La Vallee Shopping Village - 22 May

Today is ‘my’ Disneyland. :D Mil had booked return tickets to Dublin on the night flight out of Paris, 9.40pm to be exact. I wasn’t keen to go back to the city again and also, I had planned before the trip, to visit this shopping place. It was also recommened by beau lotus. It turned out to be a shopper’s paradise. There is a shuttle service which takes us there from the hotel. €5 (adult) & €2 (child). Things weren’t cheap even though it’s supposed to be a factory outlet place, but it was no regrets coming here. Lots and lots of shops, you literally shop till you drop. There was a sealife attraction here, probably like Underwater World but we didn’t visit it. While hubby and I were doing the shops, the grandparents were minding the child. She went to the playground, then had ice-cream at McDonald’s while we browsed the boutiques. Thankfully hubby managed to get his jeans at Gap here. He has problems getting his size back home and it’s only on trips back to Europe that he replenishes his dwindling supply. I got a casual fold-up bag from Longchamp which cost me €40. When I checked at the airport later, it cost €68 I think. It was quite a bit of savings there if you multiply it by 2.13. I also picked up some clothing from Zara for princess. Lots of choices here but I daren’t buy too many as I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough luggage space. Found some lovely hairclips and hair ties in H&M and didn’t have to pay Disney prices for those.

We arranged for an airport shuttle to pick us up at 6pm and that cost us €80. It was great as, if we had gone by the airport shuttle bus, it would have been dearer. That would have been €17 each. We saved €5 there and it was more comfortable and direct.

We got to the airport 3hrs before our flight. Didn’t have to wait long to check in. But one bad experience was that we hadn’t realized that we had to pay for our luggage to be put in the aircraft and it cost us something like €12 or €18 per piece! Hubby was hopping mad! He scolded the staff and said it was the last f***ing time he’d be flying Aer Lingus.

We arrived in Dublin at 10pm plus and since Dub is an hour behind Paris, it actually was almost midnight.The minute you get out of the airport, the air that hits you reminds you that you are back in Ireland! It was cold. Fil had parked his car in the long term parking carpark so we had to hop on the shuttle bus to take us there. It was another hour and a half to get to the house. Princess slept on the way home and had to be carried in to bed.