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France Holiday Report
This year, I hadn't been outside the country. I had planned to attend MFF but when I moved house, I cancelled my plans to allow me to afford things I needed for the new place. So to make up for missing out on both EF and MFF, I decided that I wanted to attend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
timduru's "Meerkat Manor" house party and Halloween at Disneyland Paris. I had never been to France before so it was appealing to finally visit. It was also going to be my birthday on the 1st, the day after the Halloween event so I figured it'd be a good opportunity to make it more special.
Day 1 - Getting to France & Timduru's Meerkat Manor Dance
Anyway, I went over withandysquirrel who would be driving the entire way from England. We went on the drive on train at the Channel Tunnel which was remarkably quick. I had decided to watch an episode of South Park on my laptop for the journey and despite that being a 20minute show, we were back in the daylight at the other end of the tunnel before I had finished watching! Once out of the train, we began our long journey to Timduru's which according to the TomTom would take us over 3 hours. On the way, we called at a service station where I had my first opportunity to try out my French. When I was buying something, the clerk said something in French but I wasn't sure what so I asked "parlez vous anglais?" and he replied, "yes, but why would you ask?". Left me feeling a bit silly as I was just trying to work out what he had said to me before. At that point I decided to keep my French usage to a minimum as it had been 15 years or so since I studied French at GCSE level and never used it since.
The TomTom took us via the toll road to Paris which was fast for the best part until we got a little lost by missing a turn in Paris. The toll was a lot more than we had been expecting as it was €20.50! We had gone a long way but it still seemed a bit excessive. We eventually got to Timduru's place around 3.30pm after driving right by his house first time; TomTom's not very accurate for rural locations it seems. There were furs from all over there, Germans, Dutch and French. I didn't really know any of the French furs other than Timduru and he was busy running about to ensure everything was in place for the evening's dance. However I did know some of the others there such asalexismckee and Kralle. I did end up getting to know a few furs such as yamavu and pegla who I had talked to before but never really got to know.
The evening progress with Kralle cooking everyone pasta before people started suiting up for the group fursuit photo and subsequent dance. I had brought my fursuit along so I suited up too. However I found that the undersuit I had used last time I suited no longer fit me, a clear sign I've put on weight, so I had to suit with a t-shirt underneath. Even with contact lenses in, in the darkness, I couldn't see a whole lot while in fursuit. I stayed for a bit of the dance but eventually unsuited to mingle with the others. I was pleased to meet Grumpfbear there as he was kindly giving both myself and Andy a place to sleep while we were in France. I'd never met nor even spoken with Grumpf before but he was the most kindest person and really looked after me and Andy.
I think we left the party shortly after midnight and as Grumpfbear had left beforehand, Andy and I had to find the place with the aid of TomTom. Again, the first time, we completely overshot the place and second time we had to walk about with torches to find the place as it was in the middle of the night and there were no streetlights (a common feature of France we found). Having finally found the place, we made ourselves at home and I a really great sleep on Grumph's double inflatable mattress.
Day 2 - Paris
As Andy and I had never been to France before and there wasn't much else going on, we decided to go to Paris and do the tourist thing for the day. I wanted to get public transport there but Andy wanted to drive.dukefawks who was also staying over at Grumpfbear's with us didn't do much to put my mind at ease about driving in Paris and the general advice I had heard from people was do not drive in Paris. However despite all this, Andy still wanted to drive in and so with the trusty TomTom, we did. We parked in the area Grumph suggested and got the Metro to the nearest station to the Eiffel Tower. We took a look around and took some photos but didn't actually go up the tower. Instead, we walked past Champs-Élysées in the direction of The Louvre. Walking by the river kinda made it feel a lot like we were walking in London next to the Thames at points. By the time we got to the Louvre, Andy was knackered and hungry from all the walking (I admit I had underestimated how far it actually was). Andy didn't like the look of most of the restaurants we came across as he thought they looked too posh (I pointed out that most of them just looked posh because their menus were in French) so we ended up at the McDonald's near the Louvre.
