’t want to miss it. We had already backed the night before, so really it was a case of tugging on some clothes and tumbling out of the hotel. Though we made it on time for the shuttle bus, it was very full and so another bus was send to take a second load. We were in this one and it wasn’t a problem as we didn’t need to be at the airport until 8am.

After arriving at the airport, we made our way to check-in. We were nice and early which was good as we didn’t have to rush. It was also Nat’s first time flying and she was a bit nervous, so rushing would definitely have made that worse for her. Once we had checked in and gone through security, we took a walk around the shops. Nat had some Euros left to spend and so she bought some gifts for her boys and then we both raided another vending machine for some water and chocolate to take on the plane. Eventually we just headed for our gate and sat there waiting until we were called. We were some of the first to check-in at the gate, but actually this just meant waiting on another shuttle bus to be taken to the plane. However after about a fifteen minute wait, we were on our way to the plane and then we got off and boarded the plane from the tarmac.

The plane was one of the smallest I have ever traveled on and also it was only about a third full. This made for a very quiet plane ride though so I can’t say I was complaining. Nat and I settled into our seats, with really no one that near to us. It was actually really nice, again especially as she was a bit nervous. Once we were up in the air, items from the cafe and duty free were offered and Nat and I got very excited at the prospect of a cup of tea. Having only been able to find Earl Grey or Mint tea, we had gone almost five days without a cuppa and this was really becoming a struggle. Despite tea being £2.50 a cup on the plane, we still paid it and enjoyed it. The tea wasn’t even that great – but it was so needed.

The plane took just over an hour and then we were back in Doncaster. This was much nicer than if we’d traveled into London as it felt like we were almost home. My mum was there to meet us at the airport and she drove us back to Retford where I had left my car. Nat and I then drove home to Gainsborough, were we drank tea and pretty much collapsed. This was basically the end of our trip. We had a really great time for the most part, though being/getting ill and then getting soaked were really some lows of the holiday. I think we’d both agree there were more highs than lows but I was definitely glad to be home and seeing the girls and Chris was definitely a great moment.

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Travel Diary – 19th June 16 – Paris Day Three

July 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

So I’ve recapped on Day One and Two of our holiday so far and this is Three! Though I didn’t mention before, the week before we went away, I was really ill. By the Friday we left, I was feeling a bit better but I was fairly dosed up on paracetamol. However by Saturday I wasn’t feeling much better and I’d managed to infect Nat, so Sunday morning we were both feeling a bit rough, especially after our late night. We got up in time to go to the convention but in the end both of us agreed that other than some autographs in the afternoon, there wasn’t much happening at the convention that day that we wanted to do. In the end we decided to do some more sightseeing, checking our bags into the convention first as we were moving hotel that day. We headed to McDonalds and grabbed a quick breakfast, which luckily left us both feeling a bit better.

We caught the train from Versailles, back towards the centre of Paris and here we walked to the Louvre. This was a place I had hopped to see on my last trip and had been unable to, so it was top of my list when it came to places to visit still. The weather was nice and so walking was fine. We made sure we kept a bottle of water with us and plenty of pain killers, just taking our time and sitting every now and again.

After seeing the Louvre (only from the outside) we decided to walk up towards the Arc De Triomphe, along the Champs-Élysées. It took us about an hour in total, though we did stop off at the Disney Store on the way.

Finally, after a sit down and catch our breath, we caught a train back to the main line we needed to be on. The stop was the same as the Eiffel Tower, so we decided to get out and see the tower in the day time too. At the station there was a shop selling fresh baguettes and so we both bought lunch. After seeing the Eiffel Tower (and the football it was hosting, in honour of the Euros) we sat and ate our lunch before finally heading back to Versailles.

Back at the convention, we got our last few autographs and then checked out with our bags. We now had the long journey from Versailles to CDG airport, where we would catch a shuttle bus to our hotel for the next two nights. Unfortunately the shuttle bus wasn’t the easiest thing to figure out and at first we ended up on the wrong one. However eventually we arrived at our hotel and checked in. The restaurant was closed by that time but they made us up a starter plate and dessert plate to take back to our room. Sadly the food wasn’t really anything we liked and by trying to manage some of it, we put ourselves off even eating the desserts! In the end we just headed to bed, feeling ill, cold and tired but knowing Disney was the next day and trying to look forward to it.

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Travel Diary – 18th June 16 – Paris Day Two

June 28, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Yesterday I started my Travel Diary with our Day One in Paris. Day Two was spent largely at a convention, but I’ll recap on that a little. We did manage to sight-see as well though, so there’s some actual Paris too.

