Paris, Eiffel Tower, Love, City, Autumn, October

Paris (with Disneyland)

SaLt AnD CoCoNuTs

A Cheap Getaway to Paris

It was only last minute that we decided to go to Paris. After receiving a random email from Eurostar that they had super-saver packages on London to Paris journeys, we felt that it would be rude not to go! If you keep your eye on Eurostar’s website, they do some great deals. Our trips merely costed £28 each way (total of £116 for two return tickets) which I’m sure you’ll agree is an incredible price (typically the Eurostar could set you back anything between £70-£169). I’ve just had a look on their site and this is what they’ve currently got on offer:

‘Prices for Standard tickets – 2 people £28pp each way, 3 people £27pp each way, 4 to 9 people £25pp each way’

These prices are going on for the rest of this year and in to the new year also – maybe we’ll have to go again!
For those of you that haven’t been on the Eurostar, it’s such a great way to travel. If only this were a way that we could travel to every country – It’s simple, smooth, fast and a really relaxing way to travel. It takes around three hours from Kings Cross St. Pancras to Gard Du Nord – don’t forget your passports – we nearly did!

Bridge, Seine, River, Views, City, Paris

When we arrived we took the metro to our hotel which is really easy to understand. The good thing about the Paris Metro is that you can buy tickets for a number of days which I believe isn’t yet available on the London Underground. Although this is good, we decided no to do this as we were unsure of how much we were actually going to use it. So we bought a single trip which costs €1.90. A great bonus for any Londoners that are travelling to Paris is that you can use the Citymapper app on your phone as this works in Paris too, making it really simple to get around.

We arrived at Arty Paris Hotel which is a ten minute walk from Porte du Vanyes metro stop (south East of Paris). I’m not quite sure why this hotel has a 7.9 rating on tripadvisor and is listed under ‘boutique art hotels’, as the only ‘arty’ item there was the light box in the reception area! It was clean enough and despite the broken shower, the overwhelming smell of new paint and it being crazy-hot in our room, it was comfy enough for a couple of nights without breaking the bank. The location was also very good, allowing us to get around Paris easily.

Paris, Hostel, Arty, Breakfast

We headed to the Eiffel Tower from here which was about a thirty-minute walk. As we were there late in the afternoon, we sat in front of the tower waiting for the sun to set which was beautiful. We wanted to go and stand underneath it but there has been a number of barriers put up around the tower and in order get inside you have to undergo a number of security checks (I’m guessing because of the current terror threat levels etc.) As this created long queues, we decided to continue on our way. Luckily there’s so many different angles of the Tower that you can view it from, so we just walked around it and found some great places to take photos.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, City, View, Stunning
Eiffel Tower, Paris, Night, City, City Break
That evening we got an Uber (again, now used in Paris which is great!) to a restaurant at the end of the Champs Elysees to a restaurant called Au Petit Riches which was really yummy and does the best French starters …snails and onion soup! Louis hadn’t tried snails yet and it was amusing to see his reaction to both when they arrived on the table and when he put them in his mouth. Although he said they were nice, I can’t imagine they’ll be at the top of his list of orders any time soon. Onion soup however, we have had many times before and were both excited about eating again. Just as a side note – there’s a great little French restaurant in London Victoria called La Poule au Pot that is incredible, if you’re ever in the area – the onion soup is on point 😉

The next day we went to Disneyland! So exciting! Tickets for Disneyland are a lot cheaper than one might expect, at £35 – I was under the impression that they were maybe double this! I’ve been to a few before but Louis never has so we thought ‘Whyyyyy not!?’

Disneyland, Birthday, 25 years, Ice creams, Celebration, Castle

Originally, we were planning to eat Brunch with the Stars which also costs around £30. If you want to do this, they advise you to call up three days prior to your arrival and book a table. Although we did do this, sadly by the time we called them first thing in the morning, it was fully-booked – boo! My friend recently went to this brunch and said it was so much fun and an easier way of getting all of the characters without having to spend hours queuing to do so.

