Free one day at Disneyland

Free one day at Disneyland 

Wake up to a delicious breakfast in the company of larger-than-life Disney Characters. Disney Hotel guests and those staying in our partner hotels can start the day off with a meet 'n' greet over breakfast in a Disney Village restaurant. Guests staying at the Disneyland Hotel will have the pleasure of meeting Disney Characters each and every morning of their stay.

Take the family on this joyful musical tour of the world. Marvel as dolls of all nations sing and dance to the famous it's a small world medley. You'll be singing a happy song for the rest of the day. Find it in Fantasyland.

You thought you mastered Mission 1? Now we put you to the test with Mission 2. Buckle up as our cannon blast sends you faster than g-force through space and back again! Find it in Discoveryland.

Hold onto your hats for the fastest, wildest train west of the Mississippi. Watch out for coyotes and rattlers at every turn! Find it in Frontierland

Gaze in awe as this breathtaking, night-time spectacular illuminates our extended celebration! An enormous extravaganza of lights, colours, lasers and fountains fills the air and sweeps through much-loved Disney stories in pursuit of Peter Pan's escaped shadow!

There's nothing quite like a Disney Show or Parade! Be a part of the magic as you watch your beloved Characters take to the stage or parade on past. These spectacular shows are for one and we invite you to participate.

Please note that parades and shows may be subject to modification or cancellation without prior notice notably in case of unfavourable weather.

Disney Magic on Parade! casts Disney Characters in a fantastic new carnival especially for our 20th anniversary. Flying out from their unforgettable stories trailing light, colour, music and magic, they glide through the park's party atmosphere, before Mickey and friends shine in a spectacular finale.

On top of all the wonderful attractions and characters, there are lots of spectacular family parades and shows to enjoy all year round.

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You can not go to France without visiting

You can not go to France without visiting ... 

Moulin Rouge

Immortalised in the posters of Toulouse-Lautrec and later on screen by Baz Luhrmann, the Moulin Rouge twinkles beneath a 1925 replica of its original red windmill. Yes, it’s rife with bus-tour crowds. But from the opening bars of music to the last high kick it’s a whirl of fantastical costumes, sets, choreography and champagne. Booking advised.

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Eiffel Tower

No one could imagine Paris today without its signature spire. But Gustave Eiffel only constructed this graceful tower – the world’s tallest, at 320m, until it was eclipsed by Manhattan’s Chrysler Building some four decades later – as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair). Luckily, the tower’s popularity assured its survival beyond the fair, and its elegant art nouveau webbed-metal design has become the defining fixture of the city’s skyline.

Lifts/elevators yo-yo up and down the north, west and east pillars to the tower’s three platforms (57m, 115m and 276m); change lifts on the 2nd level for the final ascent to the top, from where views extend up to 60km. (There’s wheelchair access to the 1st and 2nd levels.) If you’re feeling athletic, you can take the south pillar’s 1665 stairs as far as the 2nd level. Prebook tickets online to avoid monumentally long ticket queues.

Refreshment options in the tower include the 1st-level 58 Tour Eiffel (p59), the sublime 2nd-level Le Jules Verne, and, at the top, the new Bar à Champagne.

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Avenue des Champs-Élysées

If the Eiffel Tower is Paris, then the Champs-Élysées is la belle France in all its grandeur and glamour. First laid out in the 17th century, the broad avenue today is where presidents and soldiers strut their stuff on Bastille Day, the Tour de France holds its final sprint and, most importantly, where the country parties when it has a reason to celebrate.

It’s also one of the globe’s most sought-after addresses, which you’ll undoubtedly notice as you stroll down the avenue: many of the world’s biggest brands have opened up showrooms here looking to promote their prestige. Part of the axe historique, the Champs-Élysées links place de la Concorde with the Arc de Triomphe.

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All inclusive vacation in France

All inclusive vacation in France

Arc de Triomphe

If anything rivals the Eiffel Tower as the symbol of Paris, it’s this magnificent 1836 monument to Napoleon’s 1805 victory at Austerlitz, which he commissioned the following year. The intricately sculpted triumphal arch stands sentinel in the centre of the Étoile (‘star’) roundabout. From the viewing platform on top of the arch (50m up via 284 steps and well worth the climb) you can see the dozen avenues. Av de la Grande Armée heads northwest to the skyscraper district of La Défense, where the Grande Arche marks the western end of the Axe Historique.

