Party In Paris

Blog #6 in the last 24 hours.

Friday 16th June, 2023

Simply put...I haven't a CLUE how on Earth Friday worked. But it did.

I'm not usually good at maths - but in desperate times - suddenly my brain starts functioning.

The flight was at 8pm - to allow for airport...shenanigans, we'd have to get there for 6pm - it was a 2 hour drive to my first friend's house, then a further 30 minutes to the second (where I'd be parking my car)

Meaning that I would have to leave wherever I was at about 3pm (to give lee-way for traffic during each journey).

The plan was already foiled before I had even set off as I could only pick up the tyres in the afternoon - which gave me about two hours to play with.

Every minute that went by, there was an update to the plan - I was at the tyre shop at 1:55pm and by 3:30pm the wheels were being ferociously attacked - me leaving shortly after 4pm (just over 2 hours after I first parked)

I then headed straight to my friend's house, picked her up and then drove to our second location (second friend's house)

Of all planes that could have been delayed that day, somehow fate chose ours - it was a pretty late flight already (8pm) - so had it left on time - oh boy would we be in trouble.

The flight was delayed until 9pm, us arriving at the airport at 7:45pm-ish.

Due to having a little bit of time left over, we spent a little time in the lounge before wondering over to our flight - going through check-in and knowing we were going to board our flight was another whole feeling of relief in of itself.

At 10:30pm, we boarded our flight. Since it was an hour flight (there, thereabouts) we'd land at 11:30pm or 00:30am France time.

Due to the sheer inconvenience of this, our first hotel was just a budget Ibis hotel next to the airport.

Saturday 17th June, 2023

As the Watkins Glen 6 Hours kicked off on iRacing, we were up and ready for whatever the day had to throw at us.

And I sincerely hope whoever attended the VRS Endurance race at Lime Rock Park was ALSO ready!

Our first port of call was our Disney Hotel (DreamCastle) which we threw our suitcases into the locker room and went to Disney until we were allowed to check in/go to the room.

Whilst me and Jack returned to Disney, my other friend stayed in the hotel room.

Of course, once we got there, it absolutely bucketed it down, but eventually ended up being a very nice day.

That evening it was Disneyland Pride, but myself and one of my friends stayed at the hotel after a lovely day at Disneyland.

At about 9:30pm, I had a little nosey around the pool at the hotel - and had a quick 20 minute swim. For a very small kids pool - 20 minutes was a long time, but it was enough to clear my head.

Sunday 18th June, 2023

On Sunday, we spent the entire day at Disney - going on rides, watching shows and parades, checking out the shops and going to see Stitch Live.

I attempted to eat an ice-cream, but the ice-cream ended up eating me

That evening, I went exploring - and saw there was a lake on Google Maps - sadly it was on private property and there was a padlocked gate with a sign informing visitors that it was private property.

We also had a pretty spectacular thunderstorm.

That night, we went to a fireworks show.

Monday 19th June, 2023

On our final full day in France, we spent the day in the Paris city centre.

That day, we: - Climbed the Eiffel Tower (yes, climbed - using the stairs! Very proud of myself!)

- Hopped on a tour-bus and learnt about the history of Paris and its important buildings - Saw the Notre Dame (wanted to that back in January)

- Went to Maccies (of course we did...)

- I even saw THE FIA - the FIA building - Given it was Monday - it's likely they were double checking all the incidents during the Canadian Grand Prix and agreeing on suitable financial penalties for misdemeanours. Granted, I only saw it the second time - but damn, the FIA is like "Gods" of Motorsport and the governing body - so to see that was pretty darn special - I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it! That's like a football fan visiting FIFA themselves (Federation of International Football Association)

That day, I also added a few cars to my "logo repertoire" - Aiways (CHN) - I saw one I think in Belgium and had to go off a logo - and describing a car logo to a human - let alone ChatGPT went absolutely nowhere - and there was a time I thought I was just imagining it, and it was just a LYNK & CO (CHN).

Lynk & Co (CHN) I've seen roaming about all over the place and helps that the logo is literally the car name.

The third and final big Asian SUV is "VinFast" - and this one surprised me as it was from Vietnam - I'm pretty sure it's Vietnam's first international car or car sold to the European Market.

And just as quickly as we boarded the plane to Paris, the following day was our last day, and the day we were due to return home.

Tuesday 20th June

Tuesday was a weird day - all throughout the day - our flight was incredibly... "troubled" - one minute it was flying, then it was delayed, then it was cancelled, then we were on another flight...

Down on the ground, we just had another normal half-day at Disneyland Paris.

That evening, we were informed we were put on an earlier flight (about an hour earlier) and had to rush to the gate - myself losing a glass of apple juice on the way to the gate. Good start.

In the end it turned out that our flight had been cancelled (after all of that) - and the only thing we could do was find a hotel (near the airport) and catch the first flight the following morning.

We were all extremely busy the next day - my friends had work - I had to pick up a car-part from a stranger (who I didn't want to mess about and give him all different times) - and at the time, I also thought I had a job interview - but luckily I had scheduled it for the 22nd - smart thinking.

It just so happened that we stayed at a Disney Hotel the previous night, and the chain had a spare room in the hotel next door - if we hadn't, it's likely we would have had to spend a night at the airport. Uncomfy and unsafe.

We got to sleep at about 10pm - a brutally early 3:30am start awaited us the next day.

Wednesday 21st June, 2023 Our flight would be at 7am - 8am, we'd have to get to the airport 2 hours before (to get through everything) - meaning arriving at the airport at 5am.

Being an hour away from the airport, the hotel was hardly convenient - leading to us having to leave at 4am - waking up an hour/half an hour before - but it was the best and only choice we had in an incredibly difficult situation.

I suppose it all worked out in the end - as we returned to the UK in a plane that was just over a month old - in plane terms, that's pretty darn new!

My friend's parents drove us back from the airport and we resumed our daily lives - my other friend being picked up from my first friend's house.

I went onward to Southampton to collect the car-part - only just missing the ferry - but catching the next, boarding with a Rocket Bunny Toyota GT86.