Disneyland Paris

With son + wife, daughter + boyfriend and grandkids, we spent a day at Disneyland Paris, situated some 45 minutes shuttle service from the centre of Paris, some 32 km (20 miles). It opened in 1992 and since 2002 a Walt Disney Studios Park has been added. After a difficult start it now attracts some 15 million visitors per year (the double of the Eiffel Tower), which makes it to Europe’s leading tourist destination.


The studio park has an attraction called “Rock’n Roller Coaster” which I was persuaded to try. I learnt only afterwards that the riders experience 4,5 g in the loops, more than an astronaut does on a space shuttle launch! Fortunately the ride lasts only a minute or two.Paloma and Mattias took pleasure with some calmer attractions. After 12 hours we thought they would be exhausted, but they started a frenetic dance!So, around 10 p.m. it closed and we left. Of course a summer Saturday, a lot of time had been used for queuing. ... but it was a nice day! (... and thanks to family members who took the photos where I'm appearing!)

Jardin des Plantes - menagerie

As I mentioned in the previous post about the “Jardin des Plantes”, you can within the botanical garden also find a zoo, certainly not the biggest in the world, but one of the first (beaten by Schönbrunn, Vienna). A great advantage is that it’s in the middle of the city. It dates from 1794-95 (revolutionary years) and has been open to public since. At the start it was to a great part inhabited by animals transferred from the Royal Menagerie at Versailles.

Due to limited space and the impossibility to offer the conditions we today wish to allow animals in captivity, this is not where you will find a large number of bigger wild beasts anymore, but what it offers is quite interesting. More than a thousand types of animals can be seen. The reptiles are well represented, including some giant, more than hundred years old, tortoises.

Anyhow, granddaughter Paloma was impressed and preceded most of the time her aunt, my daughter Stéphanie, by a few steps.

... and we were all impressed by mother orang-outang who rose from her siesta to be photographed and even offered a modest smile.

(Several of these photos were taken by my daughter and her boyfriend.)

Extra post - collage ... and more

I’m doing collages all the time, but yesterday, a very dear friend, also a blogger friend, HPY, tagged me and some others for a special collage challenge, so I decided to make a small extra post with just one collage.

This is my granddaughter Paloma (six now); photos from last week when we shared something to drink at a café. She was obviously amused!
This could also serve as a special tribute to Paloma’s dad, who is celebrating his birthday today!

I had another very nice surprise yesterday! "SparklingMirror", actually David, a ceramicist, living in Rochester NY, made a post referring to my blog. It's so flattering that I almost blushed! I will revert further to "SparklingMirror" in the near future, as I expect a contribution to next month's mid-month theme, Subways.

(I posted “normally” yesterday and will do so again tomorrow.)

Ballerinas

Before closing for Christmas and New Year, just some photos from Paloma’s (my granddaughter) last dancing lesson of the year. Parents (and grandfathers) were invited to see what the group had learnt during the autumn.