Disneyland Paris : Newport Bay Club Hotel.

I am incredibly fussy when it comes to hotels. Like many, I don't just want to stay in any old hotel. I want a hotel that can offer me something new, something fun and generally be nice and modern, all for a good price! I know, I don't really want a lot, do I? The great news is, with TripAdvisor and blogs and the internet at our fingertips, a little (or sometimes lengthy) search can tell us everything we need to know and lead us to the right place!

So as you may have seen from my recent posts, I recently took a return trip to Disneyland Paris to check out the awesome 'Swing Into Spring' festivities. I'm actually kind of sad that I can't just live there and it always be Spring, as it was so much fun! But, Summer is here and with the new season, comes a new set of shows and decorations to spruce the place up, and Frozen Summer Fun is the new theme. Anyone for another trip to Disney? Anna, Elsa and Olaf are waiting!

Winter in Paris : Goodies and Souvenirs Haul.

Whoops! That was a bit of a bigger delay than I had in mind between posts there. My adorable fluffy hoppy bunnykins Remy has been all sorts of hormonal on me recently, and over the last few days has been experiencing a phantom pregnancy. In bunny-land this is a big and distressing deal for everyone, but she's getting back to her normal self now. Phew!

So now that is all over and done with, i'm finally going to show you all what I got in Paris!

Personally, I love hauls/birthday/Christmas gets types of posts, especially from travel shopping! I'm going to try and let you know how much everything was, as a budgeting aide for anyone planning a trip to Paris soon! But if haul posts aren't your kind of thing, you may want to click away now.

Winter in Paris : Disneyland Days

I'm really excited to share today's post with you, as I'd love to tell you all about my first trip to Disneyland! Growing up, no-one in my immediate family had passports. In fact, my mum and I were terrified of flying so we really didn't see the point in having one. I didn't get a passport until I was 16 to go to Italy on a school trip, and even then we all went by coach.

I can't even remember what got us talking about it, but enough was enough, I was going to face my fear of flying and we took the plunge and booked a trip to Disneyland! We decided to make a bit of a trip about it and went out and about exploring Paris [One || Two] for the first part of our trip, before heading to Disney! On the Disney days, it was the easiest to drag myself out of the super soft hotel bed, then I proceeded to bounce about like an over excited five year old.

Winter in Paris : Part Two.

Welcome to Paris, part two! In Part One I shared with you some of the churches and monuments we visited. Today i'm going to share the museums, and some awesome nibbles with you.

Street Lights. Near the Louvre Pyramids.

Of course we had to stop off at the Louvre and say 'Hi' to the Mona Lisa. Oh WOW that place is absolutely huge. It could easily take up an entire day of your trip exploring everything. We got really lucky when we arrived in Mona Lisa's room, and it took us less than five minutes to get to the front of the crowd for a closer look and a quick snap. I've seen pictures of that room completely filled with tourists, and it's not exactly a little room. It could easily hold a few hundred people.

The hallways seem to go on forever and are so intricately decorated, combined with all the fancy artworks, there is just sooo much to look at and appreciate. The best part is, like many monuments and museums in Paris... It's free to get in if you're under 26 from the EU!

Paris has two really big opera houses, the Palais Garnier and L'Opera Bastille. The Palais Garnier is the more traditional of the two and was right in the middle of a few other things we were planning to do so we popped by. The building itself is gorgeous, and really ornate, with columns, carvings and gold statues. We were going to go inside and go on the tour but we noticed Galeries Lafeyette nearby and had a change of plans. The Fragonard museum and shop is also nearby. It's free to look around and I definitely recommend popping into this really charming little place. I picked up a really charming little set of nice smells for my dad as a Christmas gift.

I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Musee des Arts Forains, and to spend an hour or two exploring Bercy Village. Bercy Village is such a cute little place with plenty of shops and restaurants to keep you occupied for a while. I recommend the Sephora, as it's much more peaceful than the one on the Champs, and head to La Cure Gourmande for biscuits and treats. We stopped off for lunch at Hippopotamus, which was a really nice restaurant but lacking in veggie options. As in, unless you want a side of green veg with fried cheese... I'd give it a miss. My friend had a salad and it arrived in a huge bowl and was really good value, so if you don't have a restricted diet i'd definitely recommend.