After food, I took some photos of the Louvre and we then walked back up in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe up a road (Rue Saint-Honoré) which seemed to have a lot of fancy shops on it. In fact, it was so posh, we walked past Élysée Palace where the President of the French Republic resides. We didn't know this as we were walking up the road, we just thought it was odd there was an increased Police presence and lots of people hanging about the gates (presumably hoping to get a photo). The evening was drawing on at this point, so I took a photo of the Arc de Triomphe and got the Metro back to where we parked.
Ended the day by watching Die Hard in French on Grumpfbear's TV with Dukefawks before finding that the cable system can output English too and so we watched Bad Boys 2 because it was on.
Day 3 - Disneyland Paris Halloween
The halloween thing wasn't on until the evening so we had best part of the day free. We didn't do a whole lot to be honest apart from decide to go to a Buffalo Grill as Dukefawks had recommended it however when we got there, we found it was closed for renovations. So we ended up going to Flunch which had a distinct motorway service station restaurant feel about it, however the food was slightly better :P
We went back to Grumpf's place but as Duke and Grumpf needed to make preparations for the evening's event, Andy and I went to Disney Village to take a look around the shops and chill out before the evening's activities. While having a drink at the sport's bar, I sawbigbluefox go by but he didn't stop as I imagine he was heading to the fursuit group. Once Andy and I finished our drinks, we headed back to the car to drop off our Disney purchases and on the way back from the car park, we bumped into Pegla, karpour and henriekeg, the latter who just happened to be who we were spotting for that evening as their spotters were unable to get tickets for the event.
However after walking to the area in the bus carpark where people were suiting up, Yamavu and Lurinare who were supposed to be spotting for Karpour and Heinrike were able to get tickets after all. Yamavu took over from AndySquirrel and I decided to stay on for spotting for Karpour. After some delay and a brief explanation of the rules to follow and signs fursuiters can make for assistance, we began our stroll into the park. Before even getting in, we stopped for a group photo in front of the main park entrance but Minnie had fallen off a ledge where there wasn't a railing while in suit which made for a bad start as we weren't sure if she would be able to continue. Fortunately, she was OK enough to continue with us into the park and so we did, with no issues at all with the park security getting in as long as tickets were presented.
We mostly clustered around the main Main Street USA area just after the entrance allowing people to get photos, etc. After a bit of loitering, we were moving on and so we followed Timduru, but oddly back out of the park. On the other side, we found out that we had been ejected from the park. It seems because we were taking the attention away from the official parade and so wouldn't be let back in until the parade was over. I had overheard a Disney staff member saying "Who let the menagerie in?" and another say "They come every year" but it seemed there was a lot of confusion over the fact. After a lot of waiting about outside the gates, we were allowed back in around 9pm and so went back into the park.
We continues to walk about, stopping every now and then for photos, before eventually going into the queue for the Phantom Manor ride (which is basically the Haunted Mansion ride from the US parks). As it was Halloween, there were various people coming down the queue line to scare the crowds which was amusing. Especially when they tried to scare the cute fursuiters :D. While we were queueing, we had managed to lose AndySquirrel. Turns out he had gone for a hotdog but when he came back, the group had gone. Wasn't a major problem as he just met up with us after the ride. Following the ride, there was more time for photos before we continued through the park for another ride. We seemed to go via much of the park past many rides and so I wasn't too sure which ride we would be going on. At one point, it looked like we might be going on the dreaded It's a Small World but we kept on going until we reached Discoveryland (Paris' version of Tomorrow Land).
