France Trip Day 12: Parc Astérix

Our original ideas for our trip to France included a stay at Disneyland Paris. We had gone to Disneyland last year and had a great time. But when I looked at the website to see what deals were being offered, I noticed that they were still celebrating their 15th anniversary and all the shows and parades were exactly the same as last year's. I suggested instead we spend a day at Parc Astérix, a theme park located only 20 miles from Disneyland outside Paris.

A few weeks before our trip, I checked out several Astérix books from the school's library in English and put a few Astérix movies with English tracks on our Netflix list. That first night I pulled out an Astérix book to read to the kids, James surprised me by exclaiming, "Mom! I've read a few Astérix books in German!" Excellent. The movie Astérix and the Vikings (2006), though a French/Danish production, had English as its original language.

The Adventures of Astérix is a series of French comic strips that first appeared in the French magazine Pilote in 1959. As of 2008, 33 comic books in the series have been released. The Astérix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into over 100 languages, and it is popular in most European countries. Astérix is less well known in the United States and Japan. This is not a series just for kids. The books are loaded with political and cultural satire and wordplay, which makes for interesting translations.

The series follows the exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. Astérix, along with his friend Obélix, the menhir delivery man, have various adventures. In many cases, this leads them to travel to various countries around the world, though other books are set in and around their village.

David and I thought this would be the perfect last day of vacation activity. A little reward for having made it through our trip with little in the way of illness, fights and whining. I was looking forward to comparing this park with Disneyland, and was a little proud that we were going to a place that few Americans think to visit, or even know about.

The first difference came as we entered the parking lot. If you have ever driven to a Disney parking lot, you know that there is an entire crew directing you through the parking lot, to a particular spot and even a worker telling you exacting how far forward to pull into the spot. All very efficient.

The Parc Astérix parking lot was a free for all.

In the park, we do what makes sense for our family. David takes off with Micaela and James to hit the rollercoasters and other thrill rides, and Emilie, Rebecca and I make a beeline for the merry-go-round and other gentler rides.

This sculpture near the entrance of the park shows how every Astérix book begins: It's the year 50BC. All of Gaul is occupied by the Romans. All of it? No! A village of diehard Gaulois is still and always will resist these invaders.

You can sit in Obélix' bottom on the merry-go-round.

In one of the Roman soldier bumper cars, or as I grew up calling them, dodgems

I had to translate throughout the dolphin show, which Emilie and Rebecca loved.

We saw many different characters from the Astérix series on the viking ship ride. Astérix and Cleopatra was the first Astérix book I read. In our French composition courses during our second year of college, we had to write a book report on one of the books.

The village laundromat

Astérix, Obélix and the little dog Idéfix

Emilie was very excited to ride the swings. At this point, the swings had barely started moving. Many of the rides for small children were pretty much glorified carnival rides. But I've heard the same thing said of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, and Dumbo always has one of the longest lines and is the highlight of the day for many little kids.

Under a dolmen

The village chief is usually shown being carried on a shield

Meeting Astérix. The park is similar to Disney in that there are character meet and greets, though not a lot; there are shows where scenes from the series are acted out; the park is divided into different lands (Gaul, the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, the Vikings, Traveling through Time); and there are plenty of gift shops and restaurants.

There are spinning cauldrons instead of spinning teacups. That was just one of the differences from Disney. I was mildy annoyed by the inefficiency of the loading and unloading of passengers at the rides (there was only one person in charge of the rides, so he/she needed to load/unload riders which involved helping almost every rider with their safety belt, and then operate the ride. It seemed to take forever.) My annoyance was tempered by the short lines. It was rare we had to wait more than 5 minutes for a ride. It was just the opposite of Disney where the lines are long, but the loading/unloading of riders is very efficient.

By Disney standards, the park was dead. That might be because there was chance of rain and the sky looked questionable the entire day, but we lucked out and had no rain.

What you noticed right away was the lack of souvenirs in plain sight. There were no souvenir carts along the walking paths and the shops were tucked away and looked from the outside like part of the scenery. That was a very welcome change and just made it easier when you're walking through the park with two little kids.

Em was too afraid to stick her hand in the real Mouth of Truth in Rome. She didn't hesitate here, in the Roman Empire section of the park. I couldn't resist buying the girls Astérix caps. No Mickey Mouse ears here.

Emilie was nervous about driving this little car. I assured her that she could not have an accident, so she gave it a try.

Emmie was waving to some other drivers when this photo was snapped.

Bex getting cozy with a sphinx.

Park Astérix is proud to be French, is geared toward the French and is unapologetic about it. For example, the park's website is in French, and only French. Brochures in the park were available in French and only French. During the entire day, we only heard English two times, and that was when we passed by British families.

This castle couldn't be more different from Sleeping Beauty's castle.

These half-timbered houses were giftshops.

We met David, Micaela and James by chance at the Menir Express flume ride.

There were plenty of roller coasters to keep the big kids busy today.

David and Becca on The Little Storm ride.

This ride, labeled as a kiddie ride, was deceptive. It flew, forced the riders to the side of their little boat and went on about three times longer than it should have. I know that from experience.

We suddenly heard some music and here came the big parade. It consisted of 4 people on a wagon playing what sounded like bluegrass music and some clapping costumed people walking behind the wagon. That was it. That was the big parade.

A acrobatic show in front of a roller coaster

The cast of the show posing for pictures

Passing by the Colosseum where you could see a stunt show

These boys were the proud owners of new Roman Soldier spears and stopped every shopper exiting the store by crossings the spears in front of him/her. The shoppers were not amused. I was.

Maybe one day we'll get to see the real Mannequin Pis in Brussels.

Leaving the park

Emilie looking very Astérix-ish

I had to snap a picture of a roundabout as we made our way back to the hotel. The French love roundabouts. I mean love as in "You love them so much, why don't you marry them?" love.

Over the past 20 years the number of roundabouts in France has mushroomed from just 500 to more than 30,000. French officials have embraced modern roundabouts for their inherent safety when compared with other "forms of junction." We have roundabouts in Germany (more about that in a future post), but France is the King of roundabouts.