The Musee des Arts Forains, is the Museum of Fairground Arts. They have an amazing collection of pieces dating as far back as 1850. Fair stalls, Merry-Go Rounds and carousels. And yes, you do get to go on them! The tour is in French, but be sure to ask for the English guide. It has a lot of information about where all the interesting things you're seeing come from, and that makes it all 10x cooler.

For the fashionistas, la première Chanel store on Rue Cambon is a must visit. I felt out of place, attempting to stomp gently across the pristine carpets in my giant Caterpillar boots, but I wasn't treated like I was. There was no chance i'd have been able to afford bags or shoes, as much as i'd have liked to, so we made a beeline to the make-up. We were hell bent on buying something, and spent what seemed like quite a long time debating over which shades of nail polish to chose.

Once of the assistants became free asked if we needed help just as we'd picked what we wanted. She then packed our goodies into adorable little Chanel bags, complete with embellishments and a mini bottle of Coromandel perfume, and whisked us off to pay. The shopping experience at Chanel was something else entirely.

On the subject of the finer things in life, the lovely delicate cookies known as macarons. Cute little pastel cookies with quite a price tag... The modern macarons creation is often accredited to the French institution, Ladurée. I can confirm that, they were absolute perfection. So much better than any macarons i've ever had in the UK! I even picked up a macaron from a Christmas market, and it didn't compare in the slightest.

When we got to the store on the Champs Elysees, there was only a small queue outside on the cold December eve. It moved pretty quickly and we were soon let inside by a fancy doorman. The queue inside was much bigger, but it does go down quite quickly. They have a selection of boxes that you can fill up with different amounts of macarons. From the classic Ladurée pastel boxes to funky seasonal boxes. When we visited, the seasonal boxes were tropical themed, and  I chose this sleek black and silver serpent box as I thought it was really eye catching.

The macarons I chose in my box were : Raspberry, Apple Crumble, Gingerbread, Rose Petal, Salted Caramel and Rum Vanilla. Yummy! The guy who served me was lovely, and I wasn't rushed with anything despite how busy they clearly were. He even got all of the keyrings out of their boxes to show me so I could chose a colour and waited while I grabbed my friend from further down the queue to pick too. I think his name was Luca or Lucas? My total for a box of six macarons, a tub of mini meringues and a keyring was about 60 euros. I'll show you the ring in a future post. The meringues were a Christmas gift, and are looong gone. Sorry! :p

Top Tip: If you don't fancy waiting in the queue at the Champs store, there are little carts dotted about the airport. Top Tip 2: Try the pineapple!

Sticking with a foodie theme now, the Falafel in the Marais area of Paris came highly recommended. There are two next popular branches right across from each other but Las Du Fallafel had the longest line, (two actually) and is the one most favoured online. The shorter and slower moving line is to sit down and eat inside. So we joined the longer line for take away. The queue wasn't that bad on a mid December day and moved pretty quickly. I can imagine it being a much longer queue in the summer months, but orders and payments are taken in the queue, and you're given a little ticket. When you get to the window you hand it over and within seconds you'll have yummy Falafel in your hands. They put the whole thing together in front of you. In seconds. It was pretty amazing to see that too. So then we scurried off and found a corner to munch on our treat. Being a veggie, i've sampled quite a bit of Falafel in my time and I usually find it dry and disappointing... But not these. The Falafel and veggies from Las Du Fallafel was amazing and i'd definitely pop back the next time i'm in Paris.

We popped into the Sushi Shop just outside one of the metro exits at Denfert Rochereau a few times. The staff didn't speak English, but were really patient with us and the food was good value. It was something silly like 12 Euros, and we had six pieces of sushi, rice and soy sauce each. After a long day it was nice to have something easy to grab, take back to the hotel and eat while curled up in our PJ's. They deliver too! I saw little Sushi Shop scooters all over the place. I wish they'd branch out and open up shops in England.

I always had this idea that Paris was over-hyped, so it really did surprise me how much I enjoyed wandering the city and the sheer scale of the churches and buildings like the Opera. They were so huge and ornate. I also loved seeking out the older style metro signs as I think they look amazing, and now I'm really looking forward to going back, and this time i'm taking my good camera! In the words of Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea."

Stick around, my next post will be all about Disneyland Paris! And coming soon, i'll show you all the goodies I brought back with me. If you missed my other posts about Paris, you can check them out here!

[Highlights] [Paris : Part One] [CitizenM Hotel] [Hard Rock Cafe]

A Bientot!

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Winter in Paris : Part One.

