Wayfaring Day 58 The Louvre & Disney

August 27, 2025 Wednesday

This morning we boarded the RER A line to Disneyland Paris for a half day of less intellectual fun and frivolity.

The RER B line entrance to the trains and Metro located on Rue Xavier Privas is a very short walk from our apartment. We rode the elevator down and and boarded a train over to the Chatelet station where we caught the RER A Line which terminates at Disneyland Paris much the same way the RER B terminated at Versailles but in the opposite direction. Once we were out of the station we found ourselves in the middle of the Disney complex. Our plan is to spend most of our short time at Disneyland and then maybe an hour or two over at Parc Walt Disney Studios.

As mentioned earlier, we are what you might call ¨Disney people¨. Not everyone is; so this part of the day may not interest you. We, however, are more of the mind that we would like to visit all the Disney parks worldwide. So for us this was a nice perk of the trip and a special experience.

Once the gates opened we headed to Discovery Land (DPś Tomorrowland) taking pics and enjoying the ways this is different from the parks in the U.S.. First ride of the day is Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain. This one is more exciting than the two Space Mountain rides in the states. Basically they put a ride very similar to Rockin´ Rollercoaster inside the mountain. David went to the single rider line and rode a second time. After that we worked our way counterclockwise through the park. We were not able to make it to every ride we would have liked but here is the list of what we did get to: Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, It´s a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor. Lunch was at Restaurant Hakuna Matata: A quick service restaurant with decent grub for reasonable prices. As the time approached 15:00 we made our exit and headed over to Parc Walt Disney Studios.

Parc Walt Disney Studios has an entry like no other Disney park we have visited. You enter through a building and upon entry you feel like you are stepping into an evening in Hollywood, California. When you exit through the doors at the other end of the building you are in the park. Inside this entry building there is food and shopping not unlike most Disney parks. Our time here was very limited and we were not sure how much we could do. We wanted to ride Ratatouille: L´Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy since we felt we had to do it while actually being in Paris. After Ratatouille we walked down to Cars ROAD TRIP. To our surprise the ride vehicles are the ones that were used on the studio tour that was originally at Hollywood Studios at Disney World in Florida. The truck/fire/water experience is here also. Do you remember that? Look it up. The Avengers ride was down today and we decided we would skip Tower of Terror. We wanted to pay to ride Crush´s Coaster but the return times were just too late for this very popular attraction. Even though we didn´t get to do much as far as rides go, we were satisfied with just getting to visit the park.

Exiting the Studios Parc we headed to Disney Village and did a little shopping. Disney Village is the Disneyland Paris version of Disney World´s Disney Springs. It is only a short walk to the onsite train station and we were headed back to central Paris on a very uncrowded train in no time. Upon reaching Saint-Michel we had some time to rest and refresh for our intellectually stimulating visit to the Louvre. We had some more local cuisine by waking about 20 feet to the La Braserade for some Italian dishes. We were cleaned up, fed and ready to take a bus ride to the Louvre.

The bus picked up on Quai de l´Horloge and dropped us off directly in front of the pyramid entrance. We were prepared to follow Rick Steves´s directions for seeing the top attractions since we only had two hours for our visit here. Once inside we immediately became aware of the difficulty in navigating this multi level massive building. A lady at the information desk directed us to the audio tours since we didn´t want to waste time trying to find it. The audio devices are more complicated here. You get what is basically a Nintendo Switch with a headset. The directions are more detailed and their a lot of buttons. The screen shows a map and then info when you enter the information at a numbered station. The system was not as easy to use and with headphones you have issues with being able to have a conversation. We were juggling phones and this audio system while trying to navigate the most challenging museum we have ever come across.

We were able to follow Rick´s map and directions fairly closely and saw the main things we wanted to see or that a person should not miss when visiting the Louvre. The things that made the biggest impressions on us were the Nike sculpture, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa and Liberty Leads the People. Liberty Leads The People may be the most impressive painting we viewed during our time in Paris. We walked past and enjoyed many other paintings and sculptures in our short stay. The stay was actually a little shorter than we imagined because they start closing off halls at 20:30 which surprised us a little. We exited through one of the many sorties that have huge sortie signs pointing the way out. We were eventually back to street level near the location where we were dropped off earlier.

There was a pretty good crowd gathered near the Grand Bassin Rond. Those who were not there already seemed to be walking that way or finding places to sit between the Louvre pyramid and the fenced off area across from Avenue du Général Lemonnier. Everyone is waiting to see the rising of the flying Olympic Flame made famous during the 2024 Olympics. In the meantime we were able to watch the Eiffel Tower perform its 21:00 light show as we stood along the barricades with hundreds of other folks. Sometime around 21:30 there was movement around this large balloon as workers began loosening the tethers. In a few minutes it began to rise and the crowd applauded the ascension. Soon thereafter people began to disperse as did we. We walked to the north side of the Louvre and found a bus stop and waited on a bus that would take us to Saint-Michel. The bus came but took a slightly altered route that skipped a couple of stops on the Íle Saint-Louis which made us a little nervous. Several riders pushed the button to signal the driver not to miss the stop near Bd Saint-Germain. We had some gelato and headed to the apartment to pack for our flight out tomorrow. We had everything ready for a quick exodus in the morning just to make sure we had plenty of time to catch our flight. In one way sad to leave and in another glad to get home to family.

A note on military personnel:

Paris does have armed and fatigued solders at some sights. The largest presence we witnessed was at Versailles and at the ascension of the Olympic Flame near the Louvre. The soldiers were walking side by side with us as we walked over to the barricades where we watched the balloon rise. They seem to be there as security and their posturing is not threatening or in any way negative. Overall they appeared good natured but ,of course, focused and professional. There were also a few at the Arc de Triomphe but that seemed appropriate as there was a military ceremony in progress. In any case, we were comfortable with having them around and being available if something crazy was to happen.