FIRST WE TRAVEL – #1

Bonjour you lovely people!

It is Sunday morning in Chatillon and its been a heck of a first week… that is really only about 3 actual days of being here, but a bunch of days at home, getting ready to go as well. Long email short, I’m here. I’m safe. I’m happy.

OK, that was the readers digest version.  I think most of you know me well enough to know that I am not gonna leave it at that. So lets get to it!

On Wednesday, it was travel day. Which means that I was still packing and prepping the house to be gone or a prolonged time. This typically means that I don’t usually sleep the night before I travel… cuz who needs sleep?  You will be pleased to know that I broke tradition (a smidge) and actually allowed myself to sleep for about 3 hours! Crazy, right? New folks to these emails may think “crazy” in this context is not good, but most folks will see this as a baby step toward personal growth, as that is 300% more sleep than I historically get the night before a plane trip of almost any length, but especially one that is crossing an ocean.

Anywho, almost all set on Wednesday, but then I realize I forgot one of the most important parts of a road trip, and by extension, any trip… HONEYCOMBS!!!! Yeah, I know, its weird, and I can’t recall if this was a Kathy thing or a Maloney thing… but it is a thing for sure! (Maloney sibs will sound off telling me that I’m cray cray, cuz Rita’s elves didn’t have a verse about Honeycombs…or they will have a flashback to their younger years and recall this…. I’m actually curious which it will be!)

Got a ride to the Orange Line station from Mr. Daly. For those curious, he’s going to be putting my car at the back of his driveway, so it wont be on the street for the entirety of my trip. For those curious, yes.. I packed too much stuff. But it is a long trip, and I needed clothes for warm and cold .. cuz Kelly tells me its chilly in Belfast. Oh right… the trip… I am off to France! I have a place to stay just outside Paris for the almost the entirety of the trip!  Who’s surprised by this news? Yeah, me too! But relax, just because I have a place for the full time, doesn’t mean I will be staying.

I will be renting a car and traveling around France for a couple of weeks at the start of August. For that leg of this trip, I know only that I am starting up in the Normandy & Mont St. Michel area.. beyond that we will see where the road takes me. I have some ideas for places to go and see from a few folks, including Barbara & Peter Haggerty (aka Eric’s folks), Uncle Fred (also hailing from the wonderful world of Eric’s people)…what? Come on now, you all know Eric. He’s the nephew in-law, proud dad to the great nieces, Hannah and Emma and hubby to the eldest of the nieces, Erin!  Not to mention, a sensational chef and deer hunter.

Anywho, back to the story… more ideas from Jess, a former student who has spent ages in France and a few others. So we will see what I can get to and what I discover along the way.  But I will also be trekking across the sky to pop over to Belfast for a few days to see my Bestie in Belfast, the one and only Ms. Kelly McAuley! Kelly’s been back in Belfast since the fall of 2020, and I have been missing her face something fierce! So, I am on the right side of the ocean to pop up and see her.. and check out her new house!!!! Beyond the road trip and the air trip, I will explore Paris and surrounding areas, check out some Olympics & some Paralympics, and see what other mischief I can get myself into.

Sorry the rambling started early this time, huh?

Back to the trek… the flight over was fine… I weirdly didn’t sleep as much as I had hoped. Usually I am out from about 20,000 feet to just before descent. See!  This is why I don’t sleep the night before… 3 hours sleep on Tuesday night kept me from falling asleep on Wednesday night! I was in the window seat, because that it is my preference.. in case any of you wanted to buy me a ticket to go somewhere .. window is the best! What? It could happen!

I stayed awake long enough to get some din din from the fine folks at Delta. It was actually pretty good food, for airline food! A curried chicken with rice…so nice.  Not to be confused with Riuniti on Ice, which is also very nice! (the young folks are confused by that joke, and the old folks are now stuck with countless Riuniti on Ice commercials running through their brains.  You are welcome!)

At the CDG (Charles-de-Gaulle airport) I hop into the European Union line at the Immigration Control/Passport check area. Thanks to Grandma & Grampa Duffy for the lineage that allowed me to get that Irish citizenship! So I was through in less than 5 minutes.. it literally took longer to walk through the empty maze than to wait for the next available agent. And then I was off to baggage claim.

So here’s the thing about luggage. I mean you hear all the time that you should do something to make it easier to id your bag from the belt, and I get that. I don’t have major things, mainly because this was a first trip for this bag. BUT, it did have the good ol’ Cape Cod Curling Club luggage tag in a nice bright red on the handle. Which was KEY!!  I saw what I thought was the bag making its way around, but then there was an Identical bag .. legit, Identical… directly beside it on the belt. I was trying to determine if either was even mine at that point, when I saw the red tag… there it is.  Just then the lady about 20 feet up from me picked up my bag. I called to her and said she had the wrong bag. She looked back to the belt and quickly noticed her bag was almost past her. I walked up and rolled my bag away and she thanked me as she was reunited with her actual bag.  Phew.. that was a close one….so yeah people… Make your bag’s visibly Different, so someone doesn’t take your by mistake!!