The French capital conjures up ideas of romance, exceptional fashion and impeccable food. Everyone has their ideas of what to expect from the so called 'City of Love', home of the love lock bridge and for a brief spell, Carrie Bradshaw. We all know this romanticised vision of Paris, but does it really stack up to expectations? I had this vision of Paris as being to young couples, what Benidorm is to a stag weekend. Probably not my kind of thing.

I read plenty of reviews and trip tips online and saw a lot of negativity. I saw a lot of 'no-one speaks English' and 'the French are rude.' But i've got to say, it wasn't so. In our experience, everyone in the main tourist areas that we tended to stick to, spoke English and everyone we interacted with, were really friendly. Paris was way more than I expected it to be, and there was plenty to keep our days full of wonder and wandering. Spoiler alert... Paris really is pretty enchanting.

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The first thing we did after checking in at our hotel was hop on a train bound for the center of Paris. The metro system sometimes feels like a rabbit warren, but it's pretty easy to figure out and we were swiftly on a new train to the Eiffel Tower. It was a chilly evening, and there seemed to be only one elevator in operation (maybe two). I think we waited about 45 minutes to get to the elevators. Which was plenty of time for my buddy to chicken out of a trip to the tippy top of the tower. So we got tickets to the 1st floor, which is actually split across two levels. 

Each elevator is a double decker, so one pod drops off at the top half, and the other on the bottom. As we were on the top elevator we explored the top half which had little shops, a little cafe and outdoor space to enjoy the views. Seeing everything glittering below was a pretty good way to kick off the week! On the way up we saw an ICE RINK! Possibly the worlds most awesome place to skate, but we were planning on going skating later in the week so gave it a miss.

Out of the tips I found online for the Eiffel Tower, i'd definitely say staying on the metro until the Trocadéro stop is a good idea. It's much easier to find the tower, as once you get to street level it more or less looms right over you. There's a great place to stop and take photos, a sort of elevated platform before you head down some steps into really pretty garden area. Then it's just a short walk to the tower, and you get to pass this gorgeous carousel on the way. Another idea I picked up is to film the view from outside the elevator as you go up or down the tower. I was lucky enough to be first in so I got a great spot to do that from, and it makes for a great video to bring home.

The Parisian architecture is gorgeous, especially the beautiful gothic style churches and cathedrals.
The first we visited was the Basillica Sacré-Cœur and it set the bar pretty high. No photos are allowed inside and although we did see some people snapping a few photos, we decided not to chance a telling off and kept our cameras away. There was a really cute little shop inside and Claire picked up a gorgeous little crystal style ornament for her Grandma.

Although it's free to enter and look around, there is an extra charge to go in the dome, and the crypt. You can do both, or either on their own. We did both. Climbing up to the dome reveals amazing views over the rooftops of the Montmarte area, but a word of warning it's a very tight spiral staircase up, and in the winter the walls are very cold. So put your gloves on!

Just out of sight to the right... The Eiffel Tower.

The second most popular location we visited by far, was the Cathedral of Notre Dame. There were people, everywhere! Outside, inside, all the way up in the towers and i'd hazard a guess that the crypt would be full too. We didn't spend as much time here as we probably should for full effect, but by the time we had walked around it was starting to get dark and I realised i'd lost my 5 day train pass... Don't worry, I did find it again! But next time, I would definitely like to spend more time at this beautiful place.

I think everyone knows of the iconic Notre Dame, but lesser known and a stones throw away is the chapel of Sainte Chapelle. I stumbled upon photos online of this place and I knew straight away we had to go. They were restoring some of the windows when we visited, so there was scaffolding and covers over portions of the exterior, so I didn't snap any pictures of it. Although I noticed these adorable carvings on the wall near the entrance that I had to snap a picture of.

At first, we thought we'd gone to the wrong place or i'd gotten something a little mixed up, as we entered into a large room containing some exhibits showing information about the church and some stalls selling postcards, trinkets and souvenirs. Then we spotted a little spiral staircases tucked away in the corner, which led us exactly where we were hoping to go. Sainte Chapelle has absolutely phenomenal, gorgeous windows. We didn't get to see the rose window, as it was being renovated. I literally don't know what I can say about this place. I think the picture says it all for me.

We got to the Arc de Triomphe just in time to see the ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Unfortunately, we only saw it from across the street as we couldn't figure out where the underpass was and there was no chance of anybody getting across that road around it! If ever I get a chance to go back, I'm definitely going to spend a little longer looking for the underpass, as i'd have liked to have had the chance to get a closer look, and see what it was like inside. If you stay on the metro a little longer, you can pop your head out at La Defense and see the Grand Arch too. Which is awesome! I thought I snapped a photo, but I can't find it.

