Thursday 30 August 2012

France - Versailles and EuroDisney

 The first part of our holiday in France started just outside Paris in a campsite called Huttopia Versailles. We've been there before and it was very nice. This time was slighty different. We arrived at midday on the Thursday, checked in, then sunbathed by the pool until we were allowed to our tent at 4.00. Then we decided to visit the Palace of Versailles. I'd been to the gardens when I was 12 but that was all.

It was quite late in the afternoon by then but we went in anyway and had plenty of time to look around. The good thing about the visit was that children are free. When you get inside there are big posters that say no photography or filming but everyone else was doing it so we did too. It's a pretty impressive building. We wandered round the gardens too, although we were getting a bit hot and tired by then. So it was off to find a supermarket for bread and milk and then back to the pool for a swim.

The water was quite cold but the kids had fun.
 
 Dinner was bolognaise and pasta cooked inside our tent and eaten at the picnic bench outside.

 On Friday we were off to EuroDisney. We arrived in plenty of time to make it to the park gates and collect our tickets - 2 free tickets and 3 discounted tickets, thanks to Sky. Unlike America, however, the French do not seem to like opening the park early so although the gates opened at around 9.30 not one of the rides started operating until dead on 10.00. We went to the Studios first and they rode Tower of Terror while I got fastpasses for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Then they did the spinny and swingy rides in the new Toy Story bit.

 When we got into the Disneyland Park it was more crowded. We got fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain and then wandered round and did rides where the queues weren't too bad - Haunted Mansion (above) and Pirates of the Carribean. If you look closely you will see the train on Big Thunder Mountain stuck on the tracks. Those people had to be walked off the ride. This was just before our fastpass time. It took them four hours to mend the ride, but we got on it eventually. We fastpassed Space Mountain while we waited and did some other rides.


Caitlin and Ellie had their picture taken with Rabbit. It was very hot and we were all tired and sweaty by the time we got back to the campsite.

That night a banging started near us. We didn't take much notice of it at first. Then it was bedtime and the campsite grew quieter. And the banging became more noticeable, more annoying. The kids managed to get some sleep but by 2.00 it was really starting to annoy me. A walk round the campsite in the dark discovered that it was coming from the shed behind out tent. We went to reception and rang the number, no answer. So Carl went to sleep in the car, as he was driving all the next day, I got a few hours sleep eventually. A complaint the next day did nothing. It was the swimming pool pump, but when I told the lady it was not doing it the night before and that I would like my money back for last night she said she would have to contact her boss and would send me an email in response. Nothing yet.

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