Travelogue

Dreamland on Earth - Disneyland

2010-12-24T21:10:00.000+05:30

Though thorouhly tired after a hectic day of moving around Paris, we managed to step out of our beds early. Perhaps the eagerness to visit another Disneyland turned us into early birds. After completing all the check out formalities, we hired a cab to Gare De Lyon which was the nearest station to board a RER to Marne-la-Vallee Chessy.

Marne-la-Vallee Chessy is probably the most frequented station by toursists in Paris these days as Disneyland has replaced Eiffel Tower as the most visited tourist spot in Paris. The weather was quite cold and I left P n P to collect our tickets to Venice once again. No points for guessing that I had misplaced it. The lady at the counter handed me the duplicate without making any fuss (yeah, certain things aren't so fussy outside India) but warned me that our travel was now at the Train Manager's (our good old Ticket Collector) discretion.

Filled with a sense of suspense related to our journey to Venice later, I returned to find P n P shivering in the cold breeze in spite of having added layers of winter garments. We then boarded the bus to Santa Fe, which was one of the best budget options available. Another attraction was its Meet the Disney characters concept which kind of becomes a ‘must’ if you are travelling with a kid.

We were checked into our rooms quite swiftly even though there was considerable crowd. Our room was towards the far end of Santa Fe layout. After relaxing for a few minutes we headed towards Disney Park. We took a detour to check out the Disney store at the hotel for the small trolley that I had promised Prisha. She found one with almost all her favorite Disney Princesses. I managed to convince her to buy it at the end of the day after checking out the other options at the park.

Before embarking on our voyage to Disney Park, we decide to pay a visit to the La Vallee Shopping Village. This was a shopaholic’s dreamland as it had hordes of stores selling branded clothes and accessories. After spending sometime in the shops, we stumbled upon our favorite coffeehouse – Starbucks. We decided to treat ourselves to some coffee and snacks extravaganza. Once we were done it was time to hit the Disney Park.

We were welcomed by the familiar hospitality at the entrance (where you are frisked and ushered in through a mechanical routine). We decided to prioritize the rides that we wanted to take so that we could utilize our time to the best possible extent.

While we were making up our mind on the first section that we wanted to visit, we stumbled upon the first of many dances that we were to see on the day. It featured Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto & a few other characters. It was a great start for Prisha. This was close to the iconic castle for Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant - also identified by a simpler name, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle - which was where we went next.

Once outside the castle, Prisha was relentless to get her hands on a big candy. Had to give in to her persistence, knowing pretty well that we would be making a comic site for the rest of the crowd as she would start but not finish this colorful candy. Kids always have their way!

We decided to take a couple of rides as dusk set in. We took Peter Pan's Flight and Disneyland Railroad before going for a stroll in Main Street, U.S.A. It was collection time for our own little princess who was prompt in choosing her own set of Minnie cutlery. After picking a few souvenirs, we headed out of the park.

We decided to have dinner elsewhere but then ended up eating in an adjacent McDonald’s as we were too tired to contemplate on the options available. Finally we took a bus back to Santa Fe.

It was time to keep up my promise to Prisha. We headed straight to the Disney store & picked up the trolley that was shortlisted earlier. It was a sight to watch as our girl trudged along full of pride pulling her empty trolley. It was dream come true for the little princess.

Day two started early as we wanted to make the most of the early visitor pass that was part of the stay. As we covered one ride after the other, we felt happy at our decision to stay at the resort rather than try to squeeze in everything in a day. This was a lesson well learnt from our trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Satisfied with our coverage we headed for our breakfast at Plaza Gardens Restaurant. The breakfast was a spread of typical French breakfast. By the time we were done, it was close to the scheduled checkout time and we rushed back to Santa Fe.

Prisha by now was angry with Mickey & Minnie for not showing up anywhere in the park. It was matter of bad timing as Minnie was the Meet the Disney character for the morning but unfortunately we missed her by the time we rushed back with our luggage.

We then completed the formalities & dumped our luggage in the cloak room & waited for Goofy who was the next scheduled Meet the Disney character. Prisha had her few moments of ecstasy playing & posing with Goofy. We headed towards the park once again.

As we had covered almost all rides on our list in the park, we decided to head to Walt Disney Studios. Our first stop was obviously to meet the greatest mouse of all time, the star of Disney, Mickey himself in person.

