We had nowhere to be until 12:30 that day when we were meeting our friends for lunch at Disney Village. I had set the alarm for 09:30 and we woke up just ahead for the alarm going off. We got up and got dressed.
The hotel had a pool. Graham had decided to check it out the day before, but the door from the reception area was locked. I had noticed that there was a sign for the pool on our corridor. It turned out that there is a dedicated lift for the pool, the gym, and the spa. I decided to check this out. The pool was open. I just had to work out how to get through a baby gate right by the pool. I took a quick photo and then I went back upstairs to collect Graham.
When we got back to the pool, we got some towels and then we got into the pool. The pool was not particularly big and was a zero-entry pool that gradually got deeper. The area that one could actually swim in covered about half of the total pool area. Still, the pool was not busy, so this was absolutely fine. It also had the perfect temperature. We swam for about 45 minutes, got dried off and headed back to our room. We had a quick shower and packed our few odds and ends. Then we headed downstairs to check out.
We took the midday shuttle back to the Disneyland Paris. This was really quiet and everybody waiting for the shuttle had some luggage. We still had a little of time before the shuttle was due to leave and I used this to take some photos of the lobby and of the garden. Then I rejoined Graham. The bus got there on time, and we had a clear run to Disneyland Paris. We found the one lane at security that was not moving very fast, but we still managed to get to the restaurant on time for the reservation.
Our friends had arrived a little early and had already been seated. We went to join them. Their cast member friend had also joined us. Lunch was at Brasserie Rosalie, which was new to us. This is now where Café Mickey used to be. I had looked at the menu beforehand and it looked good. Graham had the Normandy Burger, which consisted of Normandy minced beef steak, raw milk Camembert, bacon, caramelized onions, pepper sauce, arugula, and French fries. I had the Rosalie’s Cordon Bleu with coquillettes, and PDO Parmesan cream. It turned out that coquillettes is the French take on macaroni cheese. We both had a glass of rose house wine with our lunch. As we figured that this would probably be our only proper meal that day, we both had dessert. Graham had the Frozen Strawberry Sundae, which consisted of yogurt ice cream, strawberry sorbet, strawberry compote, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and almonds. I had the Nocciolata Sundae, which consisted of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, Nocciolata sauce, whipped cream, and hazelnuts. Both the food and the company were amazing. It was a really pleasant lunch.
Before we left the restaurant, we exchanged goodies. Our friends had asked me to bring some decaffeinated Earl Grey tea bags. Since we had last met, they also had picked up a Shelley May plush and a Stitch Spirit Jersey from Aulani and Enchanted Tiki Room Loungefly mini backpack from a Disney outlet in Florida. Then we headed out. Our friends wanted to do some more shopping. I asked Graham what he wanted to do, and he was happy to tag along. There were two linked shops that I wanted to have a look at, Disney Glamour and Disney Style. They both sell clothes and accessories. I was still living in hope that I would find the Spirit Jersey that I had fallen in love with the day before in my size. They had a good selection of Spirit Jerseys, but not the one I wanted. I was trying to talk Graham to get a Stitch Hawaiian shirt, but he did not bite. I was surprised that they had quite a few Dooney and Bourke bags. I had seen a Disneyland Paris Dooney and Bourke bag in one of the shops on Main Street the day before. I did like it, but the pricing was crazy. The ones they had at this shop were generic styles, but again, the pricing was crazy, and I was not tempted.
Our friends wanted to do a bit of last-minute shopping at World of Disney. We went with them. Graham and I did a quick loop around the shop. The only thing we were tempted by, an Eiffel tower mug tree, was unfortunately too big for our hand luggage.
Our cast member companion was trying to find a hidden Mickey in the ceiling mural in the middle of World of Disney. He was not having much success. I have always been useless when it comes to finding hidden Mickeys. Graham however seems to have a special radar for them. Indeed, it took him less than a minute to find the hidden Mickey. Once I knew where it was, it was kind of obvious.
Once our friends had finished their shopping, we headed to Starbucks. This location is always very busy, and somebody in front of us was not very happy about this. Yes, there was a short wait, but considering the volume of orders they had, I thought service was pretty swift. I got us both a Creme Brûlée Iced Brown Sugar Oat Shaken Espresso. Normally this is made with oat milk, but they had run out. I was given different options and went with almond milk, which worked really well. We essentially picked up the conversation where we had left off at lunch. It was just nice to spend some quality time together.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. All too soon, it was time to say goodbye. Our friends wanted to check out one of the Disney hotels, but we did not have enough time left to go with them. Instead, we made our way over to the bus station. We found somewhere to sit. We also spotted something interesting. Along the roofline of the station, there were a lot of birds’ nests. I had never spotted this before. There was a sign explaining the background. Apparently, the French railway company realised that house martins liked to nest on the station building. As the numbers of house martins in the area was declining, they worked with a bird charity to create nests for them. This has worked out really well and I thought this was an amazing scheme.
Our shuttle arrived quite early. We had our tickets checked and then we made ourselves comfortable. The route took us through some pretty countryside. I enjoyed the view for a good chunk of the journey, but at some point, I fell asleep. When I woke up again, we were nearly at Beauvais airport.
Beauvais airport is in equal measures really convenient and somewhat strange. Essentially the shuttles drop off right in front of the terminal. There is just a little garden with a model of the Eiffel Tower and a couple of food trucks that you walk through to get to the entrance. Right opposite the entrance is security. Off to the right are a number of quick service restaurants and then check in. There were maybe a dozen or so seats in the check in area. They were all taken. It was still too early to go through security. We figured that we both could manage a snack and some coffee. There was a pâtisserie in among the quick service outlets. They had giant macaroons. I got us a pistachio macaroon each plus an Americano for Graham and a Flat White for me. It was not particularly busy, and we took our time enjoying our treat and our coffees.
About two hours prior to departure, we figured we may as well go through security. This was obviously set up for considerable crowds, but if was not too busy. Once we had cleared security, we went through passport control and that was deserted. Then we were by the gates. There was a small duty-free shop, a number of seats and four gates. Initially, we did not manage to find two seats together, but at least we were both able to sit down. Once one of the flights started boarding, we got two seats next to each other closer to the gates. I read until it was our boarding time.
We were called for boarding pretty early. This was very smooth. We waited for a short while before we were sent outside to wait behind a fence adjacent to the forefield. At this stage, our plane had not even landed. This happened shortly afterwards. People started getting off and then there was some kind of medical emergency on the back stairs. Considering how small the airport is, they are really well resourced. Paramedics turned up within seconds and a high lift arrived shortly after this. When somebody if a high visibility jacket came walking towards us, I thought for sure they would cancel our flight. However, they boarded us through the front stairs while the paramedics did their job on the back stairs. Once everybody was seated, we took off. This had been handled really well.
We had a nice smooth flight back to Manchester. I read during the flight. Even though we had left Beauvais with a short delay, we managed to get back to Manchester slightly ahead of schedule. Passport control was really quiet and as we had not checked in any luggage, we were good to go. I had prebooked a transfer. We checked in and were told our driver would be with us within 5 to 10 minutes. Another driver asked us to follow him and that he would take us out to the pick-up point. Shortly afterwards our driver arrived. We had a smooth run home. I quickly put our laundry in the washing machine and then we got ready for bed.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
Leave a comment