3rd, August 1997

Theme Parks thrive in France

With 20 million visitors a year, France is the top market in Europe for theme parks. Out of the sixty or so in the country, three “greats” hog the limelight. They are the futuroscope, the Parc Asterix and Disneyland Paris.

The Futuroscope is near Poitiers, in the Poitou-Charentes region, about 300 kilometers south west of Paris. Since the Futuroscope first opened in 1987, the number of visitors has continued to grow and, in 1996, it hit the 2.8 million mark. On site of 250 hectares (618 acres), the Futuroscope employs the equivalent of 1,200 permanent members of staff and, in addition to the theme park, holds the National Distance Learning Centre (“Centre National d’ Enseignement a’ Distance” (CNED)), students, researchers and businesses.

The Futuroscope is a park of the image, which is unique in the world. It groups together the most sophisticated audio-visual techniques with huge high-definition screens, cinemas in relief, a circular cinema and simulators. This year, it celebrates ten years of daring and professionalism with brand new creations. These include”Cyber Avenue” which is the street of the third millennium in the universe of multimedia, the “Cine-Jeu” (Cineme-Game), the “Interactive Blue Screen”, “Orbiters” and “Image”, based on magic, not forgetting the night-time show “Le Lac aux Images” (the lake with images), which is the event of the year.

The latest challenge from the Parc Asterix... to Disneyland Paris -

This year, the Parc Asterix has 1.7 million visitors from all the regions of France and 15% from abroad. It was created in Plailly, in the Oise depatment, 35 kilometres from Paris, in 1989. It has 26 attractions and about fifteen shows a day. The ingredients for its success are its high quality entertainment, the strong uniting theme of the adventures of Asterix which subtly play with culture and French history, and also a solid financial structure.

In order to win over the public, the attractions have to be renewed and, each year, these use up about 15% of the turnover. At the Parc Asterix, something happens every five minutes, with the sinking of a liner, kilos of explosives and huge flames. “Tonnerre de Zeus” (Zeus’ thunder), a gigantic wooden roller-coaster, following an original and unique 1.2 kilometre track, is its latest challenge.

It is enough to rival the “Space Mountain” which is the star attraction of Disneyland Paris, a giddy big “eight” in the dark through an interstellar journey which cost 600 million francs (103 million dollars). Located in Marne-la-Vallee, 32 kilometres east of Paris, Disneyland Paris extends over a huge park divided up into five lands each illustrating a theme. With about forty attractions, it had 11.7 million admissions almost 50% of which were foreigners, last year. The programme includes a host of events and entertainments from “Star Tours” to “Indiana Jones”, including “Main Street” and Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Everything is planned to meet the tastes of a fun- loving public.

In Lorraine, near Metz, in the East of France, there is the kindom of the Smurfs, those little blue elves, at the Walibi Schtroumpf Park. From the prodigious accelerations of the “Anaconda” to the tempestuous rolling of the “Pirator”, every instant is experienced intensely, in a family atmosphere of pleasure and leisure.

Dreams, emotion and escape -

What do grow-ups and chilldren come to look for? Obviously entertainment, but, even more so, dreams, emotion and escape. The attraction, such as those at the Parc Asterix and Disneyland, have practically all been thought up to be shared and to bring a family together. So there in nothing surprising in that the visitors, while wanting to express their freedom, also wish to feel reassured and protected by the aseptic side of leisure parks.

At the Futuroscope, the same need for safety, comfort and pleasantness is felt with the additional detail of its claiming “to be the only one to combine culture and entertainment”.

The popularity of this kind of “artificial paradise” also probably meets the desire to get out of the everyday routine and, even if it is only for the space of a few hours, to find oneself in a fantasy world.

– Annik Bianchini

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