As some may have spotted in the Trip Planning forum – I’d been eyeing up a short whip through Northern France. Focus, for probably obvious reasons, was Parc Asterix, but there is some halfway notable stuff along the way too, so strung it out over a long weekend. Those plans got spotted by some others, and after a few logistical chats, it morphed from a solo trip into a car full - @Bentleya, @DelPiero and @chainedbanana came along for the ride(s)!
As ever, mostly just an excuse to post the photos.
Day 1 – The Way There
Part 1 – Parc Saint Paul
A very early start meeting at Ashford for an early train, but a seamless journey had us cruising down the motorway in France in no time. Pretty much the longest drive of the trip down to Parc Saint Paul, so it was nice to have that one out of the way.
Arriving at Parc Saint Paul gave us the first proper fizz of upcoming cred fun. An understated park entrance, but when all said and done quite a pleasant little approach.
They don’t open Wood Express until an hour or so after opening, so we planned to try to clear off the other bits and pieces before that to give us plenty of time to enjoy that ride. We made a hard left turn as we entered the park – let’s knock off the kiddie creds likely to get the worst queues (both at a family park AND right by the entrance.
Wasn’t a particularly good start, with the Big Apple stalling halfway through the layout during testing. Wild Train was next. Not going to set the world alight, but we actually laughed all the way round this. Gotta be worth something.
Generic spinning mouse and tragically small kiddie cred next, and we were making good time through the park without having to rush.
Back round to the entrance for what turned out to be the longest wait of the park. Long train, one ride-op, two lap cycle and lots of children is not conducive to a high throughput. Coaster was pleasant enough. Next!
Yes – we have the mental age of fourteen year olds.
Big Apple was open by this point, so a quick lap on that and with all that done it was time for the main event.
Mercifully there seemed to be little interest in the woodie as soon as it opened, so we were able to get a few walk-on laps of the coaster straight away.
And what a fantastic little coaster this is! The ride is so dynamic, deceptively fast, has some really excellent airtime moments, and has a very compact layout. I think by the end our preference was back row, but frankly this thing was great in every row. It’s a very impressive bit of hardware. Can’t help but look at coasters like this and think that it’s got to be something somewhere like Paultons has taken a look at – we can but hope!
By all accounts, everyone riding this – young, old, big or small – was absolutely loving it. There were some hilarious expressions going round for first time (or perhaps inexperienced) riders, but without a doubt everyone coming back into the station was beaming ear to ear. It was a fantastic reminder that you don’t need the biggest, the fastest, the scariest, the-whatever, ride in your park – you just need something that is objectively enjoyable. Bravo!
As a result of the park being quiet and them waiting to mostly fill trains before dispatch, pictures of the coaster going round were hard to come by.
We weren’t in any huge rush to leave the park (we had made better time through the rides and re-rides than we were expecting), so decided to mooch about a little bit. We tried their log flume, which was decent, the ghost house walkthrough thing, which was… alright, but before too long decided that we wanted another few laps on Wood Express before moving on.
Overall the park was very nice too. It’s small, but it’s very green and has a nice little charm to it. Reminiscent of Paultons in a lot of ways, really. Wood Express sits towards the back of the park with a relatively new dinosaur area, and it’s clear they’re pushing on to develop the park. The area towards the front entrance (the older area of the park) is markedly less polished, but even then it’s clean and quaint – no complaints.
Part 2 –Jardin d'Acclimatation
It was onwards into Paris for the next stop. We parked up nearby and made the short walk to the park. First impressions were good, lots of green and a pleasant atmosphere, albeit absolutely heaving. Thankfully, turns out this is one of those parks where there’s a cheap ‘non-rider’ type ticket, so the queues for the coasters were completely manageable (note: I did woefully little research on this park beforehand, so this was news to me).
We knew we’d be one coaster down in this park as they are in the process of replacing it, but unfortunately the park’s other Soquet was also down (in fact – it looked to be that the back car was in pieces and the train strapped/tethered to the track, not even a ”maybe it’ll open later” one). No pictures of the spiting creds.
Onto the main coaster as the park – Speed Rockets. This was a great little Gerstlauer bobsled with some fantastic pops of airtime and sideways hills. We particularly liked the double drop style first drop, as well the section between the first and second MCBR. I was reminded, once again, that this is the old coaster model Gerstlauer can consistently do well. They really should just sack off the rest of their portfolio at this point!
Next up was the mini spinning mouse, which was a bit different and felt nice and unique. Nothing spectacular, but it’s fun sometimes to get to ride something you’ve not done before – even if it’s small.
We did their dark shooter, which was a bit rubbish, and another lap on Speed Rockets, before calling it a day and setting our sights on the other side of Paris.
Part 3 – Foire du Trône
Didn’t bother moving the car and opted for the Metro instead – the Paris metro is simple and cheap, so by far the better option than moving the car.
We arrived at the already heaving fair and immediately set our sights on the coasters. We were expecting +5, though it quickly became clear (further proven by some Googling in a queue line later) that the toboggan had moved onto another fair already, so we were down to a +4. Thankfully (?), we found an unexpected 3 additional coasters so in the end were looking at a +7. Skipping over the fact that that was comprised of 2 Big Apples and some other kiddie thing.
