The Mouse and the Waterlilies

Yiyi and Yi Cheong (aunty & uncle) are heading back to Australia after their year-long adventure in Italy, so they've slot in Paris as one of the stops in their farewell Europe road trip, and subjected themselves to another dose of my notorious "holidays".  They were pretty pooped at the end of every day.  Although they could easily shift the blame onto the baby and everyone would buy it, *I* know better....it was me and my itinerary, hehehehe....


First stop after one free-and-easy day (which they took it really literally, and spent one hour near the Eiffel and the rest of the time at home rolling around on the floor with the baby) was Disneyland.  You would think that the theme park would be a nice relaxing place to mingle with The Mouse and other creatures, going on fun rides, and easy strolls while enjoying the details on the make-believe buildings.  


Sorry, not on a bank holiday in Europe.  


There were ten thousand people thinking of doing the same thing at the same time as you.  So it was GO-GO-GO.  In my own defense, it is not possible to be relaxed when you are queuing for each and every ride with hundreds of other people, a gangster-looking baby, a grumpy toddler, and a smarty-pants 6-year old with too much vocabulary for her own good.  I like to think that we saved quite a couple of hours of queues and frayed nerves.  


My advice for Disneyland?  Go on a weekday, outside of any European school holidays, and preferably in the dead of winter.   

The one in the center is a crazy woman...why did we trust her with planning our holidays again?

You can see all the adults on the ride except for one.  Guess who is the one cowering in the back row.

This is the only place where we queued for an hour.  We debated and deliberated and reflected during the whole time on whether we were duped into queuing for something worth our while.  

It was.  One hour of queuing was worth the smile on Ju's face when he saw The Mouse.  When our turn came, Ju had already used up the last of his reserve energy and dropped off to slumber.  He even snapped at us when we kept promising him that it will be our turn soon.  But when the time finally came, he forced open his eyes and flashed the sweetest smile you could imagine and hugged and waved and interacted like a flirt.   

Soph & YL on the Soldiers' Parachute Drop.  She was calm throughout the 10-metre drop.  

The next thing on the plan was Giverny to see Claude Monet's house (on the next day, not on the same day.  I'm crazy but I'm not stupid).  

The Impressionist painter lived for decades in the house surrounded by a lake, a small river and a large flower garden.  It was idyllic and a riot of colours.  It was easy to understand why he was inspired.  

 Wisteria draped over the bridge, an impossibly romantic setting

 Sophie was looking forward to seeing the waterlilies which he painted, but they were not yet in bloom.

Monet's house is the pink building on the left