Eventually, we ended up going on Star Tours which was exactly how I remembered it from when I went on the ride in Disney World Florida over 10 years ago, however the only difference was that the robot spoke in French so I didn't know what it was saying. The intro video shows Wookies getting on the ride and so it was rather amusing to be getting on the ride with similarily furry people (admittedly, more cute). After that, we went on Space Mountain: Mission 2 which I was a little nervous about going on due to the apparent extreme nature of the ride, but I needn't have worried as it was the most exhilaratingly ride I've been on! I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed it :) After the ride however, it had gone midnight (meaning I was now 31 as it was my birthday) and the rides were closing so we headed back to the central castle for photos and a dance to the music. By the time we finished getting photos, the music had also stopped indicating the park was now closing and it was time to leave. I regrettably didn't get a chance to properly say goodbye to Karpour who I had been spotting for the whole evening as he and Heinrike were heading back to the car park with Yamavu to get changed and the rest of the group were still loitering around for more group photos.
Eventually everyone started heading back to their cars and so Andy and I split from the group to get to our car and get back to Grumpf's for the night.
Day 4 - Disneyland Paris
Was a bit late getting up having got to sleep late but this day was going to be when Andy and I got to see Disneyland Paris properly during the daytime. We were supposed to be meeting up with Minnie at the park but she was otherwise busy so Andy and I went around the park regardless. Unlike the previous day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse as it was raining most of the day. Most of the Halloween scenery had been boarded up out of view and so part of the park resembled a building site. Christmas officially started on the 7th November and so I guess the week inbetween was a non-seasonal time where they change the scenery accordingly. I wanted to go on Big Thunder Mountain and despite it having a 100 minute advertised wait, we joined the queue. I had my umbrella and so was able to remain dry for the duration of the queue that was uncovered while Andy got wet. Once we eventually got on the ride, it was a lot of fun but because it was raining, we got rather wet too. I thought the ride was very good and longer than I expected however Andy decided he didn't want to go on any more rollercoasters as he didn't like the sensation. Therefore, he went to get an umberella (paying €26 for the privilage) and I went on the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril ride. It was nicely themed but the ride didn't seem quite as fun as Thunder Mountain and was over all too soon. Fortunately it had only been a 25minute wait to get on the ride. After the ride, we went for food and ended up at The Lucky Nugget Saloon which did a buffet of "tex-mex" food which turned out to mostly be italian as well as mexican. The place seemed laid out to focus on a stage but nothing happened on the stage so I imagine we missed whatever was supposed to happen there.
After food, we headed over to the other park, the Walt Disney Studios Park. We ended up going into the Animagique show which happened to be starting as we got in. I knew nothing about it in advance but found it to be a very enjoyable live show featuring lots of impressive technical tricks. After the show, we wondered over to the Tram Tour which was like the backlot tour from MGM Studios in Florida. It had an impressive bit where they showed pyrotechnics and flooding water happening in an impressive scale but otherwise the ride was rather boring. Minnie met up with us after the ride and took us on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Andy didn't want to do the ride but we got him to wait in the queue while Minnie and I did the ride. Unfortunately however, there was some kind of technical problem on the ride and we ended up waiting about an hour to get on the ride rather than the 20 minutes advertised. Once on, the ride was very similar again to the one in Florida but in French. Fortunately I had Minnie there to translate :)
After the ride, we went over to Toy Story area where we found a ride that Andy would be able to tollerate, the Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin. Needless to say as it was intended for kids, it was very tame but we took every opportunity to mock Andy by saying how extreme it was :P After the ride, Minnie and I headed for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster as Crush's Coaster had too much of a wait for it. There was no wait for the ride as the park was about to close which was great. The ride was good, but not as good as Space Mountain which I wanted to go on again before we left. As the Studio park had closed, we headed back to the main park which was supposed to be open for a further 2 hours. We did Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast which is a ride where you have to shoot targets like a video game. I got a better score than Andy, but Minnie got double my score having obviously done it before :P. We then headed for Space Mountain but it was closed, as were all of the other rides in Discoveryland. We went to see what else was open but it seems the park was closing an hour earlier than we had expected so all we could do was check out the shops before leaving the park.