Prisha was so excited to meet Mickey and could not wait when he had to take a break. We photographed ourselves along with Mickey to showcase for later and moved on to the various shows hosted within the studios.

Among the different shows we did make it to, Animagique & CineMagique were impressive.

In between these two shows, P n P managed to board Les Tapis Volants – Flying Carpets Over Agrabah. Having enjoyed the rides & shows since morning we were looking forward to a delightful lunch at the Restaurant des Stars. The lunch was adorned by Chef Remy of Ratatouille fame. It was good to see the kids enjoy the little chef. Prisha enjoyed the food as well as the new additions to her collection of souvenirs.

We decided to check out the Frontierland and Adventureland post our lunch. We took the Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing which lasted for about half an hour.

The clock was ticking and with the fading light we had decided to cover a couple of final areas before heading back to Paris. Our first stop was at Woody’s Roundup Village. Prisha tried her hand being Jessie.

After she successfully mounted Bullseye, we decided to pay a visit to Santa. The whole area was covered with ‘snow’. As Christmas was just over, people were keen on paying Santa a visit. Santa was patience personified & gave ample time to all the kids.

P n P had their moments with Santa and Prisha had her share of secrets with Santa. Having bid adieu to Santa, we rushed back to Santa Fe to collect our luggage and head back to Paris.

Little did we know then that our real adventure was yet to begin! We were welcomed with a long queue at the Marne-la-Vallee Chessy RER station and it took about an hour to get our tickets to Gare de Lyon.

Our train was to depart at 2030 hours local time and we were running out of time as well as energy. Taking help from the fellow passengers we managed to board the metro to Bercy from Gare de Lyon. Unfortunately Bercy Metro & Gare de Bercy were not housed in the same building but were about 400m apart. It was quite a challenge to walk-run-walk-run with the entire luggage, locate the proper exit and reach Gare de Bercy. As if this was not enough the station was one level up & we literally run up the stairs with the luggage only to find a couple of trains standing on the platforms with no clear indication of which is what. Speedily I located a help desk & managed to spot our train.

There were two gentlemen near the rear of the train & I had no clue who was the Train Manager. I approached one of the two who looked like a Manager (looks matter!!!) and explained to him that I was carrying the duplicate tickets. At this point to my surprise he pointed to the other gentleman - whom I had presumed to the engine driver – to be the Train Manager!!!

He was cordial enough and showed us our car. We moved to our cabin which was much smaller than what I had seen in the pictures and a group of friends were already there. We managed to haul the luggage on the upper storage as well as below the berths.

Once settled down we got introduced to this nice group of friends who were also going to Venice for the umpteenth time. They wanted to shared their sandwiches, juices and also provided us with inputs on what not to miss and what to miss in Venice.

We finally settled down & went to sleep with Prisha having a berth of her own in a train for the first time. Too tired to read the guide on Venice we dozed dreaming about the Floating City.

This work by Aravindan Premkumar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Paris, je t'aime!

2010-11-19T16:36:00.004+05:30

An evening in Paris

Paris...One certainly needs to pause to recollect the visual brilliance of the city. We (Piyali, Prisha & I) reached Paris from Helsinki on the eve of Christmas. I should have guessed what was in store for us as I soaked in the unique layout of the escalator in Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Roissy Airport or just Roissy in French).

After spending quite some time at the SNCF counters to take the train pass as well as collect the onward tickets to Venice, we arrived at Hotel Abbatial Saint Germain at about 1600 hrs local time. The weather was warm & pleasant in comparison to what we had in Helsinki. It was good to be away from the snow for once 😊. We got into a nice cosy room without much hassle since I had managed to book a room as part of the planning and stretched our stiffened muscles.

Our hotel was centrally located, close to Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and we had a room that gave a good view of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet church.

After relaxing for a couple of hours, we decided to venture out into the City of Lights. Even though it was drizzling, our increasing hunger ensured that we moved out. We decide to move in the direction of Notre-Dame hoping to find some good restaurant as well as catch a glimpse of the famed church.

Little did we realize that it would be such a great sight to see the church bounded by Seine on one side. Amazed at our first halt in Paris, we forgot about food and started to walk around the Seine. The drizzle was making it cold as we stumbled upon a huge building with flashing lights. Little did we know then that the building was the famous Place de l'Hôtel de Ville (City Hall Plaza). It looked resplendent with the flashing lights.