Lastly, the Catacombs. I don't really know what I can say about the Catacombs. It was a mix of things, some of which you might not expect. Theres a lot of interesting information about the formation of the tunnels and amazing little structures carved into the walls before you enter the main ossuary. I found it quite frustrating to see a lot of people posing for pictures in front of the bones with big grins on their faces. (Using the flash too! Despite signs saying not to.)

One of the best things about all of these places, they were either free to enter, or free/at a reduced price for those under 26 from the EU. So if you're under 26 don't forget to take some ID and you can save yourself quite a few Euros!

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two, including museums and food!

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CitizenM @ Paris Charles De Gaulle

Time for another Paris post! This time i'm gonna tell you a little about where we chose to stay. We decided to stay at an airport hotel so we didn't have to cart our luggage around on the metro. Big suitcases and busy trains wouldn't be a good mix. There's a good selection of places to stay around the airport, and I love fun, quirky, modern hotels. So there was only one option for me... CitizenM!

Citizen M offers a soft XL bed, free wifi imyours, TV with movies and a rain shower. Their website is conversational, fun and easy to navigate and also has some cool tips of things to see and do around Paris. The hotel itself is located about a two minute walk from the airport shuttle station, which connects to the train station too, with regular trains direct into central Paris. From the outside, it looks modern and cool, and i'd definitely have wanted to chill out on the swinging bench out front if it was summer time and not cold and rainy during our trip.

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You had me at nice pillows. I'm a pillow fiend. I sleep with four and have a supply of about 8 cushions for back up.

The lobby felt more like walking into your new rich and eccentric friends home, than a hotel. Sofas, arm chairs, big TV's and bookcases of curios everywhere! The lobby also hosted the automated check-in desk, which was quick and easy to use, and there was always staff about to offer assistance. I loved that the room keys would double as luggage tags if you needed to store your luggage with the hotel while you went off exploring before or after your room was available.

Just past the living area lobby were a bunch of iMac's with free printing followed by some more seating, the bar and CanteenM. The bar faces the elevators to guest rooms, and there was always someone to say hello at the bar when we came down in the morning or got back at night.

It was starting to get dark by the time we arrived, so the lights were on and the blinds were shut. Peeking out revealed we'd been given a runway view room! Which I was hoping for, so yay! Half of the small room is taken up by this giant marshmallow of a bed. It's compact, but at no point does it ever claim to be anything but. We planned to spend long days exploring the city, and barely any time at 'base camp' so we really didn't need that much space. We could sleep, shower and head off for the day. The only time there wasn't really enough space for both of us, was packing to go home. So we just took turns. There was even two mirrors so we could both do our make up at the same time.

 

Almost everything in the room is controlled by the MoodPad. A Samsung tablet that turns on the tv, the heat, air, blinds and the main room and mood lights. We had great fun with those. There's something quite amusing about being in a purple shower that suddenly becomes yellow. The shower itself was amazing, and just like being under a stream of heavy rain. I want one at home, and one of the beds! The bed was amazing. If I had one at home I don't think i'd ever get out of it. We didn't even have to get out of it to turn the TV or lights off at night, as that was all done by the MoodPad.

There was a good choice of movies available on the TV and over the course of the week we watched both Despicable Me films, Snow White & The Huntsman and Les Mis! It was nice to be able to pop the BBC on in the morning too. There was free wi-fi, so we used that to check in on directions and weather, and to check in with what was going on at home.

The room was clean, the towels were soft, fluffy and good sizes too. The hairdryer had plenty of power too and did a good (and quick) job of drying our hair. The little fridge was stocked with little bottles of Evian for us each night too. I slept on the side nearest the window. There was some noise from the runway, but it was soft background noise and I found it quite easy to fall asleep and it never woke me up during the night. I suppose after those long days of exploring we would have slept through them zipping right past the window...

We ate at the hotel a few times. It was buffet style, so you pay for a dish or a dish with sides and so on then serve yourself. I was absolutely thrilled to see that there was always one meal that was completely veggie! I had ratatouille a few times which put a bit of a grin on my face because I was really hoping i'd find it on the menu somewhere at least once! I'm pleased to report it was lovely, warm and comforting food. I had it once with rice (which was surprisingly tasty) and once with a yummy potato gratin. I also had the tofu curry which was waaaay too spicy for me. If you like spicy then definitely give it a try, but if like me and just showing the dish a spice jar makes it too spicy, maybe give it a miss. I've just realised I forgot to take a picture of the breakfast we had on the last day. I do remember that we were hungry and there was lots of choice both hot and cold.

