First Euro Trip
After 30 years on this earth, I finally hopped across the pond to spend time in Europe! Join me on my adventures in Paris, London, & Amsterdam!
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We landed and got into the city with very little to no sleep. Since our Airbnb check in wasn't until later that day, Lauren and I pushed through, checking off some sights as we spent hours just wandering the city. We had our first of many espressos and Aperol Spritz during our adventure and hit well over 10,000 steps by noon.
We spent the evening in Montmartre, basking in the architectural beauty of the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (and re-enacting John Wick 4...) while also appreciating the street artists that could be found everywhere in the area.
I can't lie - we were worn out and it was way past time to eat.
The food at SUNSET was amazing and just what we needed after such a long journey that day.
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Fair warning - there are pictures of actual bones in this post!
Day two was more exploring! We started the day by being greeted by our Airbnb chat before heading to the boulangerie downstairs. We ordered a bretzel (omg so good), crookie (cookie + croissant), espresso and a diet coke and then mapped out what we wanted to do. We took the metro to the Louvre area and, while we didn't visit it this time, we marveled at how much beauty there is in the buildings surrounding the iconic museum.
This is when we started to really see all the preparations for the 2024 Olympics - lots of renovations, fences and bleacher seating were popping up around the city. While it was cool to see, it was also a little disappointing. You can see a pretty good idea of what we were dealing with at the Jardin du Carrousel.
We happened upon a Thomas Jefferson statue (Cue the Hamilton singing) as we made our way to an original Salvador Dali just chilling on the street! (
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Our next stop was Notre Dame which, unfortunately, is also under major construction/renovation. It's still gorgeous and we even got a show from jets that were possibly practicing for the Olympics. It was time to make our way to Les Catacombes.
This has been a bucket list of mine since I first heard of it. Learning the history behind it and getting to tour a portion of a big part of Parisian history was so interesting.
Our night continued at Robalto Pinseria to watch France play Spain in the Euro Semi-Finals. While they ended up losing, the atmosphere and close game made for an exciting time. We ventured around Paris before heading home, getting to see Notre Dame at night.
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Day 3 saw us off to Versailles! I knew it would be extravagant, but I was not prepared for the actual scale of the palace and its grounds. Royalty actually lived here. A revolution happened here. History was written here.
The main Palace is mostly a gallery now, featuring portraits of royalty. We spent hours wandering the halls and taking in everything. The hall of mirrors was probably my favorite part of the Palace - lots of natural lighting, intricate details, and glimmering chandeliers. It was so packed our first pass, we decided to visit it again.
We made it into the gardens and realized just how big the estate is. We were about a mile away from the chateau and had all of the gardens in between to explore.
We grabbed a quick lunch at one of the many cafes on the property. It was delicious but left a bad taste in my mouth with one of the worst customer experiences of my life.
While strolling around, it hit me just how insane this property is and how it would feel to actually live here. Your own private art galleries; personalized gardens, each with their own aesthetic; a canal for boating; multiple vacation palaces - and you haven't even left your property.
We took a rest at the canal, gearing ourselves up for the rest of the tour. My feet were absolutely killing me but we had to soldier on. When else were we going to see the rest of the property?
Hot Tip - if art galleries aren't really your thing - I would recommend seeing only a portion of the Palace and moving onto the gardens and the Estate of Trianon.
The palaces featured on that portion of the estate are way more my speed and had me wishing for royal living. This is where Marie Antoinette regularly spent time, and hid my personal favorite gem of the tour.
Unfortunately, I was exhausted when we reached the Queen's Hamlet. I could have spent hours in the picturesque gardens of the little town.
We returned to Paris for a few Aperol Spritz and a Quick burger before returning to the Airbnb. We called the night a little early knowing what tomorrow had in store for us - DISNEY.
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You KNOW we went to Disneyland Paris! (And you should also know this is going to be a long post.)
It was so interesting going from the heart of Paris to Disney's campus where everything felt familiar yet so different simultaneously. We started off at the 'Studios' park. There was quite a bit of construction and renovation that prevented us from seeing many of the buildings. We didn't mind too much as we weren't really interested in watching the shows that they offer.
We headed to the Finding Nemo ride (Crush's Coaster) for our first ride. Took the single rider option and skipped about a 30-minute wait. The ride itself was a little more spin-y than I like but was overall fun and set the mood for the rest of the park. It blended many of the American lines from the movie with new French dialogue about the storyline of the ride - something we were glad to see continued throughout!
After that whirlwind of a ride, we headed to the French area that featured Remy's Ride. We grabbed a few snacks from the vendors before getting in the single rider line. Having been on the one in Epcot, the ride was the same, just without the 3D experience. (Something I was grateful for as 3D can make me nauseous.)
Next was the Pixar land! We saw a lot of what I consider carnival rides and agreed we didn't need to go on any of those. We set our eyes on the Cars ride not knowing what we were getting into. It ended up being an outdoor tram ride with solitary characters from the movie series throughout the ride. While we did have a surprise towards the end that made it a pretty cool experience, it left us feeling like we wasted some of our time at the park.
We hopped over to the Avengers Campus and immediately got onto the Spiderman Ride. Easily one of my favorite rides now! You are recruited and are given Spiderman's web-slinging abilities to help take down some rampant spider-bots. You then work together (and compete) to take out as many as you can. While I was worried about the 3D aspect of it (think Toy Story Mania), it didn't phase me at all. One downside to single rider is Lauren and I got separated for a little while. It was a little serendipitous though as we got to watch the Avengers assemble while we waited for one another.