By now the drizzle was slowly increasing in intensity & so was our hunger. We decided to abandon further gazing of the buildings & head for dinner, trying to fit under the solitary umbrella. As it was Christmas eve the restaurants were either fully occupied or closed. We finally managed to locate one, in one of the side streets called Le Jardin du Marais. The staff were very courteous & served us with our order of pizza & wine. The hunger made the food extra delicious. After enjoying our food, we decided to head back to our room. As we walked back, we decided to hand the umbrella to our little lady who was enjoying her evening in Paris 😊.

Christmas

We had to drag ourselves out of the bed as we were totally exhausted from the previous day's travel & walk in the rain. Hoping for an eventful day we started with Notre-Dame. My enthusiasm to capture the Notre-Dame in digital frame slowed us down. Soon enough, we decided to have our breakfast and headed towards the Subway across the street where we stuffed ourselves with foot-long subs.

Christmas sermons were in progress as we toured inside the cathedral along with hordes of other visitors. I realized the need for a wide-angle lens as I tried to capture the complete entrance. I noted that I must either get add-on lens for my Olympus E-330 or upgrade to a newer camera.

Content with the time spent at Notre-Dame, we decided to visit Place des Vosges which was a must see on Piyali's agenda. I had hardly heard of this place but then agreed to her as she had spent a lot of time preparing the list of must-see for us. As we did not know the route we decided to explore on foot. Few of the Parisians' were kind enough to give us the directions. As moved across the Seine, I got a view of the Notre-Dame that I had to capture on my camera. Later this view was described as one of the most sought after views by the cruise guide. Lucky me🙌!!!

We continued to walk through the by-lanes and moved towards Rue de Rivoli as we were told. En-route I took a picture of what I had assumed to be yet another church. I had absolutely no clue then that it was the well known Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis Church. As they say every moment is worth capturing in your camera, especially when you don't know what you actually are looking at 😉.

Finally we reached Rue de Rivoli and made our way to Place des Vosges. All my apprehensions on visiting this place vanished once we entered the huge complex.

No wonder it was the dream address for not only most of the Parisians but for anyone who has been there. We too were no exception to this greed as we watched our little girl enjoy herself.

It was time for us to leave Place des Vosges and go to our next stop for the day, Sacré Coeur. As we took the metro, we decided a small detour to Place de la République, which was right above the République metro.

After the brief halt at République, we reached Sacré Coeur. I had missed reading that Sacré Coeur was perched on top of the highest point in Paris. Daunted by the task on hand, we decided to refuel ourselves before starting our ascent. We managed to have some pizza, eggs and bread at one of the many restaurants lined up in front of Sacré Coeur.

It was fun climbing all the way to the top. We managed to cajole Prisha to take up the rides on our way back. As we reached half way through, we decide to take a photo-break. Prisha was keen to try her hand on whatever her papa was doing. I decided to let her give it a shot. It was an amusing site for the people around to see a cute little girl try & take pictures of her parents as we posed for Prisha. For someone her age, it was really a very nice picture 😄.

We walked all the way up and went inside the church. If only they would let photography inside such places 😒. After offering our prayers, we moved out and once again got engrossed in trying to take some good pictures but in vain. The light was fading & my basic D-SLR would not satisfy all my requirements.

We took some time off to watch one of the guys perform some wonderful tricks with a football perched on top of one of the columns. His fluency with the ball would have put most of our footballers to shame 😊. Our walk back was swift & as promised we let Prisha enjoy in the play area and the merry-go-round.

It was time for some shopping. We bought some souvenirs and perfumes. It is true that one gets the best perfumes in Paris 👍. It was now time to move & I rushed back to get one final picture of Sacré Coeur as dusk dawned upon us.

The metros were crowded and after quite an eventful journey we decided to go about the rest of the evening without any plan. We decided to do some window shopping on Boulevard Haussmann which boasts of the famous Galeries Lafayette.

