More from France (and Belgium)

[Gazza]

Here are a few more galleries from my visit to France earlier in the year.

I’m heading away again on Friday so I’ll have a bit of time in transit to write some trip reports to go with all these.

 

Walibi Belgium

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-belgium

Went here last minute  towards the end of my trip as a day trip via high speed train from Paris to Brussels. Actually a good park. Konda is 10/10 and feels like a spiritual successor to DC rivals. The Mack powersplash Pulsar is legitimately good. And their bobsled Tiki Waka had great theming that reminded me of crash bandicoots style.

Walibi Rhone Alpes

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-rhone-alpes

Biggest little park in the world, and a really attractive place. Has a good variety of attractions, the difference is everything is scaled down a bit, but still a lot of fun, particularly Mystic and Timber.

Remains to be seen if their new Intamin hot racer is smoother than Big Dipper

Parc Spirou

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/parc-spirou-provence

Not a big park, and lacking in shade. Main thing I wanted to ride is their rollerball coaster, which is like a non flipping version of a zac spin. It broke down after I rode it, so the visit wasn’t wasted.

Also had a few simulators, which did have quite funny films. The level of finish didn’t quite match other parks, it felt like a lot of it was slapped together from bunnings (or whatever the French equivalent is)

Vulcania

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/vulcania

Science museum with a roller coaster really. The quad bike coaster Namazu is quite good, maybe slightly less intense than Jet Rescue, and nicely integrated into the hilly landscape, plus a well themed drop track. Got to go behind the scenes 

The rest of the park has doco films on big screens, simulators of varying quality, plus a decent trackless dark ride about cultures that worship volcanoes.

Wave Island

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/wave-island

A quick hit here since it was across the road from Parc Spirou. Has a lot of stuff from Polin. Enormous freefall slides, an 8 lane racer, and a few raft slides (3 of which used master blaster sections)

The feel was kind of this beach shack feel, and in this case the ‘slapped together’ style kinda worked and made it feel really laid back.

Futuroscope

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/futuroscope

Frances answer to Epcot, but the pavilions look cooler from the outside. The park opened with a number of screen based attractions in a quantity that would make Universal blush. Many of these have been switched out over the years, so many buildings are empty.

The Intamin spinner Objectif mars looked visually sharp, but the ride experience was middle of the road and the dark ride section didn’t gel for me.

On the other hand, Chasseurs du Tornades is the best simulator ive done, with a huge rotating platform in the eye of the storm, with heaps of wind and fog.

The rabbids dark ride was LOL worthy, other things like the Robocoaster and flying theatre were solid too.

 

More to come…..

[djmcbell]

Man, I really regret not doing more of those parks when I lived on that side of the world (UK). The only European theme parks I did were the Disney's and Portaventura (before the Ferrari bit).

[jjuttup]

18 hours ago, Gazza said:

bunnings (or whatever the French equivalent is)

Le Bunnings with onion

[Gazza]

And heres the balance.

Jardin D'Acclimation

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/jardin-dacclimatation

Right in the middle of Paris, it's part of a large public park, part of which historically has been used for amusement rides.

A very attractive park, and reminded me in spirit of Tivoli Gardens, just a lot more spread out and less emphasis on concerts and restaurants. Lots of nice old buildings, lakes and manicured gardens.

Loved speed rockets, one of the best family coasters out there, with a fun zippy layout.

Their family spinner is good too.

 

Nigloland 

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/nigloland

I've heard this described as a mini Europa Park and its true, not just because most of the rides are Mack, but just because of how nice the park looks, how spotless it is and how good operations are.

Their mega lite type coaster Alpina Blitz is the sort of thing you can ride all arvo, and their water coaster actually gets the coaster part right with a decent level of force.

The African boat ride with the "spraying' hippo was a laugh.

Their indoor rides are good...Spatiale experience has quite a long track, and their ghost train has none of that small park tackiness. Must do park imo.

By the way, a few behind the scenes pics of Alpina Blitz in the gallery too.

Walygator Parc 

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/walygator-parc

The city of Metz is gorgeous, but the park was meh and a mixed bag. Their 2nd hand B&M invert is good, and a couple of bits of the park have been recently rethemed, but large bits of it are run down.

OK Corral

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ok-corral

A cheesy wild west park near Marseille, with a couple of interesting coasters.

Pioneer has half the train straddling horses and the back half riding in normal seats in a chuck wagon. Their family shuttle coaster is not a dead end shuttle but a full loop.

So instead of going backwards forward backwards, you actually go backwards forwards forwards backwards.

Huge range of flats, some look tacky, others like the bear themed Disko thing look 10/10.

Parc Saint Paul

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/parc-saint-paul

Actually a pleasant surprise. An amusement park with a couple of parts with good theming. Like OK corral a few of the flats look tacky, but on the whole the park is nice.

Their compact Timber Express coaster is great fun and worth many rides. Also got to ride the Russian built Wild Train coaster, which is pretty wild for a family coaster and looks like it was designed by a NoLimits rookie.

Le Pal

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/le-pal

Superb. The rides area in itself would be a solid park in its own right, with good themed zones, but the zoo is really high quality, up there with Dubbo western plains zoo imo.

Has a Mack spinner, a very intense family launch coaster named Yukon quad. They actually had to reduce the launch speed after it first opened but it's still more full on than Jet rescue, and 1km long!

Finally got to ride a huss king kong, it was about as intense as a lift in an office building.

The mushroom themed shooting dark ride was bizzare.

Check the pics if you want to see behind the scenes of Yukon Quad 

Naturlandia 

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/naturlandia

Adventure park in the mountains of the principality of Andorra.

Has ziplines and ropes courses but the draw is Tobotronc, the worlds longest alpine coaster 5400m long, 400m elevation change, 15 mins to the top via 4 lift hills, 5 mins to the bottom. And those 5 mins are a workout, simultaneously hunkering down pushing on the levers and leaning into the turns. Once was enough!

Edited November 11, 2023 by Gazza