Check out the comfy chair by the window that I was chilling out on before heading back to the airport. 

It cost us between 70 and 80€ a night between the two of us, which I think was really great value considering the fact it was an airport hotel, conveniently located and the in-room features. If I was heading back to Paris, i'd definitely stay here again. They also have a handful of other hotels scattered around the world. I'm eying up Rotterdam, as my brother has been to the city before and said it is a really beautiful place. There are also two CitizenM's in nearby Amsterdam, another city on our 'wanderlist'. Let's not forget good old New York. I'd love it if they opened up in more UK locations, so I had somewhere nice to stay after gigs and concerts.

Did I mention the rain shower?!

Catch you later!

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rain.
shower.

Hard Rock Cafe : Paris

Hey all! I've been promising these for a while, but its about time I came good and started getting out some of those Paris posts! I decided to kick off with a foodie, and I may disappoint you here, but it wasn't fancy French cuisine... But I am really excited to tell you about it because it was our first meal out in Paris, the first time i've eaten at one of these restaurants from a huge international chain... And it exceeded expectations. It was pretty easy to find too, just a short walk from the metro stop!

Now, I'm a very loud person... But for some reason, I become a very softly spoken person to the general public. So my doe eyed startled request for 'deux', must have sounded a lot like two and the staff switched to English for us! Luckily for us this happened a lot, because literally every time we tried to speak to someone in French... We forgot everything. (I think we even forgot basic English...)

 Best seat in the house... Worst angle for snapping a quick pic.

Lucky for us all the staff seemed to speak English. They were also friendly, and cheery and we were sat right under the quirky wall with cafe logo on! It was a great seat but made it really hard to take a good picture of the sign, and it did get a bit awkward when we were trying to eat our food and some tourists came and stood right in front of our table to have their picture taken...

It was a bit on the dark side, so photos didn't come out too great, but there were TV's dotted about playing classic 80's rock and memorabilia like signed guitars which gave the place a really cool atmosphere. There was a bit of a wait to be seated when we first arrived but we used that time to browse the 'Rock Shop' at the front. I wish I bought something but I didn't spot any little trinkets. A keyring or a shot glass would have been great.

There was a really good range of drinks and cocktails and I chose a Strawberry and Basil lemonade. I love the smell of basil, and there is always some in my house as it's Remy's favourite food. This seemed like such a peculiar combination on the menu but it really worked and was really refreshing.

When it came to the food, we started off by sharing a side of onion rings. These weren't just any old onion rings, they were amazing! They were presented in a little stack, growing in size. They were light but filling and very tasty.

Check out the size of this one!

For main, there weren't a lot of veggie options, but I think that for the type of things on the menu, the options available were enough. So, I went for the 'Veggie Leggie' burger with fries. The menu said that the "grilled Veggie Leggie patty is topped with a grilled Portobello mushroom, zucchini, yellow squash and roasted red pepper. Served on a toasted bun with mayo, leaf lettuce, sliced tomato and grilled sweet onions."

Toasted buns and portobello mushrooms are two of my favourite things in a veggie burger. The burger itself is soy mince, rather than a bean type pattie that restaurants usually offer on the menu. The salad and veggies tasted really fresh and added a lot of flavour. I can imagine that all together it would be amazing, but the burgers were too big for our mouths, so we cut them into smaller chunks.

The fries were a thicker cut style chips, cooked to just the right level of crispyness on the outside with fluffy potato inside. I know we weren't too keen on at least one of the sauces, but I can't remember which. We kept the little guitar sticks too, but I think I misplaced mine before we left. :(

After all of that, there wasn't any room in our tums for desert!

It cost us just over £20 each for a meal, a drink and a shared side. Which I didn't think was a bad deal for a restaurant in Paris, and I think I actually expected to pay a bit more at the Hard Rock Cafe anyway. I'd definitely visit a HRC again, and try out the other veggie options and maybe a desert. Definitely some more of those yummy onion rings.

Have a look and see if there's one near you!

Have you ever been to a Hard Rock Cafe? What did you make of it?

See you next time. :)

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