Can I just say… I LOVE the airports that have those luggage carts available for free! At logan, I think I say that they were $6 to use. That’s crazy and I don’t think I would have paid it.. but at CDG they were free and readily available right next to the baggage area. They are quite handy and make moving through the airport so much easier.  But come on…$6.. Logan, you can do better than that! Score CDG 1 – Logan 0 in the baggage realm.

Did I mention that my first stop on the trip was to be at Disneyland Paris? No?  Ohhh… well, if you know me, you knew that visit was gonna happen at some point on this trip, right? So I bopped over to the Magical Shuttle, which was to sweep me away to the fabulous folks at the Sequoia Lodge over by Disneyland Paris. The bus ride was a bit longer than expected, but I think that had more to do with the roads to there being very much like they are in Ireland… 2 lanes (one in either direction) and barely enough room for two buses to pass by one another…and sooooo many roundabouts! But we winded our way through fields and tiny towns til I noticed a distinct landscaping and thought.. well I haven’t seen signs, but that looks very Disney-like landscaping… the hills to either side of the roads with a clean and close cut grass in a wave like pattern, with trees popping up along the top of the hills…and then, sure enough Disney signs. They weren’t identical to the Disney World road signs… but they weren’t entirely unlike them either…mainly they were in French & English.. but very Disney!

I got to the Sequoia lodge around 10am. Checked in, but room wasn’t ready yet. So ai popped over to a chair and began to try and find the change of clothes I packed for this very occasion! Unfortunately, when I rejiggered some stuff at Logan, I moved stuff around and ended up with different bits of clothing in different bags.. so it was a process! But eventually found everything and jumped into the restroom to change! Dropped the bags at the Baggage area and jumped on the shuttle to the Parks. Confusing.. because the sign on the bus said train station, not parks.. but I was told to get on, so I did. Turns out the train station is directly beside the Disney Village area that is in front of the two parks (Disneyland & Disney Studios).

Sooooo… Hi HO, Hi HO, its off to the park we go! Bag check before entering Disney Village area, then walk toward the right to the big pink building (aka Disneyland Hotel). The entrance to the park is on the other side of the building, but fear not, you don’t have to walk around the hotel.. you walk through it … technically through it, but really it’s more like under it!  For those from Boston… it’s a bit like the Mass Pike going through the Star Market in Newton.. well under it! Self service scanning of tickets… and voila.. you are in Disneyland Paris!

As I walk under the railroad station, I am ushered across the street by a very happy and eager cast member and realize we are moments away from a parade…so I plunk myself right on the edge  of the line in the ramp up to the gazebo’s island, which is where the happy cast member says to stand behind.. and in a few short minutes the Disney Stars on Parade come rolling by. And who is on the first float, on my side of the street but the Main Mouse himself… lé Mickey!!! So happy to see him so soon. Fun parade! And once its done, I ramble on up Main St. USA. I go into a shop and realize there is a back door out of the shop?!?!? So I go out the back door… and this is frickin’ awesome.. they have a corridor, but it’s a large covered and cool stroll (I think they called it an arcade?) with benches and artwork and Disney touches that allowed a quieter and cooler stroll behind the hustle and bustle of Main St. and each store or restaurant had an entrance from this quaint promenade.

I won’t bore you with all the details and bits of Disney.. but some observations from a US gal that has done some time at Disney World and Disneyland California…

• It is really very much the same layout from the train station/town square and Main St. on up to the castle.
• I love the walk throughs behind the shops on either side of Main St. AND there are some cool and fun displays and ‘sight seeing’ of the Statue of Liberty and events around it’s unveiling.. among other ‘historical’ displays.
• There is no statue of Walt & Mickey on the center of the roundabout in front of the Castle.. which made me a little sad. I’m sure there is one somewhere, but I didn’t find it.
  • OK quick search just now.. it is in Disney Studios, but I am guessing it was in one of the MANY areas under construction, because I walked each of the parks a few times and couldn’t see it in either of them.
• The train was not up to either the Florida or Cali trains. But it did pull a bit from the Cali one in there being a display inside one of the buildings it rolled through. Here it was “The Grand Canyon” .. which I will be honest.. was rather frightening. LOL They had what I am guessing is ALL the wild animals that could be in the canyon in such close proximity to one another. If I didn’t know the Canyon, I would be terrified to go there based off this exhibit.
  • In fairness to Disney…all those creatures are surely in there, but they aren’t all in the same area at the same time.
  • Please note.. I have been and do love the Canyon! I realize most of the people seeing this have not or will not go there, and it is an ok depiction of it… but if you know and love it, it falls short. The folks at CARS did an amazing job of recreating the landscape of the southwest.. this exhibit is more like a middle school kids diorama in comparison.

Also, they only had 2 stops working, Frontierland and Main St.

