Melbourne to Europe and Disney x 2

maryr1oz

Down Under Disney Lover x
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Hello fellow Dis'ers, and welcome to my latest trip report.

DH and I just returned (last night to be exact) from 4 weeks away on holiday. It was such a varied trip based around a couple of family events. We travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Paris, Beaune, Disneyland Paris, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Surrey, Hong Kong Disneyland and finally finished with a couple of days in tropical Cairns.

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As in my usual trip reporting style i’ll be recording our whole trip, not just the Disney parts, but i’ll use chapter headings so you can skip to whatever bits are interesting to you.

This trip had been a long time in the planning, the main event was a family wedding in Surrey, UK so we knew that date with lots of advance notice. Right before New Year Cathay Pacific had a sale and the exact airfares we wanted were eligible, so we booked and paid over 9 months before departure. The months seemed to pass by painfully slowly, but finally it was time to go, and we had an amazing trip. I’m sad it’s all over, but excited to recount it all here.

Thanks for reading!
 
We flew out of Melbourne Airport on Friday September 9th. We were booked on the 23:30 departure, so we both worked all day, headed home for a quick dinner and then had my sister drop us at the airport. There were strikes in Customs that day, and it was a little slow getting through security, but once we were all done we stopped to have a glass of sparkling at Bar Pulpo.

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Unfortunately our flight was delayed about 30 mins, so we were pretty tired once we finally boarded. We had never flown with Cathay Pacific before, but we enjoyed their service. Soon after take off we were served dinner.

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As soon as we'd finished eating we reclined the seats and tried to sleep. Neither of us are great airplane sleepers, but we got a few interrupted hours. Soon enough the cabin was being woken for breakfast, and as we were eating the sun was rising outside.

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We avoided any nasty Hong Kong turbulence and arrived into the gate about 15 mins early, despite the delay in leaving Melbourne.
 
We only had a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong, and we wanted to stretch the legs and have a walk around. Luckily, we landed up around gate 40, so we were able to have a good walk down the concourse to the main shopping area. We cleared transfer security very quickly and were soon upstairs.

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We grabbed an iced coffee at Starbucks which was really busy, but the order came quite quickly. Then we headed to the Hong Kong Disneyland shop. We had a good look around, but didn't make any purchases. It didn't make sense to buy anything while we were still on the way to Europe.

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We had a look at all the food shops, but didn't get anything as we knew we would be fed again when we departed Hong Kong. Our departure gate was very close to the shops, so we took a seat and relaxed for awhile. There was a monsoon rain beginning as we sat and watched outside. We did board on time, but we sat in queue for take off on the runway for over 40 minutes. The rain was so loud even inside the plane, no wonder it was slowing the traffic down.


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The next flight was the hardest of all. HKG to CDG, 12 hours. We were tired, the flight was full and there were a lot of sick people around us. We tried to nap, watch some movies and read our books.

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Clearing immigration in Paris took quite a long time. First there was a problem with a revolving door where we exited the plane, and we were stuck in a very hot glass room for about 15 mins. Then by the time we got to the immigration queue it was long. We waited here about another 30 mins. By the time we stepped outside, it was over an hour from the time we landed. It was Saturday afternoon in Paris, about 5pm, and it was a hot day. I had booked Super Shuttle through Viator for our transfer to the hotel. We have done the train, and also Roissybus before, but this trip i just wanted an easy option on arrival. We used the payphone to call the free number and went to wait outside for our driver. He arrived in about 5 minutes. Bags loaded up and we were on our way to our hotel!
 
The hotel we chose in Paris was called Astotel Caumartin Opera. It was a 3 star hotel, one block from the Opera house. It was 200 metres walk from the MTR, 100 metres walk from the RER and also a block from the Roissybus stop. I booked it months ago and got a fantastic rate, along with free breakfast. Yes, it was a 3 star hotel, however we were very comfortable and we loved the location. As we were only in Paris for 2 nights, it really suited our needs.

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The breakfast was tasty, plentiful and fresh. There was also a permanent snack bar set up in the lobby with a range of savoury and sweet snacks as well as drinks which were available to all guests every day. In the room there was a selection of cold drinks in the minibar which were free, and restocked daily. This hotel was great value and i would recommend it to anyone looking in that area and price range.
 
We had one full day in Paris, and it was a Sunday. Most shops and restaurants away from the touristy areas were closed. We decided to begin the day at Musee d'Orsay, and we walked there from the hotel. On the way we passed through Place Vendome.

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Then we stopped by Angelina Patisserie for some coffee - we were so full from breakfast so we managed to resist the sweet treats.

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We crossed Rue de Rivoli and entered the Tuileries

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We crossed the Seine

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And then into the Musee d'Orsay. Of course it was amazing!

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We spent several hours inside and didn't come close to seeing everything. We decided to keep moving and to make sure we come back on another trip to finish the visit.
 


Next trip we must also get to the Muse D'Orsay - it's been on my list but not quite got there yet. The queues can be awful but obviously not too bad your day?
 
The hotel looks great for a 3 star and nice breakfast and good location - must remember it!

Yes i would definitely recommend it, it's an old building but had a fit out and was very comfortable :)

Next trip we must also get to the Muse D'Orsay - it's been on my list but not quite got there yet. The queues can be awful but obviously not too bad your day?

