My mom and dad came to Paris on the 12th of December and I took two days off during the following week before flying back to Denmark with them on the 21st. So we had a fair amount of time to go sightseeing together which was great!
On Saturday 13th we took the train out to Versailles and managed to see a bit of the garden before the weather got really bad. I bought a nice print of a painting of Marie Antoinette and another print which depicts three nice dresses from that time. The experience in the restaurant was really bad though – they forgot to bring us our drinks and even though reminded (twice!) didn’t bring them until my dad had finished his meal. Very bad service. The visit to the castle was very nice however and much less crowded than in October when I visited with my boyfriend. Except for the entrance to Marie Antoinettes bedroom where it is always crowded and we had to wait in line to get to the room. It was a very cold day as most of the days my parents were here so on the way back to the train station we escaped into a couple of the souvenir shops and those souvenir shops are actually really great.
On Sunday we spent the morning at the Louvre which was a great experience. I have now found the format for the perfect tour: the famous highlights of the Louvre – Mona Lisa (cause you sort of have to), Venus de Milo (same thing!) and the Cheveaux Marly (which I absolutely love) – and then all my personal favorites within a three hour visit. My dad got to spend his 60th birthday among some of the greatest art of all time, which I think is very privileged. Before completing the visit entirely we went to the Café Richelieu to eat lunch and then proceeded to visit Napoleon’s appartment. This is actually a good strategy because you need a break sometime in order to appreciate everything and Napoleon’s appartment is in my opinion one of the highlights of a visit to the Louvre.
We walked through the Tuilleries and to the Place de la Concorde and then on to the Christmas market in the lower end of the Champs Elysees. This was far too crowded but it was my first French Christmas market ever so it was pretty interesting. We found great French macaroons which we enjoyed in the evening along with sorbet ice cream and a champagne birthday toast. Then it was shopping time and more precisely time to visit the Nike empire on the Champs. I loooove Nike. I am more or less raised to love sports gear and Nike is just my favorite brand ever. Though Adidas became more appealing to me than before when I lived in Berlin because they have so much more stuff to choose from than in Denmark. But Nike and I are forever friends.
On Monday I had the day off so we ventured to Galleries Lafayette to look at the Christmas decorations, especially the windows are great. They were decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme. And I just love Alice in Wonderland. We bought a lot of nice Christmas decorations and went on to the Christmas market at the Esplanade de la Défense, which is the largest one in the city. I am amazed by the fact that there isn’t really much Christmas stuff at the markets. There was one big indoor area with Christmas decorations, where we bought some ornaments, but the rest of the market is mostly typical market stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, and off course lots of food. There was one shop there with a really impressive display of dried fruit and then there were lots of home and décor stuff but not Christmas-themed.
Wednesday was Disney day and oh my had we selected a bad day. The weather was horrible to say the least. Very cold as well as rainy for the first couple of hours. However we had bought advance tickets so we had to go on that particular day. Buying advance ticket at a FNAC store is a great deal; you get the ticket for 29 euros instead of 50. But you have to buy the tickets three days in advance so you will not know if the weather is great or not.
Seeing the sleeping beauty castle was great. It was really lovely. We fled the rain and went sailing on a river boat in Frontierland. Then we went on to the phantom manor and the graveyards of some unlucky minors who were too greedy. Next stop was Pirates of the Carribean where we made a reservation to return for lunch at the Blue Lagoon an hour later. My mom insisted than she wanted to eat there and it prooved to be a really good choice. We were seated right next to water where the boats come sailing through the restaurant. At 16 we saw the parade in front of the Castle and then walked to Fantasyland where I got a photo of me and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I like that rabbit. Afterwards we went back to the castle to buy Disney Christmas decorations in the Castle (very hard to choose, because there is so much cute stuff!). Finally we walked back through Main Street and browsed through the shops there as well. Outside the park there was a small Christmas market which we visited as well and then a short trip to the huge Disney store in Disney Village. This was mainly toys though so didn’t buy anything. However when I went to the Disney store at the Champs Elysees later that week to look for a photoframe I found a Winnie the Pooh Christmas toy, where Pooh rides a sleigh, which rocks and plays music at the same time. I placed it on the floor in front of Pingo, my parents youngest dog, and it was soooo scared of it. That was really funny. Should have videotaped that. I might do that next year. I am sure she will still be scared of it. That dog is kind of weird!
Then on Saturday we went to Montmartre and walked the stairs up to Sacre Cour which we visited. I finally selected a rosary so now I have one. Due to my dad’s bad knee we didn’t climb the stairs to the dome, however it is really nice, but the stairs are very steep and narrow. We then walked through the streets to the left of the church and bought some really good drawings of Paris and proceeded to Place du Tertre where the cold weather had scared many of the artists and onlookers away.
Then we walked down the stairs to the maison du thé in Rue Tardieau for crêpes. After that we went shopping in Antoine et Lili. I had thought of a great blouse/top for my mom and it turned out I was right, it was absolutely perfect for her. Finally we walked past Amelies café and then quickly popped back to the Rue Dunkerque where my mom bought a ton of scarves!
On the 21st we flew back to Denmark – and despite some trouble we managed to land in Copenhagen only about 30 minutes late. I wont even go into that story, but let’s just say that it involved a bomb alarm and an evacuation of the airport! All in all however very nice to have my parents visit me here and I enjoyed having time with them to go sightseeing.
