disneygeek.com Disneyland Paris Resort Pictures

disneygeek.com -
Disneyland Paris Resort Pictures

The text list below contains the captions of all images in the set.

Arrived outside the Louvre at 12:33pm
Walking into the courtyard that houses the Pyramide du Louvre
Pyramide du Louvre, on my 2015 trip we visited the Louvre but entered and exited from the lower level and never visited this courtyard or the gardens. The lines up here look much heavier than what we experienced, but still not filling the queue today.
A look around.
Looking toward the Arc de Tropmphe du Carrousel
In the distance you can see the Eiffel tower.
A look from further back.
Carrousel Arc de Triomphe
The weather was not that bad, it had not drizzled in a while, and there were a lot of people so decided to walk through Tuileries Garden area. (Jardin des Tuileries)
The Ferris Wheel at Place de la Concorde
The Eiffel Tower in the distance
We planned to walk to the Egyptian Obelisk but there were barriers with notes ahead.
This was a dead end. All exits beyond this point were closed. So we decided not to walk any further and instead turn toward the exit.
A closer look at the map.
Looking ahead before turning.
A carousel in the park.
We spent some time walking through this winter carnival.
We still ended up at the dead end/closed gates by Place de la Concorde.
The entire area was blocked off by police and the gates were closed.
There were just a few people inside the blocked off area.
Where the police had it blocked off. We later found out it was closed due to protests. We never saw anyone protesting nor any problems.
Since the gates were closed we had to walk back to find one that was open.
Eventually we found our way out. Spotted this coach outside a hotel (I forget which one).
We kept running into police barricades and being told to go up several blocks and around. We also learned all metro stations in the area were now closed. So we set off heading more or less north away from where we were and then working our way west.
Police had the streets blocked off both directions so we just kept walking since there seemed to be a lot of other tourists and no sign of protestors or anything going on.
Looking the other direction the street was blocked off too.
We ended up on Rue Saint-Honore walking past some very high end stores. Most stores had extra security inside and out (I felt uncomfortable taking pictures so here is one of a storefront with none visible).
We kept walking and ended up passing by several embassies it appeared.
Finally reached the end of the police barriers for this area. We were in an area that appeared to be off limits now as there were not letting people go back where we just came from after passing by the police.
Looking back.
Across the street and down many streets there were police vehicles and officers still.
We worked our way back to the Champs-Elysees
Looking up the Champs-Elysees the traffic was minimal this afternoon. This was just before 2pm on a Saturday.
Looking back you can see where it was blocked off. Took us about 50 min to get around the closed off area and back to here. What should have been a half mile straight walk turned into an unplanned 1.5 mi detour.
1:50pm we arrived at our next destination.. the Disney Store on the Champs-Elysees. Original plan was to take the Metro and minimize walking.. that failed and a long detour but we made it.
The store had a fair amount of people in it and was small. So here are some pictures from a look around.
Made my way downstairs (looking back up at the ground level).
Most of the merchandise was typical Disney Store type merch. Such as this Marvel display.
Star Wars area.
Did find this one wall with some Paris merchandise.
Heading back upstairs and out of the store.
Continued to walk up the Champs-Elysees
It was 2pm and this seemed to be a sign that it was past lunch time.
The McDonalds was on the lower level.
A quick look inside. It was packed.
Back outside and continuing up the street.
Traffic was still minimal in the area.
A good number of people on foot though.
Metro stations were still all closed. The map did not really tell us which other stations were closed.
The next station was closed too.
Arrived at the Arc de Triomphe area.
You could not go out to it. Police had it blocked off and were staging out there.
So we walked around as we continued to look for an open Metro station.
3:06pm - Finally found an open set of Metro & RER stations at Neuilly Porte Maillot. Which was nearly 2 miles from when we started walking on the Champs-Elysees.
3:15pm - Trains were running but service was being stopped at Avenue du Pdt. Kennedy. Which is where we were heading so it worked.
3:44pm arrived at our next destination.
Set off walking toward the Seine.
Where we were heading the Statue of Liberty along the river.
Eiffel Tower from the bridge.
A river cruise boat docked near by.
Made our way down to where the statue is.
The statue sits on the southern end of a man made island in the middle of the Seine - Île aux Cygnes.
Looking to the south on the Seine.
The lighting was terrible and you are looking almost straight up at the statue. This is a quarter scale replica of the New York and was dedicated in 1889, three years after the one in New York.
It is approximately 38 ft tall.
To give you a sense of how little space you have on the island to see the statue.
A train crossing the Seine.. thought maybe this meant they opened up the routes again.
The island is a park to walk around. We opted instead to head back the way we came to the RER station.
4:18pm - Once we got back to the RER station we were informed it was closed. So we set in search of an open station.
4:29pm - Made our way up to the M9 line and boarded a train.
We only made it a couple to the Trocadero where they stopped the line. At this point I found a police officer and asked what was still open. He said basically everything in the core of the city was closed. We originally planned to go see Christmas lights and other lights this evening but decided instead to call it a day and not risk getting stuck somewhere or having to hike miles more. So I asked how to get back to the RER A and Disneyland. He told me which lines were open and so I set off looking for the M6 line and headed south/away from the city center. Caught a quick glimpse of the Eiffel Tower as the sun broke through the clouds.
5:04pm - Arrived at Montparnasse Bienvenue and transferred to the M9 line to head back north.
5:26pm - At Chatelet / Les Halles and transferred here to the RER A line.
5:30pm - On the RER A and heading toward Disneyland Paris.
6:13pm - Arrived back at Disneyland Paris. Earlier than planned but at least we did not get stuck somewhere. So instead that meant some more park time this evening (part 3 has pictures).