The happiest place on earth??

You bet it is! Disneyland Paris was totally amazingly awesome!!! We were there for 3 days and it was brilliant.

Pluto and I made up after the tail pulling incident when I was 4 years old. Apparently, I pulled Pluto's tail on the morning of the first day and for the rest of the trip I was scared/hated all the Disney characters. But I certainly made up for it this time.

I had my photo taken with Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Lilo, Tac and Tic (the Chipmunks) and Daisy.

We were there for the Halloween celebrations too which were really cool. The whole park was decked out with creepy decorations and music.

My oncle Steve also gave me money to buy a costume to wear around the park so I bought a pirate one, with I accessorised with two swords and a gun. I looked pretty handsome...

While my mum's favourite part was the Alice in Wonderland labyrinth, mine was Space Mountain which was a rollercoaster ride in Discoveryland. I made my mum go on it with me 4 times even though it made her want to throw up.

And we also went to the Disney Studio, which wasn't as good as the park. But they did have what they call the Tower of Terror, which is identical to the Giant Drop at Dreamworld. I wanted to go on it, but my mum wouldn't let me. I had convinced her to go with me on the Giant Drop at Dreamworld which turned out to be really horrible. When I got off it I must have looked scared because the assistant death stared my mum. Little did she know that I had been the one that nagged mum to take me on it and that she felt *much* worse than I did. So, no. She didn't take me on the Tower of Terror. But she did insist I pose with Mikey from Monsters Inc, one of her favourite movies.


The accommodation was first class too. We stayed at the New York hotel which was very fancy indeed. In fact, I had the whole pool to myself one day with my own personal life guard. The service was great and it was really close to the park.

Overall, I gave Disneyland Parc infinity out of 10!! The NY hotel 4.5/5 and the studio 4/5. Totally awesome and I totally want to go back really soon.

"I am a Robot"

We're on our way north and first stop was Futuroscope, a couple of hours south of Paris. Not having heard of it before we left Australia, we had seen exciting looking brochures for it absolutely everywhere and decided that it must be a must-see.


I'm glad we went but was a little disappointed that half the "attractions" were closed plus all but one of the rides. They only open in summer I guess.

The buildings looked really cool but basically only played movies that were over 20 years old and had nothing to do with the future. There was a kind of cool one on space and also one on dinosaurs but the worst being a really, really dodgy "4D" tourism flick on the Vienne region. The only "4th dimensional" part being a magical tree sneezing on the audience three times. Lame.

However, there were a few good things about Futuroscope.

1. The play equipment.

2. The ball room.

3. The volanco.

But the best of all was the laser show which was amazingly awesome.

So, overall, I give Futuroscope 3/5. I'd go again, but would definately go in summer.

Au Revoir Eymoutiers

We had a quiet last day in Eymoutiers.

I ate cake from my favourite patisserie in our favourite spot.


Then, I fell into La Vienne kind of on purpose.

Later we had cheese and fresh bread in the park again, without the litre of apple juice.

And I finally Googled why there are so many plane vapor trails in France. (I've been wondering about it the whole time I've been here.)

Two reasons; the first, like the other, rational, responders have pointed out is the density of air traffic over Europe compared to Australia. The vapor trails are also influenced by the amount of moisture in the air. The atmosphere over Europe has a much higher level of moisture and is therefore more likely to allow the formation of a vapor trail. (yahoo answers)

Mystery solved... Which is more I can say about our visit to the art gallery. The visiting artist's work was nice enough. None of the women wore shirts in any of the pieces, but at least they were colourful and happy.

Paul Rebeyrolle's work, on the other hand, wasn't as happy or colourful. Rebeyrolle is one of France's most famous artists and was born in Eymoutiers. (And this was one of his more tame pieces.)

Overall, I had enjoyed our stay in Eymoutiers and was a little sad to leave. On our last day, it seemed that everyone we had ever met was in town and greeting us with a happy "bonjour". French people definately aren't rude, at least the country folk aren't. I think I'll miss Eymoutiers.

The Normans peacefully invaded England for 400-odd years and introduced 10,000 French words into our vocabulary, 7,500 of which are still in use. The thing I found out though is that the Normans were actually Vikings who had settled in France (Normandy) 200 years before. Strangely, however, they took on the French language and culture and didn't leave a single Nordic word in northern France.

Look at that S-car go!

Obviously, I couldn't leave France without trying escargot. I was surprised to learn that although many of the snails come from snail farms (there are over 200 in France) many come from the wild. Indeed, many French people enjoy going snail hunting and cooking up their own gooey booty. (Turns out we even have snail farms in Australia.)

Anyway, enjoy the little movie my mum and I made of the whole ugsome experience. I feel sick just thinking about it again.... (Oh and sorry about the slides playing music - it's annoying, but I can't turn it off!)

But, I must hasten to add, that the service was 10/10 and the dessert 10,000/10!! I was even given a private tour of the kitchen and met the chef! Another really great restaurant in Eymoutiers with more really lovely French people.

And now for my two favourite snail jokes.

Joke 1

The old snail was at the pub when he said, "When I get a sporty race car, I'm going to paint a big 'S' on the side of it so when I go past everyone they'll all exclaim - Look at that S-car go!!"

Joke 2

A snail is at the police station. He's telling the officer on duty about how he was just mugged and robbed.

"It was two turtles!" the snail sobs. "They beat me up and took my money!"

The officer asks "Did you get a good look at them?"

The snail says, "No! It all happened so fast!"