The drive home was pretty hazardous as the fog had set in and the French don't seem to have heard of cats eyes or street lights so it was very hard to see the road ahead in the foggy conditions. It was rather scary at times as we were having to rely on the TomTom to let us know where the roads went, and at one point we had gone past some vehicles which had an accident. Regardless, we got back to Grumpf's safely enough :)
Despite the weather, I'd say I had a good day at the parks, but don't feel bad about not doing everything as I can always come back again sometime to see the rest. However despite it being my birthday, it didn't feel particularly special. I didn't even have cake! :(
Day 5 - Journey Home
As Grumpf was going to work that morning, we also had to be up and out the house by 7:30am. So we had a rather early wake up at around 6:30am to get showered and pack the remaining of our items before setting off. As we had loads of time before the train back (4:50pm), we decided to take the route back which avoided all toll roads and dodged central Paris. Doing so added on 2 hours to our journey but it still meant we would be getting to the tunnel early. The route took us down a lot of country roads which were lined with loads of potatoes/parsnips. We also found the difficulties of overtaking large trucks in single lane roads while driving a right hand drive car on the right hand lane! We made a few stops on the way back including McDonald's and Carrefour to have lunch and stock up on French goods respectively. By the time we got to the Channel Tunnel, we still had around an hour to spare so we checked out Cité Europe which is a gigantic shopping mall with cinemas, supermarkets, bowling and restaurants. We ended up at a place which did omelettes (which was amusing because Omelette Du Fromage from Dexter's Lab had become a joke of the trip) and I had crepes for dessert.
Then we got the train back to England and took a bit of an odd route via the Hindhead Tunnel whichgaz_a keeps on going on about but I finally got home around 7:30pm which meant that considering the time difference, we had been on the road on and off for 13 hours! It was a rather exhausting day of sitting in a car not doing a lot. I've since spent the past few days recovering :P
In summary, I had a great time, met some great people and would like to go back again. However as always, the language barrier can be a problem at times. Photos of my time in France can be found in my new gallery.djemloup also did a short video which can be seen on YouTube. BBF took plenty of video so I imagine he'll have one out soon enough too :)
timduru's "Meerkat Manor" house party and Halloween at Disneyland Paris. I had never been to France before so it was appealing to finally visit. It was also going to be my birthday on the 1st, the day after the Halloween event so I figured it'd be a good opportunity to make it more special.Day 1 - Getting to France & Timduru's Meerkat Manor Dance
Anyway, I went over with
andysquirrel who would be driving the entire way from England. We went on the drive on train at the Channel Tunnel which was remarkably quick. I had decided to watch an episode of South Park on my laptop for the journey and despite that being a 20minute show, we were back in the daylight at the other end of the tunnel before I had finished watching! Once out of the train, we began our long journey to Timduru's which according to the TomTom would take us over 3 hours. On the way, we called at a service station where I had my first opportunity to try out my French. When I was buying something, the clerk said something in French but I wasn't sure what so I asked "parlez vous anglais?" and he replied, "yes, but why would you ask?". Left me feeling a bit silly as I was just trying to work out what he had said to me before. At that point I decided to keep my French usage to a minimum as it had been 15 years or so since I studied French at GCSE level and never used it since.The TomTom took us via the toll road to Paris which was fast for the best part until we got a little lost by missing a turn in Paris. The toll was a lot more than we had been expecting as it was €20.50! We had gone a long way but it still seemed a bit excessive. We eventually got to Timduru's place around 3.30pm after driving right by his house first time; TomTom's not very accurate for rural locations it seems. There were furs from all over there, Germans, Dutch and French. I didn't really know any of the French furs other than Timduru and he was busy running about to ensure everything was in place for the evening's dance. However I did know some of the others there such as
alexismckee and Kralle. I did end up getting to know a few furs such as yamavu and pegla who I had talked to before but never really got to know.The evening progress with Kralle cooking everyone pasta before people started suiting up for the group fursuit photo and subsequent dance. I had brought my fursuit along so I suited up too. However I found that the undersuit I had used last time I suited no longer fit me, a clear sign I've put on weight, so I had to suit with a t-shirt underneath. Even with contact lenses in, in the darkness, I couldn't see a whole lot while in fursuit. I stayed for a bit of the dance but eventually unsuited to mingle with the others. I was pleased to meet Grumpfbear there as he was kindly giving both myself and Andy a place to sleep while we were in France. I'd never met nor even spoken with Grumpf before but he was the most kindest person and really looked after me and Andy.