Disneyland, Castle, Dreams, Blue Sky, Magical, Paris
We got the RER metro line to Marne-la-vallee Chessy which is the Disneyland stop (this took about an hour from our hotel). The ticket cost €15 each, each way. Disneyland is truly amazing and it honestly is MAGICAL. It’s definitely not just for kids, all the rides are amazing. One thing that is great is that you are able to collect fast-track passes for each ride. These give you a time to come back and head straight for the rides, meaning that you don’t find yourselves queuing for hours on end. Unlike in the UK where they charge you crazy amounts for fast-track passes, at Disneyland these are completely free! Luckily we went during the school term which meant that queues were relatively small.

We managed to go on about eight rides throughout the day 🙂 We also got to meet and have photos with some of the characters. The queues for this really do get quite big – Mickey took us a good forty-five minutes – but was worth every minute!

Goofy, Character, Disneyland, Paris, Meet the Characters
The food is fairly pricey and all the menus are pretty similar – burgers / fish and chips etc (about €30 for two people). You are allowed to bring food and drink in though if you can be bothered to carry it round and save a bit of money!
The Disney Parade begins around 5.30pm every day (check the programme for any changes). You’ll notice that about an hour before this, people begin saving themselves spaces on the pavement leading up to the castle in order to get front row seats of the show. This is well worth it! The parade last for about half an hour and consists of really colourful Disney floats with music and characters dancing down the street!
Disneyland, The Parade, Paris, Floats, Characters, Dancing,
Disneyland, Paris, Jafar, Character, The Parade, Float

The park closes at 8pm and then there’s an absolutely incredible light show that follows. This was honestly one of the most impressive things we’re seen so make sure you stay for it if you can! It lasts for about half an hour and is filled with illuminations, music, water and fireworks and is a perfect ending to the day! It’s quite an emotional moment actually, as they run through a series of animations projected on to the castle, including all of your favourite Disney characters and songs.

Disneyland, Paris, Light Show, Spectacular, Fireworks, Magical
Disneyland, Paris, Fireworks, Light Show, Amazing
Disneyland, Paris, Fireworks, Display, Show, Illumination, Spectacular
Upon leaving, unless you are staying in one of the hotels at Disneyland, it’s time to get back on the metro and head home. Here’s a tip – try and remember to buy a return ticket on your way to Disneyland (unlike us) so you don’t have to queue up with hundreds of others at the machine for one on the way out. This took some time, particularly as the machines that issue the tickets have these random buttons and rollers to scroll through all of the places in Paris. Luckily there was a nice French man that could see us sweating under the pressure of trying to work the scrolling wheel whilst remembering where the hell we were heading to.
On our last day we took the metro to Abssess to see the Sacre Coeur. We bought an unlimited day pass which costed €7.60 each – bargain! This meant that we were able to hop on and off the metro all day and it also included us jumping on the funicular railway up to the Sacre Coeur too. No steps for us!

Paris, City, Catherdral, Church, Religious, Architecture

Sacre Coeur, Paris, Steps

The Sacre Coeur is situated at the top of quite a significant hill which makes for an amazing viewpoint of Paris. It’s a really nice place to be and is also in an area where you can walk down some really quaint little French streets.

After our time here, we headed to the Moulin Rouge which is worth a visit. Just as you can imagine, the Moulin Rouge is quite a run down part of town with a serious amount of sex shops all boasting of having the best goods in town! There’s something about this place though that feels quite cool. It’s definitely worth coming to see it for yourselves. We’re quite hoping to head back to Paris at some point and check out the famous Moulin Rouge show which by all accounts is very cool!