As I mentioned before, our convention was called Fairy Tales (Chapter IV). It was run by a company called Xivents who have been doing these conventions for a few years. The guests who were attending were Lana Parrilla (Regina), Colin O’Donoghue (Captain Hook), Rebecca Mader (Wicked Witch), Sean Maguire (Robin Hood), Liam Garrigan (King Arthur), Amy Manson (Merida) and Greg Germann (Hades). There were panels scheduled in the morning and afternoon, then time for photographs, autographs, Meet and Greets etc. The majority of the information was in French unfortunately and while they did try to communicate a lot in English too, organisation was poor and it was quite confusing at times.

Nat and I started off the day by watching a panel, we then had a few photoshoots and autographs. The morning went fairly fast and we headed off for lunch at McDonalds.

We headed back to the convention and watched another panel. We then had a little wander to look at the stalls but ultimately headed back to the hotel early to drop off our stuff and then catch the train into Paris.

Our first stop on the nightime tourist spots was Notre Dame. I had seen this last time I went to Paris, but Nat hadn’t been before so we started here. Next we went to the Moulin Rouge. I hadn’t managed to see this myself last time and it was fairly spectacular to see at night, though not at all what I’d expected. Here we decided to eat crepes for dinner and sit and enjoy them outside the Moulin Rouge before catching the train to the Eiffel Tower. Again I had seen the Eiffel Tower last time (and even gone up it in fact) but we went to see it again so that Nat could.

Sadly at this point we missed the last train home but we didn’t let it faze us too much and just grabbed a taxis back. It was pretty late by this time and we headed straight to bed. Sadly the hotel had a function on (possibly a wedding) and it was REALLY loud. The room wasn’t at all soundproof and the music went on till at least 2.30am so that was a bit of a struggle.

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Travel Diary – 17th June 16 – Paris Day One

June 27, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

So a few weeks ago, I headed off to Paris once again! You may remember that I took a trip with my family back in May, but this time the trip was a Girl’s Weekend, partly to attend a convention and partly to visit Paris itself! I was absolutely dreading leaving Chris and the girls for 5 days and 4 nights, but I also had a lot to look forward to. My best friend Nat and I, were traveling from my house, while Amy was coming from hers. Though we were traveling separately, we were spending the whole weekend together – or at least that had been the plan until Amy was unable to make it.

On Day One of the trip, Nat and I took the girls to school and then drove to Retford to catch the train. From Retford we traveled to London (though ended up delayed), where we would then catch the Eurostar. Neither Nat nor I had traveled on the Eurostar so it was quite exciting, but also a little nerve-racking when we found our seats had been changed. Luckily we were upgraded to Business Class and this made the change quite exciting!

From setting off in the morning at 9am, to arriving in Paris at 4pm (French time), the journey was fairly uneventful (despite a slight delay on the original train). When we arrived in Paris, we already had our journey to Versailles figured out and so we went about buying a ticket and catching the RER to where we needed to be. It was pretty busy on the first RER B to St Michel, but after that the RER C was fairly quiet and the journey took us around 20-25 minutes.

When we stepped off the train at Versailles, we used my phone to figure out where we were going for the hotel. It was only a 10 minute walk and the weather was pretty nice, despite having rained most of the afternoon while traveling there. On the way to the hotel, we actually spotted the Palais Des Congres, which was where our convention was being held the next day. Registration was taking place so we decided to queue up and get our pass, before heading to the hotel.

Getting our passes took about an hour but we knew it would save us time in the morning. However the hotel was literally a minute or two from there so we crossed over in front of the Versailles Palace and checked into our room. At first glance, the room was pretty spectacular. There was a double bed and a single bed, a lovely bathroom and a separate toilet. However while at a glance it looked nice, on closer inspection it could have done with a little TLC. One of the lights on the wall wasn’t working, a drawer handle was missing and the tablecloth was dirty. However it didn’t really matter to us and overall it felt like a nice hotel.

We settled ourselves in the room, unpacked somewhat and I also FaceTimed with the girls. At first we had planned to head out and see some sights in Paris and meet Amy from her plane, but when ended up not being able to come, we decided to just stay local to the hotel. On checking in we were given a 15% voucher for the hotel’s restaurant but since we weren’t sure what we wanted to eat, we decided to go for a walk and see what was nearby. We went past the Palace, this time walking around it to see how beautiful it was, then down back towards the station, all around the restaurant area and finally back to the hotel restaurant.

In the restaurant we were luckily given an English menu as Nat and I are both poor at French. She ordered a burger and chips while I ordered an artisan tart (which turned out to be more like pizza). I thoroughly enjoyed mine, though Nat’s burger came far too rare for her. Despite sending it back and it being cooked more, there were still parts that were rare and she really struggled to eat it. Check out for Roanoke weekend activities and you sure won’t be disappointed.

After finishing dinner and paying the bill, we just decided to head back to the hotel and go to bed. Even though all we’d really done was travel, we’d pretty much worn ourselves out and we knew we wanted to be up early the following morning for the Fairytales (Once Upon a Time) convention that we were going to.