• The Castle was pretty cool..kinda in between California and Florida in terms of Size and scope. Its up on a hill and there is lots to see when walking inside ..shops to either side, and a set of stairs to the left lead you down to the ‘basement’ lair of the dragon…and the dragon is sleeping, then wakes up… frickin’ fabulous! And you can enter this lair from a cave like entrance out to the side of the castle on the hill.
• If you take the stairs up, instead of down to the lair, you are on the second floor of the castle and there is a lovely depiction of Sleeping Beauty’s story told in stained glass windows.. and there is a door that allows you out on the balcony off the back of the castle, that overlooks Fantasyland.
• Overall, Paris’ imagineers have built in many more interactive bits and things to see and do other than rides and stores.. and they built in shady and cooler bits than you can find in either the Land or World parks of the US.
• Disney’s new rides LOVE 360 spins and loops and darkness. Hyper Space Mountain, Indiana Jones ride, Avengers Flight Force…all the spinning and looping!!!! I feel like they need some kind of head rest thingy that holds your head from bouncing too much.. and with a bit more cushion.. cuz what they have it kinda painful to the ears that are getting slammed to either side of the hard and further apart rest that is there, to be honest.
• Disney Studios – seems to be having LOTS of work done on it. What Paris doesn’t do as well as the US Parks is building the walls that hide the construction work. There are walls, but they are not as clean and proper as their US counterparts and they don’t have the dorky quotes from Walt all along them to inspire and entertain. They try, but again, its not at the level that one has come to expect from Disney if you have been reared on the US versions.
• Disney Studios definitely had more characters out and about. A variety of folks were over by Pixar… mainly Woody and the gang. There was a Loki & Thor interacting with the guests over by Stark Industries.. and Spiderman popped up at the top of the WEB ride building waving and interacting and speaking with the guest from above.
• It is interesting to hear the characters speak in French and then mix in English.
  • Thor spoke in French and Loki spoke in English
  • Spiderman was mainly speaking in French
• I saw more shows in Disney Studios.. again the mix of French and English was fun:
  • Mickey and the Magician
  • Together (live band with animated and live characters)
  • A musical Invitation (Frozen themed)
• The nightime extravaganza at Disneyland is awe inspiring!
  • Disney’s Electrical Sky Parade used a combination of projections onto the castle with drones, who recreated many of the iconic images from the Main St. Electrical parade.. but the rolled by in the sky above the castle, instead of down Main St.. or across the lake by the original hotels in Disney World.
  • . it is fucking spectacular.. go see it!!!

The lagoon/lake behind the Disney village works a lot like the one over by Epcot… essentially a foot path from the select hotels along the shores of it, to the Parks & village. It’s a lovely walk, once you know where you are going.

Saturday morning was checking out of Disney and trekking into Paris! Same shuttle bus that took me to the Parks on the first day took me to the train station on this day! €6 to get me from Disney to Chatillon!  What a bargain! The train from Disney is a bit like the commuter rail. To each end you can just step in and be on that level, but then in the middle section there are stairs up and down to a double level. Also they have bars that split into two separate bars mainly at halnd holding heights and then rejoin at the top.. which gives people more room to hold on and not be left unable to get a grasp because of too many people.

I switched over to the Metro at Auber. Normally I would change at the Champs-Élysées stop, but that stop is closed for the duration of the Games… so onward to Auber, then the 9 train to the 13. All was grand on the first transfer.. once I figured out which direction to get on. But for the second transfer, there were no lifts or escalators. So after a bit of looking I shrugged and began to trudge all my luggage down a LONG flight of stairs. Around the bottom ¼ a man bopped up and took my larger bag down the remaining steps for me before rejoining his friends on his way up that stairs.  Then at the end of the 13 line: Chatillon-Montrouge, again no lifts or escalators. This time a young woman helped me.

So here’s the thing that I know you folks know.. but to me, and to many of us, this is an annoyance or an inconvenience, mainly because of carrying large rolling bags. But what would my friends using wheelchairs do at this point? How would they have gotten to the house? We take a lot for granted, but traveling helps remind you that there are things that people are experiencing on the daily that they don’t have a quick fix for.. nor is it merely an inconvenience. I don’t know how we fix this, and yes, things are getting better, but its still a major issue that we need to get cracking on.

OK.. off my soap box.. for now.

Anywho, from the train, I used Google Maps to help me walk to the house I’m staying in. Its meant to be about .8 miles.. that is a lie! Also, even if it was .8 miles, what they don’t tell you is that it LOOKS like its flat, but when pulling, pushing and carrying a bunch of bags, you can FEEL the uphill-ness of it.  This is much like when I was told the Dublin Marathon was flat.. but there is actually an uphill climb from mile 19 to about 23 and it sucks so much more that late in the run.. much like the uphill climb to Rue des Iris is that much suckier in 87 degree heat with little shade and lots of cobblestones and ruble strips at the aprons of all the driveways along the way. Yes.. I am out of shape… but still.. this was a rough walk!

But we made it! Home sweet home in France!

I shall stop here for now. There is more to tell.. btu this rambling has rambled too far for now. Tune in next time for moving in, and the first evening in Paris! Til then.. au revoir from Chatillon!

Love your collective guts!

Kathy