Disneyland Paris

We held out as long as possible but finally took the kids to Disneyland Paris.

There's something funny about having a place like Disneyland in Europe. Disneyland has always seemed fake to me, but here it feels even more. Euro Disney, as it was originally called, was surrounded by lots of controversy and got off to a bad start. In 1995 it was renamed Disneyland Paris, "as a way of identifying it with one of the most romantic and exciting cities in the world." But there's nothing Parisian about it—even the food is bad. Fortunately it's just a short train ride from Paris, and the park is small enough that you can cover most of it in a day.

But it was a beautiful day and the kids had a good time, which is what matters. We loved getting lost in Alice's Curious Labyrinth, an attraction that's unique to Disneyland Paris, and I ended up having to ride the Space Mountain with Andrea (she loved it; I hated it, and I almost lost my lunch on it).