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Travel Diary – May 20th-23rd 2016 – The Haul

June 8, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

As you’ll have seen, I wrote about Day One, Day Two and Day Three of our holiday. Technically there was a Day Four but it just involved getting up, packing and heading off on the drive home, through the tunnel and again driving home. So I skipped that day and instead I’m bringing you the final post from this holiday, The Haul.

My biggest purchase of the holiday, was my Disneyland Paris annual pass! I haven’t actually taken a picture of the pass itself, but here is the info booklet that comes with it. Sadly it’s all in French, so I don’t understand a whole bunch of it, but it was pretty awesome getting it all anyway.

Since we were visiting the park anyway, I knocked off the price of that day’s ticket (74 Euros) and paid just 150 on the day. I say just, but it’s not really just, however I knew I would be going again the next month and it would save money on that ticket and of course the reductions and discounts it offers anyway.

Other than that, there was just souvenirs from each day. Day One was obviously visiting the Eiffel Tower. I treated myself to a postcard, a mug and a fridge magnet.

The girls got themselves a postcard each and then Lily bought a pen while Megan bought it miniature version of the tower itself.

Chris did get himself an ornament too but I actually didn’t photo much of his stuff!

Next day, was Disney Village. It was supposed to be a day in Paris but due to feeling ill in the morning, that didn’t happen. Instead we spent the afternoon in Disney Village (at the Parks) but I didn’t buy much as I knew we were going back the next day. The one thing I did grab was the Tsum Tsums we’d missed the week before from The Disney Store.

Finally was our day in the Disneyland Parks. I was pretty good and tamed my spending but I did get a baby Pegasus and a new mug.

Chris bought a mug too so I actually photographed that with mine as well, both front and back!

The girls bought chocolate bars to take home for their friends.

They also bought one thing each – Megan, a scarf (I forgot to photograph) and Lily, some wellies. Megan’s scarf has Walt Disney quotes all over it and I have to admit I’d love to steal Lily’s wellies too!

This is our mini haul which isn’t too bad for a weekend away. I’m back to Disneyland Paris again this month though so watch this space for whatever I give in to!

May Round-up

June 6, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Watching: Once Upon a Time (still watching with Lily and Megan, but also finished Season 5), Suits (5), Jane the Virgin (1-2), GAME OF THRONES (we watch it ASAP on Monday morning since it records at 2am), the usual weekly episodes of Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, The 100 etc etc. Walt Before Mickey, Maleficent, Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8,
Reading: Six Lies, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale, Fated, Wait for Me.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Ears!! It’s been all about the Ears this month after being featured on Sarah’s instagram. I’ve also made two Rapunzel dresses, a Pinocchio dress, an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron, a Briar Rose dress, a Wendy dress, a Woody dress, plus loads of bows and Tangled bunting. There was also an adult Briar Rose dress, a Beauty and the Beast skirt (again for Sarah) and made alterations to Lottie’s Dumbo skirt (and made her some ears too).

And in other news…
– Amy came to visit for the first weekend in May and it was SO nice because I hadn’t seen her since the beginning of March!
– Megan took her SATs (and got ill during them) but fingers crossed she still did well.
– Got the girls into several more food options including homemade turkey burgers.
– Chris bought me 221B Baker Street board game and we played and it was very reminiscent of my youth!
– We went to Paris for the weekend as a family, with my mum and sister too. We weren’t there long but I got to go up the Eiffel Tower which is something I’ve always wanted to do AND we went to DLP. You can read about it in my Travel Diary.
– It was my birthday. I turned 37! It wasn’t too bad though as I got some nice gifts and spent the day with family and friends.
– Disney Lego figures were released at the beginning of the month and I managed to collect them all. There were a few swaps involved and I did buy the last two I needed of Ebay!
– Tried to be healthy, failed. Tried to be healthy, failed. Tried to be healthy, failed…
– Bought a laser cutting machine but didn’t get it set up :(

Looking forward to in June:
– Going to Paris again. I have my regrets about booking it (it turned out so expensive and it’s 4 days away from Chris and the kids) but overall I’m looking forward to it.
– Sadly, nothing else. Hopefully some free time for myself. Maybe set my laser cutting machine up. Hopefully crack screen printing. Nice weather maybe?

Travel Diary – 21st May 16 – Paris Day Two

June 2, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Yesterday I posted my Travel Diary – Day One and so today I’m sharing Day Two. Sadly this day wasn’t at all what we had planned, but we made the most of it anyway.

Day Two

On Saturday morning, I woke up with the most sickening of headaches. I do get headaches a lot so that’s fairly standard but this one was migraine worthy. When I sat up, I felt sick and when I lay down, my head banged. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I was going to get through the day! After several trips to the bathroom, thinking I was going to throw up, a drink and some paracetamol, I finally found a position in bed to rest my head so it didn’t hurt and also not feel sick at the same time. Chris decided to get up and keep an eye on the kids, while I slept a little longer.