The most famous of the four high-relief panels at the base is to the right, facing the arch from the av des Champs-Élysées side. It’s entitled Départ des Volontaires de 1792 (Departure of the Volunteers of 1792) and is also known as La Marseillaise (France’s national anthem). Higher up, a frieze running around the whole monument depicts hundreds of figures, each one 2m high.

Beneath the arch at ground level lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Honouring the 1.3 million French soldiers who lost their lives in WWI, the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in 1921, beneath an eternal flame which is rekindled daily at 6.30pm.

Don’t cross the traffic-choked roundabout above ground if you value your life! Stairs lead from the northern side of the Champs-Élysées beneath the Étoile to pedestrian tunnels (not linked to metro tunnels) that bring you out safely beneath the arch. Tickets to the viewing platform are sold in the tunnel.

Fly to France for free … get the vouchers here

Fly to Paris for free … get the vouchers here

Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris

This is the heart of Paris – so much so that distances from Paris to every part of metropolitan France are measured from place du Parvis Notre Dame, the square in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris. A bronze star across the street from the cathedral’s main entrance marks the exact location of point zéro des routes de France.

Notre Dame, the most visited unticketed site in Paris, with upwards of 14 million people crossing its threshold a year, is not just a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture; it was also the focus of Catholic Paris for seven centuries.

Built on a site occupied by earlier churches and, a millennium before that, a Gallo-Roman temple, it was begun in 1163 according to the design of Bishop Maurice de Sully and largely completed by the early 14th century. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Revolution; architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc carried out extensive renovations between 1845 and 1864. The cathedral is on a very grand scale; the interior alone is 130m long, 48m wide and 35m high and can accommodate more than 6000 worshippers.

Notre Dame is known for its sublime balance, though if you look closely you’ll see all sorts of minor asymmetrical elements introduced to avoid monotony, in accordance with standard Gothic practice. These include the slightly different shapes of each of the three main portals. One of the best views of Notre Dame is from square Jean XXIII, the little park behind the cathedral, where you can better appreciate the forest of ornate flying buttresses that encircle the chancel and support its walls and roof.

Inside, exceptional features include three spectacular rose windows – the most renowned of which is the 10m-wide one over the western façade above the 7800-pipe organ – and the window on the northern side of the transept, which has remained virtually unchanged since the 13th century. The central choir, with its carved wooden stalls and statues representing the Passion of the Christ, is also noteworthy. There are free 1½-hour guided tours of the cathedral in English.

The trésor in the southeastern transept contains artwork, liturgical objects and first-class relics. Among these is the Ste-Couronne, the ‘Holy Crown’, which is purportedly the wreath of thorns placed on Jesus’ head before he was crucified, brought here in the mid-13th century. It’s exhibited between 3pm and 4pm on the first Friday of each month, 3pm to 4pm every Friday during Lent, and 10am to 5pm on Good Friday.

The entrance to the Tours de Notre Dame is from the North Tower. Climb the 422 spiralling steps to the top of the western façade, where you’ll find yourself face-to-face with the cathedral’s most frightening gargoyles, the 13-tonne bell Emmanuel (all of the cathedral’s bells are named) in the South Tower and, last but not least, a spectacular view of Paris from the Galerie des Chimères (Dreams Gallery).

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Fly to Paris for free

Fly to Paris for free

Musée du Louvre

The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 12th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century as a royal residence. The Revolutionary Convention turned it into a national museum in 1793.

The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been amassed by subsequent French governments. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. The Louvre’s raison d’être is essentially to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about 1848 (at which point the Musée d’Orsay takes over), as well as works from ancient civilisations that formed the starting point for Western art.