I think we left the party shortly after midnight and as Grumpfbear had left beforehand, Andy and I had to find the place with the aid of TomTom. Again, the first time, we completely overshot the place and second time we had to walk about with torches to find the place as it was in the middle of the night and there were no streetlights (a common feature of France we found). Having finally found the place, we made ourselves at home and I a really great sleep on Grumph's double inflatable mattress.
Day 2 - Paris
As Andy and I had never been to France before and there wasn't much else going on, we decided to go to Paris and do the tourist thing for the day. I wanted to get public transport there but Andy wanted to drive.
dukefawks who was also staying over at Grumpfbear's with us didn't do much to put my mind at ease about driving in Paris and the general advice I had heard from people was do not drive in Paris. However despite all this, Andy still wanted to drive in and so with the trusty TomTom, we did. We parked in the area Grumph suggested and got the Metro to the nearest station to the Eiffel Tower. We took a look around and took some photos but didn't actually go up the tower. Instead, we walked past Champs-Élysées in the direction of The Louvre. Walking by the river kinda made it feel a lot like we were walking in London next to the Thames at points. By the time we got to the Louvre, Andy was knackered and hungry from all the walking (I admit I had underestimated how far it actually was). Andy didn't like the look of most of the restaurants we came across as he thought they looked too posh (I pointed out that most of them just looked posh because their menus were in French) so we ended up at the McDonald's near the Louvre.After food, I took some photos of the Louvre and we then walked back up in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe up a road (Rue Saint-Honoré) which seemed to have a lot of fancy shops on it. In fact, it was so posh, we walked past Élysée Palace where the President of the French Republic resides. We didn't know this as we were walking up the road, we just thought it was odd there was an increased Police presence and lots of people hanging about the gates (presumably hoping to get a photo). The evening was drawing on at this point, so I took a photo of the Arc de Triomphe and got the Metro back to where we parked.
Ended the day by watching Die Hard in French on Grumpfbear's TV with Dukefawks before finding that the cable system can output English too and so we watched Bad Boys 2 because it was on.
Day 3 - Disneyland Paris Halloween
The halloween thing wasn't on until the evening so we had best part of the day free. We didn't do a whole lot to be honest apart from decide to go to a Buffalo Grill as Dukefawks had recommended it however when we got there, we found it was closed for renovations. So we ended up going to Flunch which had a distinct motorway service station restaurant feel about it, however the food was slightly better :P
We went back to Grumpf's place but as Duke and Grumpf needed to make preparations for the evening's event, Andy and I went to Disney Village to take a look around the shops and chill out before the evening's activities. While having a drink at the sport's bar, I saw
bigbluefox go by but he didn't stop as I imagine he was heading to the fursuit group. Once Andy and I finished our drinks, we headed back to the car to drop off our Disney purchases and on the way back from the car park, we bumped into Pegla, karpour and henriekeg, the latter who just happened to be who we were spotting for that evening as their spotters were unable to get tickets for the event.However after walking to the area in the bus carpark where people were suiting up, Yamavu and Lurinare who were supposed to be spotting for Karpour and Heinrike were able to get tickets after all. Yamavu took over from AndySquirrel and I decided to stay on for spotting for Karpour. After some delay and a brief explanation of the rules to follow and signs fursuiters can make for assistance, we began our stroll into the park. Before even getting in, we stopped for a group photo in front of the main park entrance but Minnie had fallen off a ledge where there wasn't a railing while in suit which made for a bad start as we weren't sure if she would be able to continue. Fortunately, she was OK enough to continue with us into the park and so we did, with no issues at all with the park security getting in as long as tickets were presented.