It was around this time that we decided we should head over to the main park as we figured the lines were staying steady over here but were going to ramp up more over there.
We entered the park and immediately found these commemorative gold coins that we both got. Then we took it to main street, seeing Aurora's Castle for the first time. We grabbed a few photos before snagging snacks from the bakery on the corner. I found what we always called chocolate croissants (even better over here, of course) and continued on.
Once through the castle, we were in Fantasyland. And, once again, it felt so familiar! After checking the app, we opted to go check out It's A Small World first. While it's not my favorite ride, it's a classic and it felt necessary to go on. It was such a cool experience to see it as a new ride! Yes, it's the same concept, but it felt like it had been given new life!
Disneyland Paris has way more experiences throughout the park. For example, the Alice in Wonderland maze was literally just that! Lost of hedges to wander through that actually left you wondering if you would find your way out. Characters pop up at you around different corners until you finally make it to the Queen of Hearts' castle. Super fun and cute!
We hit a few more rides in Fantasy Land (Snow White & attempted Pinocchio before it got shutdown) before making our way over to Adventure Land. We grabbed some food at a Lion King themed restaurant and rode the Indiana Jones coaster (which I wish would have been the ride in California, but it was fine). There were again more experiences here - a Pirate cove you could wander around in and the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.
We hopped to the Haunted Mansion with a small wait time and had a lot of fun learning what their Mansion's story focuses on - a wife who kills all of her new husbands. Then it was time for what I had been waiting for - Big Thunder Mountain! Theirs is about double our version and takes you UNDERWATER to a little island where the iconic rock structure is. It was easily my favorite ride of the day.
We decided to jump back over to the other park to finish up the rides there. Tower of Terror was only a 15 minute wait! Those who know me know I HATE tower of Terror. The Paris one is on a whole other level though! We ended up on it twice, our longest waiting time being in the room to watch the Twilight Zone video.
We took a little break in between (I was feeling a little sick after being on a broken elevator twice...) before doing the Spider-man ride again. We made it over to the Avengers ride (which was fine) before heading back over to the main one.
We only had a few more rides to hit before the end of the day! We headed to Tomorrowland and basically walked onto their version of Space Mountain - Hyperspace Mountain! Star Wars themed which was fun, but I was at my limit for coasters for the day and found myself hurting once we got off. Luckily, all we had left was Pirates. We raced over there and, after about a 10 min. detour due to the drones being set up, we made it to our last ride of the day. It was worth it - their pirates has TWO drops!
We were exhausted and over it but knew we wanted to witness the Electrical Sky Parade. Y'ALL. Get rid of the fireworks and just make this (or similar) what the parks to every night. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen and also brought be back to my childhood having seen the original Electrical Parade multiple times as a kid.
We dipped out before the fireworks, a little worried we would have to wait or even miss our train back. I wouldn't change this day for anything and can't wait to continue my mission - visiting every Disney Park in the world.
TL;DR
Disneyland Paris was amazing and had little to no wait times. We did pick what the internet said was going to be a slow day and used the single rider lines to our advantage but geez, we were flying through the lines! Disney holds up here and it was super cool seeing all of my favorites redone a little different in France. Definitely go if you have an extra day and are a Disney Park fan!
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Day 5 – Our last full day in Paris!
Lauren and I had surprise interviews with Criteo Paris! Well…. That’s how we got into the building that has one of the BEST views of Paris. This was one of my favorite parts and I got so many great photos of the skyline and the classic Parisian roofs. Our host took us on a building tour, visiting the offices and getting a taste of life in a European workplace. We had delicious Venezuelan food on the rooftop where I then spent about an hour taking pictures and hearing about everything we were looking out at.
Afterward, I took a quick shopping trip to find some new shoes as I did not pack the right ones, and they were KILLING me by this point. My whole foot was basically a blister. But it was fine cause Paris! With a fresh pair of Asics, we set off on another wandering adventure around the city.
Along the way, we ended up at the Olympic pop-up store where I took a picture with the Olympic flame and bought a commemorative coin. We headed down the Champs-Élysées, stopping to window shop and for another Aperol spritz. It was here I realized I hadn’t tasted Crème Brulée in France yet and immediately ordered some. As you can imagine, it was delicious.
We continued forward, ending at the Arc de Triomphe. While we had visited it earlier in the week, we heard a hot tip that you can actually go on top of it! After a little confusion on how to get there without crossing traffic (There’s at least one underground passage to the center) we bought our tickets and started our 284 stair climb to the top. The climb is broken up by a multi-level museum that explains the history of the Arc, a ‘window’ looking down to the ground underneath and a gift shop. We caught a few minutes of rekindling the flame for The Unknown Soldier through the video feed window before finishing the climb. The full view of the city with the streets all converging at the loop around the Arc…. I’ve never seen anything like it. It truly felt like we were at the center of Paris!
Our next adventure for the day was… dinner! Lauren and I were a little disappointed with our cuisine so far – we had eaten fast food (or similar) for a lot of our trip. It was time for some classic French dining. We found a restaurant at the end of our Airbnb street and shared a meal with everyone who was on the trip with us. This was probably the least touristy place we had been to which was exactly what we were looking for. Plenty of bottles of wine were shared and many new dishes were tried. Afterward, we headed out to a few bars nearby, before ultimately ending up at The Moulin Rouge!
Okay. Here’s the thing – there is a bar on top of The Moulin Rouge, right next to/underneath the windmill! The drinks were on point, and we ended the evening a little more tipsy than planned and singing the musical like the exhausting Americans we are.