When the museum opened in the late 18th century it contained 2500 paintings and objets d’art; today some 35,000 are on display. The ‘Grand Louvre’ project inaugurated by the late President Mitterrand in 1989 doubled the museum’s exhibition space, and both new and renovated galleries have opened in recent years devoted to objets d’art such as the crown jewels of Louis XV (Room 66, 1st floor, Apollo Gallery, Denon Wing). Late 2012 saw the opening of the new Islamic art galleries in the restored Cour Visconti, topped with an elegant, shimmering gold ‘flying carpet’ roof designed by Italian architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti.

The richness and sheer size of the place (the south side facing the Seine is 700m long and it’s estimated it would take nine months just to glance at every work) can be overwhelming. However, there’s an array of innovative, entertaining self-guided thematic trails (1½ to three hours; download trail brochures in advance from the website) ranging from a Louvre masterpieces trail to the art of eating, plus several for kids (hunt lions, galloping horses). Equally entertaining are the Louvre’s new, self-paced multimedia guides (€5). More-formal, English-language guided toursdepart from the Hall Napoléon, which also has free English-language maps.

For many, the star attraction is Leonardo da Vinci’s La Joconde, better known as Mona Lisa (Room 6, 1st floor, Denon Wing). The most famous works from antiquity include the Seated Scribe (Room 22, 1st floor, Sully Wing), the Code of Hammurabi (Room 3, ground floor, Richelieu Wing) and that armless duo, the Venus de Milo (Room 16, ground floor, Sully Wing) and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (top of Daru staircase, 1st floor, Denon Wing). From the Renaissance, don’t miss Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave (Room 4, ground floor, Denon Wing) and works by Raphael, Botticelli and Titian (1st floor, Denon Wing). French masterpieces of the 19th century include Ingres’ The Turkish Bath (off Room 60, 2nd floor, Sully Wing), Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (Room 77, 1st floor, Denon Wing) and works by Corot, Delacroix and Fragonard (2nd floor, Sully Wing).

The main entrance and ticket windows are covered by the 21m-high Grande Pyramide, a glass pyramid designed by the Chinese-born American architect IM Pei. You can avoid the queues outside the pyramid or at the Porte des Lions entrance by entering the Louvre complex via the underground shopping centre Carrousel du Louvre, at 99 rue de Rivoli.

Buy your tickets in advance from the ticket machines in the Carrousel du Louvre, by phoning 08 92 68 46 94 or 01 41 57 32 28 or from the billetteries (ticket offices) of Fnac or Virgin Megastores, and walk straight in without queuing. Tickets are valid for the whole day, so you can come and go as you please. The centrepiece of the Carrousel du Louvre is the glass Pyramide Inversée, also by Pei.

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Musée d'Orsay

Fresh from renovations that incorporate richly coloured walls, a re-energised layout and increased exhibition space, the home of France’s national collection from the impressionist, postimpressionist and art nouveau movements spanning the 1840s and 1914 is the glorious former Gare d’Orsay railway station – itself an art nouveau showpiece – where a roll-call of masters and their world-famous works are on display.

Top of every visitor’s must-see list is the museum’s painting collections, centred on the world’s largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art. Just some of its highlights are Manet’s On The Beach and Woman With Fans; Monet’s gardens at Giverny; Cézanne’s card players and still lifes; Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galette and Girls at the Piano; Degas’ ballerinas; Toulouse-Lautrec’s cabaret dancers; Pissarro’s The Harvest; Sisley’s View of the Canal St-Martin; and Van Gogh’s self-portraits, Bedroom in Arles and Starry Night. There are also some magnificent decorative arts, graphic arts and sculptures.

Save time by prepurchasing tickets online or at Kiosque du Musée d’Orsay, in front of the museum, and head to entrance C. Admission drops to €6.50 after 4.30pm (after 6pm on Thursday). Combined tickets with the Musée de l’Orangerie cost €14 to visit both within four days.

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Musée du Parfum

If the art of perfume-making entices, stop by this collection of copper distillery vats and antique flacons and test your nose on a few basic scents. It’s run by the parfumerie Fragonard and located in a beautiful old hôtel particulier (private mansion); free guided visits are available in multiple languages. A separate wing is a short distance south, in the Théâtre-Musée des Capucines. 

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