We went first thing on Sunday morning, we lined up about 5 mins before they opened and went straight in - i did see a queue for online tickets too though

Marking my spot!

Great start to the trip. Love the pictures!

Thanks - all photos taken on my iPhone, i didn't even pull my camera out of my bag this trip :crazy2:

I'm really enjoying your review! Love the pictures! :goodvibes

Thanks so much! :)

I'm here too :thumbsup2 Sounds like a fantastic trip, can't wait to read all about it!

Thank you! :)
 
When we left the Musee d'Orsay we were heading back across the Seine towards the Musee de l'Orangerie. We'd never been here before but thought we were long overdue to see Monet's waterlilies. There was no queue, we walked straight in and bought our tickets.

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By now it was well and truly lunchtime, so we entered the Petit Palais and found their garden cafe. We just stumbled across it but it turned out to be a really nice lunch in their peaceful gardens - we also had our first French wine of the trip!

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We left the Petit Palais and walked over to the Hotel Athenee - we wanted to see the flowers that cover the upmarket hotel. They have an internal courtyard that is even prettier than the front, but we were looking a bit too rusty to try to walk past the fancy doormen, so we settled for the view from the street.

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We walked up the Champs-Elysées, but being Sunday and really the only shopping that was open, it was mobbed and not very pleasant to fight the crowds. We did stop in a couple of shops and DH actually made several purchases, but once we got to the top we boarded the MTR and headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

I had read about Le Grand Cafe Capucines from home and as it was around the corner from our hotel i had booked a table for dinner. It's not something i would recommend as traditional or amazing, but they had an English menu and i wanted an easy meal. The aesthetics were pleasing and the menu was varied.

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We decided on chicken and steak with frites and shared the food.

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I talked DH into desert even though we were really full :cloud9:


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Monday morning arrived and being jet lagged we were awake pretty early. We had breakfast in the hotel again, before heading out for our last couple of hours in Paris.

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We took the short walk to the Havre-Caumartin MTR stop to board the 3 line to Sentier.

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I had wanted to make sure we got to a nice patisserie before we left Paris, and i had read about a place called Stohrer. It was located in Rue Montorgueil which is a very pretty little pedestrian street, and in the area i wanted to visit this morning anyway, so it was a good choice.

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Stohrer was really good. They had so many nice looking savoury options as well as the sweets. The staff were really friendly and helpful too, even though they didn't speak much English.

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We bought some sweets to take away, and kept walking down Rue Montorgueil. At the bottom we came out at the Paroisse Saint-Eustache church which is absolutely giant.

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We made our way across the Seine towards Notre Dame.

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We sat in front of Notre Dame and snacked on our sweet treats and people watched - it was quite warm this day, about 27 i think.

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After awhile we took the RER up the river to Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel.

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Before we left home i had booked us a picnic lunch to celebrate our last meal in Paris. We walked across to the Trocadero gardens, and met straight up with the rep from Paris Picnics. He supplied us with a great spread (which was way too much for one meal), wine, a picnic blanket and all the cutlery etc we needed. I would highly recommend them and they deliver to several parks across Paris.

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Unfortunately that was it for our time in Paris. It was on to new places! We were driving down to Beaune this afternoon, and as i didn't fancy the idea of driving or navigating in the city, we had booked our rental car to pick up from Marne la Vallee. This would suit perfectly as when we returned it in a week, we would be staying at Disney for a couple of nights. We walked 1 block from our hotel to the RER A line and headed towards Disney. Unfortunately we got stopped about 3 stops before the end of the line for over 25 minutes. There was a recorded message about an incident ahead.

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By the time we arrived and it took us about 10 mins to find the Avis rental desk i was a little frazzled. The process to get the car was easy though, and soon we were straight out on the highway and freeway south towards Beaune. We had one stretch the legs stop, paid 20 Euro in tolls, and arrived about 3 hours later.
 
Oh my goodness! That picnic sounds absolutely wonderful! My daughter would LOVE it! :love:

I'm definitely adding it to my list! :thanks:
 
Oh my goodness! That picnic sounds absolutely wonderful! My daughter would LOVE it! :love:
I'm definitely adding it to my list! :thanks:

That's great! They were so helpful and easy to use - they even have an option where they can set it up for you, and you can just wander upon it as a surprise for someone :)

The Picnic! Yum - what a great idea!

I would definitely recommend it :)
 
We travelled to Beaune this trip in particular as we were offered a holiday apartment that's owned by a family member. That was an extreme bonus to the budget, and we couldn't pass it up. Not that Beaune wasn't a great destination, it was just the reason that we ended up staying there for a week. We fell in love from the second we arrived. It's a small town with an old walled area, in the Burgundy region. Think wine, food and pretty little French villages. We really spent the week taking nice walks around the town, eating French pastries and drinking wine. It was a great relaxing week. We also took a couple of drives around the area.

The old city walls

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Walking around Beaune

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Wine tasting

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We visited the Hospices de Beaune, the old hospital, which is probably the town's main attraction. The building was break taking, and they have made the displays to give you a real feel of what it would have been like to have stayed there.

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We visited a great little bar called Bistrot du Coin the owner had a great sense of humour

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Burgundian lunch


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It's just amazing how every town in France looks straight out of a postcard. Lucky you to be able to get a holiday apartment through connections!
 

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