People had come out to the streets to enjoy the Christmas evening. We had lot of company in gazing at the animated toys adorning the displays. Prisha had fallen asleep by now & we had to wake her up so that she does not miss the fun. After a brief stop at one of the McDonalds, we decide to go visit Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

Stepping out of Champs-Elysées metro, we walked into a mini exhibition of sorts which had attracted Prisha. After convincing her about the wait time, we started walking away from the crowd towards Les Invalides not knowing that we were close to Arc de Triomphe as well. As moved ahead, we found this huge structure which looked like some sort of museum on our right. Curious about the way the building was lit, we decided to drop in.

This place was filled with games for kids much to Prisha's amusement. We decided to hangout for sometime & let her have some fun.

As I discovered later, this sturcture was Place Vendôme. We thought of taking a bus back home. As we walked in search of a bus stop we had our first look at the Eiffel Tower.

As we had no clue about the route numbers, we decided to stick to the metro & returned to our room.

Last Day

We started our day quite late compared to what we had planned. We halted near the metro for breakfast and treated ourselves to some delicious crepes. Our first stop was the Louvre. Piyali had done a brief yet extensive research on what all we should see. We had heard of the enormity of the museum and time that would be required to cover the complete museum. We were lucky to get in quick & buy the tickets. Once inside this magnificent must-visit museum, I could understand why this was one of the most visited museums in the world.

I may not be wrong to proclaim that this is perhaps the number one museum in the world. There were an awful lot of things to see. As we had very little time we started with the paintings section, especially the one in the wing that housed the world famous Mona Lisa.

I started taking pictures as usual knowing pretty well that most of them would not make the cut to be shared. Piyali was gazing away at all the life like paintings. After going through many hallways we were finally there to meet the good old lady herself - Mona Lisa.

The painting was barricaded a good 30-40 meters away from visiting public. All the competing flashes made it all the more difficult for me to capture Leonardo da Vinci on my digital frame. Now that I had the picture, my interest level waned. We went through the different wings and by the time we winded up, it was well into past noon.

We decided to have lunch and then go to Centre Georges Pompidou. But after Louvre, Pompidou felt more like a shopping mall.

As we walked around Pompidou, we reached the beautifully lit Saint-Jacques Tower. As we walked through the side streets, we realized how close we were to our hotel and could not help appreciate the location of this wonderful hotel.

As night was setting in we decided to complete the remaining two major attractions, Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. We took the metro to Charles de Gaulle - Étoile which was right below the Arc de Triomphe. As we walked out of the subway, we could see the structure which reminded us of our own Gateway of India. We found a few other fellow Indians but could not make out whether they were localites or tourists like us.

After having our pictures taken we moved on to Eiffel Tower, our last and final stop in Paris. This one time tallest man-made structure in the world stood on the banks of Seine. As they light it in the evenings, it was radiant from a good distance.

As we moved towards the tower we stumbled upon a fellow Indian who was selling souvenirs. The desi spirit got the better of me and I decided to buy some souvenirs from him. This guy hailed from Punjab and gave me a good deal (I prefer to think that way 😉).

We then moved towards closer to the Eiffel Tower. We felt dwarfed as we neared this structure. I was hoping that it will be less crowded so that we can manage to go up at least till the fourth level. But as we approached the bottom of the tower, all such hope fast evaporated. We decided to hang around for some time, take a few more pictures and then go for the cruise on Seine.

The cruise was just in time and took us around the city of Paris. It covered most of the key places to visit. The evening breeze made it all the more pleasant. My attempts to add to my collection of pictures were futile due to the lack of light as well as the speed of the cruise. I decided to forget about taking pictures and enjoy the cruise. The cruise was for about an hour and brought us back to Eiffel Tower. Satisfied with the places we got to see in the day, we decided to have dinner at Pizza Fiorentina near the Champ de Mars RER station. We tried the pizza bolongnese which was quite much more than delicious. Satisfied with our food as well as our trip so far we headed back to the hotel looking forward to the next day.

We were to leave for Disneyland Paris in the morning :D.

This work by Aravindan Premkumar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Better late than never

2010-11-18T20:55:00.001+05:30

Finally I have done what I had planned almost a year back. I had dreamt of writing a travelogue soon after our vacation to Paris and Venice during Christmas in 2009. As a result of lack of time, laziness and a whole lot of other self made excuses, I had not started the same.

But then just as the Irish proverb states, “Your feet will bring you to where your heart is.”, my desire to pursue interests close to my heart got the better of me and made me pen this. Hopefully I should be able to complete the entire trip and also continue writing on other travel experiences.