First up was the Jet Star. I always love these – they’re surprisingly intense both on and off ride, seem to have remained in decent shape (notwithstanding the employee acting as booster wheel on the brake run pushing the trains along with his feet). Good, clean, Schwarzkopf fun.
Along the way we rode a Galaxi (see many of the notes above about a well looked after coaster, surprisingly intense and great fun) and one of the spinniest-spinners I’ve ever done ( = disgusting). We’d not seen the biggest coaster in the park, King, operating so far, but just as we were heading round to that area of the park a train (with riders) climbed the lift hill. Excellent!
By far the biggest coaster at the park, we were automatically drawn to it. As we got our tickets and joined the queue we discovered it was actually a Soquet (note: see previous comment about woefully little research), and our hearts sank somewhat as we watch the train smash and crunch it’s way through every element.
Now – don’t get me wrong I love a bit of suffering from time to time. I’m a strong advocate for Type 2 Fun, but this was really pushing the limit. Suffice to say, I think this may hold the crown for the worst coaster I’ve ever ridden. I’ve never seen track shaping, train dynamics, uncomfortable seating, and a pain inducing layout like it! For the next three days we were all sore in our shoulders, or backs, or knees, or just all over, from this piece of junk. I urge you to skim through some POVs or offride videos to get a sense of how poorly engineered and horrible this thing is.
The only, ONLY, silver lining I can see if that I think I have now found the bottom of the barrel. It’s hard to imagine anything this substantial could ever be this bad. It’s literally only ever going to be up from here.
Absolute. Trash.
After that beating, we needed to wind down a little bit, so made a beeline for the smaller coasters throughout the park and something to eat. Nothing of any particular note here, other than some pretty decent kebabs for dinner and the stand-up pirate ship (which we decided not to do after the big kebab dinner- seemed like a recipe for disaster!).
All in all, it was a good evening at the fair. It was extremely busy – probably the densest crowds I can think of being in since pre-Covid – but the rides didn’t have any horrendous queues and the atmosphere was great. AND it was a +7. Great stuff!
We got the metro back across Paris, hopped in the car and headed for the hotel. We fancied something to drink once we got there, so after a bit of milling around the little village we ended up at a brand new (we guessed perhaps even opening night) Turkish/French bar. It was rather strange as we came in and were hurriedly made to shake hands with the owner (?), but the wine was decent and the vibe was nice. Wandered back to the hotel and had a couple of beers before we hit the sack. It'd been a long day – 20hrs with 3 parks and 15 new coasters – but we were in good spirits for Parc Asterix the next day.
As ever, mostly just an excuse to post the photos.
Day 1 – The Way There
Part 1 – Parc Saint Paul
A very early start meeting at Ashford for an early train, but a seamless journey had us cruising down the motorway in France in no time. Pretty much the longest drive of the trip down to Parc Saint Paul, so it was nice to have that one out of the way.
Arriving at Parc Saint Paul gave us the first proper fizz of upcoming cred fun. An understated park entrance, but when all said and done quite a pleasant little approach.
They don’t open Wood Express until an hour or so after opening, so we planned to try to clear off the other bits and pieces before that to give us plenty of time to enjoy that ride. We made a hard left turn as we entered the park – let’s knock off the kiddie creds likely to get the worst queues (both at a family park AND right by the entrance.
Wasn’t a particularly good start, with the Big Apple stalling halfway through the layout during testing. Wild Train was next. Not going to set the world alight, but we actually laughed all the way round this. Gotta be worth something.
Generic spinning mouse and tragically small kiddie cred next, and we were making good time through the park without having to rush.
Back round to the entrance for what turned out to be the longest wait of the park. Long train, one ride-op, two lap cycle and lots of children is not conducive to a high throughput. Coaster was pleasant enough. Next!
Yes – we have the mental age of fourteen year olds.
Big Apple was open by this point, so a quick lap on that and with all that done it was time for the main event.
Mercifully there seemed to be little interest in the woodie as soon as it opened, so we were able to get a few walk-on laps of the coaster straight away.
And what a fantastic little coaster this is! The ride is so dynamic, deceptively fast, has some really excellent airtime moments, and has a very compact layout. I think by the end our preference was back row, but frankly this thing was great in every row. It’s a very impressive bit of hardware. Can’t help but look at coasters like this and think that it’s got to be something somewhere like Paultons has taken a look at – we can but hope!
By all accounts, everyone riding this – young, old, big or small – was absolutely loving it. There were some hilarious expressions going round for first time (or perhaps inexperienced) riders, but without a doubt everyone coming back into the station was beaming ear to ear. It was a fantastic reminder that you don’t need the biggest, the fastest, the scariest, the-whatever, ride in your park – you just need something that is objectively enjoyable. Bravo!
As a result of the park being quiet and them waiting to mostly fill trains before dispatch, pictures of the coaster going round were hard to come by.