Mouling Rouge, Paris, Club, Windmill
We then hopped on to the nearest metro and headed from Blanche to la Chappelle where we travelled down to the RER B to St Micheal Notre Dame. Here, we visited the beautiful Notre Dame cathedral and went inside which is definitely worth a look, it’s just beautiful and free entry. We also headed to The Louvre Museum where the Mona Lisa is kept. You can get up close and personal to the painting but the queue to enter was too big considering that we were on a time constraint for the afternoon before heading home.
Paris, Cathedral, Notre Dame, Building, Beautiful
Cathedral, Notre Dame, Paris, Building, Inside, Architecture
Lourve Museum, Paris, Building, City, Triangle, Mona Lisa
In our last few hours we had lunch down a nice little side-street by the Notre Dame Cathedral. At first hand, the street looked typically French and was within quite a nice setting.  It wasn’t until the food arrived that we realised we were in the Soho of Paris and actually the incredibly well-worded ‘French cuisine’ that I ordered, ended up merely being ‘steak and chips’ which wasn’t great at all.
This was however, a nice little way to finish off our afternoon and our two day break in Paris. We headed back to the Eurostar and on our way home.
Enjoy x

 

Published by SaLt AnD CoCoNuTs

A teacher and a nurse from Wimbledon, travelling this world as much as we can. Providing travel tips for the everyday person.

79 thoughts on “Paris (with Disneyland)”

  9. First of all thanks for reading my blog, appreciated. Going to Paris and Disneyland at that price is really very good. I had a chance of visiting Paris 4yrs ago and supposed to go to Disneyland but changed my mind and opted to just be in Paris for sightseeing. Now my son is at the age that can appreciate places… I wonder which is best… Disneyland Paris or Disneyland HK. 😉

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  12. If you ever want to do the Atlantic Ocean beaches and Disney World, let me know. My daughter’s moved to Manhattan for her career and I’ve made half the house a nice guest area. Seriously.
    Your blog has a real genuine feel to it and You two are such a cute couple!

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    1. Thank you so much – that sounds like one hell of an offer! The US is definitely a place on our list for the future. Really happy that you like the blog. It’s still relatively new and we’re hoping to grow it even more over the coming year.

      Thanks again! 🙂

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  13. Really interesting post Did you get on the Peter Pan ride at Disney? 😉 and yes if you go again you’d enjoy the show at Moulin Rouge, even though it’s a bit pricy. Nos Ancêtres les Gaulois is a phenomenal restaurant too. I loved the bit about the snails. Thank you for sharing and bringing back some memories 🙂

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  14. This brought back some wonderful memories of our trip to Paris, but with added sights. It was fun to see Disneyland as we live near the first one. Thanks for sharing.Thanks for following my blog. 🙂

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  21. Glad you enjoyed your visit to Paris. I also always go there by train: Frankfurt to Paris is less than four hours by ICE or TGV, and they run several times a day. I have also taken the EuroStar from Paris to London and back, and found it a great way to travel.

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  30. Thank you for the wonderful your of Paris and it’s “Disneyland”, all so very interesting for me. And thankyou for following my blog/website, muchly appreciated, hope you enjoy reading my humble writings, and I’m from Geelong, Australia. Cheers. Ivor.

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  34. Thanks for the follow. I too love travel and have been doing it for years. Working on transferring our thousands of film slides into digital photos so we can share on my blog series 50 States-50 Countries. Sorry you didn’t go up in the tower…also a great view of the city. Haven’t been to Paris in awhile…last time we took the chunnel, not long after it opened…drove our right side steering rental car onto the train and zipped to France where they swapped us for a Peugeot, beastly car, then off to Paris. Safe Travels!

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  36. It’s interesting to read your account of a first-time encounter with a Disney experience by adults. I’ve been to Disneyland intermittently from teenage to now, spanning 50 years, and there’s always more to find. Not everything about the Disney empire is admirable, but I’m happy to read your account of the fun you had. Tix here are about $100, so you had a bargain, too. Thank you for following Under Western Skies.

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  37. I have been to Paris many times, but have little interest in Disneyland, to be honest. I prefer to experience French culture, rather than American.
    Thanks for following my blog, which is much appreciated.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  44. A great post – and Paris is still a place we have to visit. Your photos are lovely and the deals look great. My husband and I wouldn’t be visiting Disneyland, though (we’re far too old! 😀 ) but a trip to Paris on Eurostar is definitely on the cards.

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