We mostly clustered around the main Main Street USA area just after the entrance allowing people to get photos, etc. After a bit of loitering, we were moving on and so we followed Timduru, but oddly back out of the park. On the other side, we found out that we had been ejected from the park. It seems because we were taking the attention away from the official parade and so wouldn't be let back in until the parade was over. I had overheard a Disney staff member saying "Who let the menagerie in?" and another say "They come every year" but it seemed there was a lot of confusion over the fact. After a lot of waiting about outside the gates, we were allowed back in around 9pm and so went back into the park.
We continues to walk about, stopping every now and then for photos, before eventually going into the queue for the Phantom Manor ride (which is basically the Haunted Mansion ride from the US parks). As it was Halloween, there were various people coming down the queue line to scare the crowds which was amusing. Especially when they tried to scare the cute fursuiters :D. While we were queueing, we had managed to lose AndySquirrel. Turns out he had gone for a hotdog but when he came back, the group had gone. Wasn't a major problem as he just met up with us after the ride. Following the ride, there was more time for photos before we continued through the park for another ride. We seemed to go via much of the park past many rides and so I wasn't too sure which ride we would be going on. At one point, it looked like we might be going on the dreaded It's a Small World but we kept on going until we reached Discoveryland (Paris' version of Tomorrow Land).
Eventually, we ended up going on Star Tours which was exactly how I remembered it from when I went on the ride in Disney World Florida over 10 years ago, however the only difference was that the robot spoke in French so I didn't know what it was saying. The intro video shows Wookies getting on the ride and so it was rather amusing to be getting on the ride with similarily furry people (admittedly, more cute). After that, we went on Space Mountain: Mission 2 which I was a little nervous about going on due to the apparent extreme nature of the ride, but I needn't have worried as it was the most exhilaratingly ride I've been on! I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed it :) After the ride however, it had gone midnight (meaning I was now 31 as it was my birthday) and the rides were closing so we headed back to the central castle for photos and a dance to the music. By the time we finished getting photos, the music had also stopped indicating the park was now closing and it was time to leave. I regrettably didn't get a chance to properly say goodbye to Karpour who I had been spotting for the whole evening as he and Heinrike were heading back to the car park with Yamavu to get changed and the rest of the group were still loitering around for more group photos.
Eventually everyone started heading back to their cars and so Andy and I split from the group to get to our car and get back to Grumpf's for the night.
Day 4 - Disneyland Paris
Was a bit late getting up having got to sleep late but this day was going to be when Andy and I got to see Disneyland Paris properly during the daytime. We were supposed to be meeting up with Minnie at the park but she was otherwise busy so Andy and I went around the park regardless. Unlike the previous day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse as it was raining most of the day. Most of the Halloween scenery had been boarded up out of view and so part of the park resembled a building site. Christmas officially started on the 7th November and so I guess the week inbetween was a non-seasonal time where they change the scenery accordingly. I wanted to go on Big Thunder Mountain and despite it having a 100 minute advertised wait, we joined the queue. I had my umbrella and so was able to remain dry for the duration of the queue that was uncovered while Andy got wet. Once we eventually got on the ride, it was a lot of fun but because it was raining, we got rather wet too. I thought the ride was very good and longer than I expected however Andy decided he didn't want to go on any more rollercoasters as he didn't like the sensation. Therefore, he went to get an umberella (paying €26 for the privilage) and I went on the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril ride. It was nicely themed but the ride didn't seem quite as fun as Thunder Mountain and was over all too soon. Fortunately it had only been a 25minute wait to get on the ride. After the ride, we went for food and ended up at The Lucky Nugget Saloon which did a buffet of "tex-mex" food which turned out to mostly be italian as well as mexican. The place seemed laid out to focus on a stage but nothing happened on the stage so I imagine we missed whatever was supposed to happen there.
