Yay!
Our hotel - The Disneyland Hotel - it's very pink! The girls loved the fact that we were staying in a pink hotel. The theme is Victorian style in this one.
The girls also loved the revolving door! Round and round and round.
Disney Studios. This part of the park was brill. Can you see 'Hollywood Tower' in the background. It's the Tower of Terror and you are in a lift that is falling etc. I chickened out, but hubs and my dad went on it.
The Foyer of the hotel.
Mum went on the Dumbo ride with the girls whilst Dad, Hubs and I went on through the Phantom Manor. Phantom Manor was a bit of a disappointment and broke down halfway through! Lol. The queue was so long for Dumbo that when we'd finished at Phantom Manor they were still queuing.
The Slinky-Dog ride in Toyland. The girls loved this ride. It was like a mini-rollercoaster for children. Squidge also went on
RC Racer (click to see an image of it) which was quite a 'thrill ride'. Chatterbox went on
Crush's Coaster (click for an image) but the poor thing, she doesn't like 'white knuckle' rides but we thought it was a kiddie-coaster - WRONG! It was quite the scary-coaster - wheeling around up and down and on its side in the dark! She was terrified and it took quite a while for her to calm down afterwards. All the way round she was crying, "I want to get off! I'm going to be sick!" And I'm saying, "Just hold it in, just hold it in!!!" LOL.
The Disney characters were always milling about in the hotel. We got lots of lovely pictures. Here is Friar Tuck in the foyer with Chatterbox lurking in the foreground.
The girls decided they wanted to be joined at the hip for a while!
Chip n' Dale in the hotel.
Mary Poppins in the parade.
We waited ages to get a good spot on the parade.
Mickey and Minnie on the parade
Squidge was picked out of the crowd to dance with Goofy in the parade (she has the purple T-shirt on).
Me n' Squidge on a rocket ride.
Meeting Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Squidge was so disappointed that Cheshire Cat wasn't milling about. She loved Cheshire Cat.
Squidge and Hubs driving.
The main street in Disney Studios. Chatterbox is there on the
left LOL the right, Chatterbox is on the right! It's a good job I wasn't the one doing all the driving in France! (They drive on the right whereas here in Britain we drive on the left). When we first arrived in France Hubs wrote on his left hand 'L' and his right hand 'R'. He was fine once he got used to driving on the right though, the roundabouts were the most difficult to get used to. Oh and their zebra crossings - I couldn't get used to French zebra crossings. Some had walk and don't walk lights, some didn't but the drivers just drive right across whatever! Scary.
Sleeping Beauty's castle
Hubs and Squidge with Rex.
My next set of photos will be from Brittany.
Here is the gîte we stayed in. It was built in around 1610 for the local countess, it stands in grounds once owned by the count. They moved her in her old age to another address so that the house could be sold to raise funds, within 60 days she was dead. They believe it was the move that killed her. I wonder why the count didn't want her living at his house? I think perhaps it was his mother and not his wife.
Inside the gîte was this old fireplace, the rest of the furnishings were fairly modern, you could see the old beams. It was pretty though.
The owners of the gîte were lovely. They lived in the cottage opposite, which was apparently built in about 1720.
This is the swimming pool, covered up. Behind you can see a gazebo which had a large table underneath and behind that a shed which had a dart board and pool room. The girls loved it, and so did we!
The gîte sits in around 3 acres of grounds surrounded by large trees (many of which were pine). It was so lovely every night to listen to the owls hooting in the trees. The local count liked to hunt wild boar. I did wonder if the animal noises at night were boar, but apparently there was a family of foxes which is more likely to have been the culprits.
Swings and slide, more fun for the girls.
When the couple who owned the gîte bought the property they knew that there was a tennis court but it was buried under about 3 feet of pine needles. Amazingly it had survived without damage. We had lots of fun playing tennis. Squidge particularly loved it.
My Dad trying to find tennis balls in the brambles. We suffered many scratches on our legs due to Chatterbox's enthusiastic lobs!
After a few days I happened to say, "What this gîte needs is a cat. A home isn't home without a cat". The very next day this large cat turned up. Lol. She was apparently a neighbour's cat called Pickles. She was lovely but very dribbly!
Gîte by night. Once night had fallen it was pitch black as there were no street lights on the country lane.
Amazing sunset.
It was so dark at night that when there was power cut following a heavy storm we had to pad about with candles. I scared Mum that night as I crept to the bathroom in the middle of the night with my candle lamp just as she was coming out. She thought I was Florence Nightingale or something.
Our last day. It rained. England was calling us! :)
If you look closely in the left hand window you might see a ghost.