We weren’t in any huge rush to leave the park (we had made better time through the rides and re-rides than we were expecting), so decided to mooch about a little bit. We tried their log flume, which was decent, the ghost house walkthrough thing, which was… alright, but before too long decided that we wanted another few laps on Wood Express before moving on.
Overall the park was very nice too. It’s small, but it’s very green and has a nice little charm to it. Reminiscent of Paultons in a lot of ways, really. Wood Express sits towards the back of the park with a relatively new dinosaur area, and it’s clear they’re pushing on to develop the park. The area towards the front entrance (the older area of the park) is markedly less polished, but even then it’s clean and quaint – no complaints.
Part 2 –Jardin d'Acclimatation
It was onwards into Paris for the next stop. We parked up nearby and made the short walk to the park. First impressions were good, lots of green and a pleasant atmosphere, albeit absolutely heaving. Thankfully, turns out this is one of those parks where there’s a cheap ‘non-rider’ type ticket, so the queues for the coasters were completely manageable (note: I did woefully little research on this park beforehand, so this was news to me).
We knew we’d be one coaster down in this park as they are in the process of replacing it, but unfortunately the park’s other Soquet was also down (in fact – it looked to be that the back car was in pieces and the train strapped/tethered to the track, not even a ”maybe it’ll open later” one). No pictures of the spiting creds.
Onto the main coaster as the park – Speed Rockets. This was a great little Gerstlauer bobsled with some fantastic pops of airtime and sideways hills. We particularly liked the double drop style first drop, as well the section between the first and second MCBR. I was reminded, once again, that this is the old coaster model Gerstlauer can consistently do well. They really should just sack off the rest of their portfolio at this point!
Next up was the mini spinning mouse, which was a bit different and felt nice and unique. Nothing spectacular, but it’s fun sometimes to get to ride something you’ve not done before – even if it’s small.
We did their dark shooter, which was a bit rubbish, and another lap on Speed Rockets, before calling it a day and setting our sights on the other side of Paris.
Part 3 – Foire du Trône
Didn’t bother moving the car and opted for the Metro instead – the Paris metro is simple and cheap, so by far the better option than moving the car.
We arrived at the already heaving fair and immediately set our sights on the coasters. We were expecting +5, though it quickly became clear (further proven by some Googling in a queue line later) that the toboggan had moved onto another fair already, so we were down to a +4. Thankfully (?), we found an unexpected 3 additional coasters so in the end were looking at a +7. Skipping over the fact that that was comprised of 2 Big Apples and some other kiddie thing.
First up was the Jet Star. I always love these – they’re surprisingly intense both on and off ride, seem to have remained in decent shape (notwithstanding the employee acting as booster wheel on the brake run pushing the trains along with his feet). Good, clean, Schwarzkopf fun.
Along the way we rode a Galaxi (see many of the notes above about a well looked after coaster, surprisingly intense and great fun) and one of the spinniest-spinners I’ve ever done ( = disgusting). We’d not seen the biggest coaster in the park, King, operating so far, but just as we were heading round to that area of the park a train (with riders) climbed the lift hill. Excellent!
By far the biggest coaster at the park, we were automatically drawn to it. As we got our tickets and joined the queue we discovered it was actually a Soquet (note: see previous comment about woefully little research), and our hearts sank somewhat as we watch the train smash and crunch it’s way through every element.
Now – don’t get me wrong I love a bit of suffering from time to time. I’m a strong advocate for Type 2 Fun, but this was really pushing the limit. Suffice to say, I think this may hold the crown for the worst coaster I’ve ever ridden. I’ve never seen track shaping, train dynamics, uncomfortable seating, and a pain inducing layout like it! For the next three days we were all sore in our shoulders, or backs, or knees, or just all over, from this piece of junk. I urge you to skim through some POVs or offride videos to get a sense of how poorly engineered and horrible this thing is.
The only, ONLY, silver lining I can see if that I think I have now found the bottom of the barrel. It’s hard to imagine anything this substantial could ever be this bad. It’s literally only ever going to be up from here.
Absolute. Trash.
After that beating, we needed to wind down a little bit, so made a beeline for the smaller coasters throughout the park and something to eat. Nothing of any particular note here, other than some pretty decent kebabs for dinner and the stand-up pirate ship (which we decided not to do after the big kebab dinner- seemed like a recipe for disaster!).
All in all, it was a good evening at the fair. It was extremely busy – probably the densest crowds I can think of being in since pre-Covid – but the rides didn’t have any horrendous queues and the atmosphere was great. AND it was a +7. Great stuff!
We got the metro back across Paris, hopped in the car and headed for the hotel. We fancied something to drink once we got there, so after a bit of milling around the little village we ended up at a brand new (we guessed perhaps even opening night) Turkish/French bar. It was rather strange as we came in and were hurriedly made to shake hands with the owner (?), but the wine was decent and the vibe was nice. Wandered back to the hotel and had a couple of beers before we hit the sack. It'd been a long day – 20hrs with 3 parks and 15 new coasters – but we were in good spirits for Parc Asterix the next day.