After food, we headed over to the other park, the Walt Disney Studios Park. We ended up going into the Animagique show which happened to be starting as we got in. I knew nothing about it in advance but found it to be a very enjoyable live show featuring lots of impressive technical tricks. After the show, we wondered over to the Tram Tour which was like the backlot tour from MGM Studios in Florida. It had an impressive bit where they showed pyrotechnics and flooding water happening in an impressive scale but otherwise the ride was rather boring. Minnie met up with us after the ride and took us on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Andy didn't want to do the ride but we got him to wait in the queue while Minnie and I did the ride. Unfortunately however, there was some kind of technical problem on the ride and we ended up waiting about an hour to get on the ride rather than the 20 minutes advertised. Once on, the ride was very similar again to the one in Florida but in French. Fortunately I had Minnie there to translate :)
After the ride, we went over to Toy Story area where we found a ride that Andy would be able to tollerate, the Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin. Needless to say as it was intended for kids, it was very tame but we took every opportunity to mock Andy by saying how extreme it was :P After the ride, Minnie and I headed for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster as Crush's Coaster had too much of a wait for it. There was no wait for the ride as the park was about to close which was great. The ride was good, but not as good as Space Mountain which I wanted to go on again before we left. As the Studio park had closed, we headed back to the main park which was supposed to be open for a further 2 hours. We did Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast which is a ride where you have to shoot targets like a video game. I got a better score than Andy, but Minnie got double my score having obviously done it before :P. We then headed for Space Mountain but it was closed, as were all of the other rides in Discoveryland. We went to see what else was open but it seems the park was closing an hour earlier than we had expected so all we could do was check out the shops before leaving the park.
The drive home was pretty hazardous as the fog had set in and the French don't seem to have heard of cats eyes or street lights so it was very hard to see the road ahead in the foggy conditions. It was rather scary at times as we were having to rely on the TomTom to let us know where the roads went, and at one point we had gone past some vehicles which had an accident. Regardless, we got back to Grumpf's safely enough :)
Despite the weather, I'd say I had a good day at the parks, but don't feel bad about not doing everything as I can always come back again sometime to see the rest. However despite it being my birthday, it didn't feel particularly special. I didn't even have cake! :(
Day 5 - Journey Home
As Grumpf was going to work that morning, we also had to be up and out the house by 7:30am. So we had a rather early wake up at around 6:30am to get showered and pack the remaining of our items before setting off. As we had loads of time before the train back (4:50pm), we decided to take the route back which avoided all toll roads and dodged central Paris. Doing so added on 2 hours to our journey but it still meant we would be getting to the tunnel early. The route took us down a lot of country roads which were lined with loads of potatoes/parsnips. We also found the difficulties of overtaking large trucks in single lane roads while driving a right hand drive car on the right hand lane! We made a few stops on the way back including McDonald's and Carrefour to have lunch and stock up on French goods respectively. By the time we got to the Channel Tunnel, we still had around an hour to spare so we checked out Cité Europe which is a gigantic shopping mall with cinemas, supermarkets, bowling and restaurants. We ended up at a place which did omelettes (which was amusing because Omelette Du Fromage from Dexter's Lab had become a joke of the trip) and I had crepes for dessert.
Then we got the train back to England and took a bit of an odd route via the Hindhead Tunnel which
gaz_a keeps on going on about but I finally got home around 7:30pm which meant that considering the time difference, we had been on the road on and off for 13 hours! It was a rather exhausting day of sitting in a car not doing a lot. I've since spent the past few days recovering :PIn summary, I had a great time, met some great people and would like to go back again. However as always, the language barrier can be a problem at times. Photos of my time in France can be found in my new gallery.
djemloup also did a short video which can be seen on YouTube. BBF took plenty of video so I imagine he'll have one out soon enough too :)