When I eventually got up, my headache was mostly gone and I felt a bit better. Chris had taken the girls swimming which was lovely for them as I was already worrying about ruining and wasting the day. Sadly I had ruined our plans – which was to head back to Paris and spend the day there shopping and sightseeing. It was midday and there was no point tackling the hour there and hour back, especially feeling a bit rough. Everyone grabbed a late lunch and we tried to decide what to do. I got myself upset for ruining the day and everyone agreed we should head to Disney, even if it was just to Disney village. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day so this seemed like a good save for the day.

Lily put on her Disney bounding Ariel Town dress and I put on my Ursula ears and necklace. We all headed out to Disney which was about a 45 minute drive. When we got there, I actually felt pretty excited. I was sort of disappointed that we weren’t actually heading into the parks but since we only had a one day pass, I didn’t want to waste it on only half a day.

We first headed to World of Disney, where we browsed around and I actually found a gift I would like for my birthday, which my mum offered to buy. Other than that we didn’t spend anything though, as I knew I might be getting an annual pass the following day and knew this would give me a discount.

Next we grabbed some churros and nutella from a little food van and enjoyed the sun. Mum and Pippa decided they wanted to sit for a while and so we all got a drink and sat down. After a while, Megan, Chris and I decided to go for a wander, as I’d never actually looked around Disney Village. We went in ever single shop and it was really nice. I saw some beautiful ornaments in The Art of Disney and even some clothes we wanted in other shops. We had a lovely afternoon and took an hour or so to browse.

At around 6pm, we went back to the car and headed home. We’d parked at the train station instead of the Disney Park itself and this made it not only nearer to walk, but cheaper for half a day. It took around the same amount of time to get back as it had to get there and so when we got home, dinner was straight on. We all sat around and ate lasagne, drank wine and chilled out. Afterwards the girls played in their room and Chris and I went off for a game of pool.

Finally we headed back to the accommodation and I put the girls to bed. Chris and I headed up to our room and watched TV on my iPad. After only one episode we were exhausted though and we headed to sleep ourselves.

All in all, I really enjoyed our visit to Disney but I was disappointed to not get back to Paris. I had wanted to see several more things and I don’t know when I’ll next get chance. That said, the weather was beautiful and it was nice to get an extra dose of Disney that wasn’t expected, the girls loved swimming again in the morning and it was definitely nice to get an hour playing pool with Chris in the evening.

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Travel Diary – 20th May 16 – Paris Day One

June 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

I had originally hoped to update my blog daily while away, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way! While I did update about setting off on holiday, I didn’t actually manage to update about the holiday days themselves.

Day One

We were up super early, an alarm set for 6am. We headed out of the Travelodge in Maidstone and set off for the Channel Tunnel. I’d never been across this way before so I was pretty excited and even more so when I realised it would only take about half an hour.

Once we were crossed over the tunnel, it was straight off to our destination. Though our weekend away was in Paris, we weren’t actually staying there. Instead we were staying in a HPB Property in the Île de France. The journey was almost 4 hours but we stopped at a supermarket on the way to pick up food and eat lunch in the car park. When we did arrive at the property, we had plenty of time to look around, go swimming, unpack and settle in.

However in the evening, we had planned a trip to the Eiffel Tower. We had tickets booked for 8pm so we left the HPB property at 6pm, knowing it would take an hour, plus parking and then a short Metro trip. Sadly traffic was awful and it took ages to get into Paris. Then finding the Metro stop was pretty tricky too! Finally at about 8pm, we got down into the Metro station, only to struggle buying tickets and then find out there was strikes. At about 8.30pm we rocked up at the Eiffel Tower, feel pretty rushed and worried they wouldn’t let us on as we’d completely missed our spot. However the people at the barrier didn’t even hesitate to let us on and we joined the queue.

The first thing we did, was head straight to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It took a while as it was pretty busy and the elevator to the top is quite a bit smaller than the elevator to half way. It was still daylight when we got there so it was really nice to get some good pictures and be able to easily see all the views. Eventually we made our way down to the next level and it was starting to get dusky. We stayed around to watch the sunset and see Paris at night.

After quite a while up the Eiffel Tower, we headed back down to the ground. It was getting late and we still had to make our way back to the car. We took a few pictures from the ground and then headed back on the Metro. We came out near Notre Dame (which we’d rushed past the first time) so it was nice to see that at night too. We then went back to the car and headed back to our holiday accommodation.

To be truthful, the Eiffel Tower trip was the highlight of my trip. It was the one thing I wanted to do while in Paris and despite being a little stressful to get there, it didn’t disappoint. Though I didn’t realise it at the time, it was probably the most problem-free day of our trip too, even if it was completely exhausting!

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