paris revisited – day 4 (18 dec)

as promised, i will not go to this place. the mecca of capitalism. its evil franchises are found all over the world. from new zealand in the south to canada in the north. from japan in the east to the US in the west. the place where adults all act like children, spending obscene amounts of money on themselves and yes, the kids. the place of the world’s most loved vermin and his gang of animal cronies. yes my readers. this is disneyland.

one lookat my guidebook and i erased all thoughts of entering eurodisney. but as luck would have it, that same day i was to visit the two famous and largest department stores in paris, there was a bomb scare in one of them. it seems i would end up in disneyland. its actually very easy and cheap to get there. take the “other metro line”, the RER line A4 to the very last station marne-la-vallée/chessy. the line splits halfway so make doubly sure you are on the right train. the RER takes about 1hour to get there cosits located on the outskirts of central paris.

upon reaching, i told myself. i’ll take a look and return. ok… i inched closer to the ticket counter. how much? €59. unknowingly, i blurted “any discounts for under 25s?” yes. €39. for both parks the entire day. i surrendered my debit card to the master of manipulation himself: mickey mouse.

eurodisney comprises of two seperate parks. the smaller walt disney studios and the much, much larger disneyland park. walt disney studios is where they show you how they make films, animation and the like. its also THE place in eurodisney where you can pose for pictures with mickey, minnie and all the other disney characters you and i have come to like (or hate). nothing much to see here besides taking pictures with m-i-c-k-e-y and gang. disneyland park is the larger and more interesting of the two. itself is divided into five areas: main street, usa; frontierland; adventureland; fantasyland; discoveryland. to fully enjoy disneyland park, you will need at least two days. i had only half a day so i could only barely squeeze in walt disney studios, main street and frontierland. a good way to see the entire park is to take a ride on an authentic (?) steam train that travels around the perimeter of the park, thus allowing you a tantalising glimpse of all five theme parks. also they have a parade on main street at 4pm. it’s the usual with all the floats and dancers and no prizes for guessing the theme. i think the best time to go eurodisney is in the winter before christmas. you get to see all the christmas decorations and lightings with half the crowd compared to the peak season. as long as you go during the off peak season, you need not wait long for the rides. and yes, 90% of the rides are free (mostly in disneyland park).

i didn’y buy any souvenirs except for a disney mug with “free coffee” for €5 something. i’m afraid i’ve been infected with mickey fever. after returning to central paris, dinner was in a nondescript parisian bistro. empty except for two customers. apparently, the server was also the bartender who was also the cook and is also the owner. i finally found what i was looking for in paris: steak-frites. except cos i dont eat beef, the ‘steak’ was pork. dessert was apple pie (the instant version, not homemade) and more crepes. i asked the owner if i could eat my crepes in the restaurant with cafe and he very graciously gave me permission. i was eating halfway and two more customers came in (no relation to the earlier two). they were all eating the same thing. lamb tagine. damn. instanly i knew that was the house special but i’d had my dinner already. the kind owner invited me for coffee the next day before i am to leave paris but i politely declined cos my train was leaving in the early afternoon. what a way to end a most unexpected day.

the place of dreams

walt disney studios (have your photo taken with mickey here)