Baga-waerde (Bagatelle, Dennlys and Bellewaerde)

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Once parks started to re-open Fi, Chainedbanana and I decided that rather than join everyone else in heading to Towers or Blackpool we'd make a shorter journey. To France. Yep, that's right, France is closer! So we took the eurotunnel under the sea (covid restrictions mean you can't get out in the train so it's essentially like you just drove somewhere in the UK) and arrived on the other side of the road ready to bask in the glory of being in a different country, something we thought we'd not experience for a long while. We had decided to keep relatively close to the crossing and take the opportunity to mop up some creds we might not have done otherwise.

First up it was Parc Bagatelle.

I had really low expectations for this park as I seem to remember some people remarking that it was bad but I was pleasantly surprised as it was nice and leafy. First new cred of the year was also my first Soquet coaster, Gaz Express has lots of quirky theming effects, including fire and an indoor section and looks much newer than a coaster built in 1987! This is a really fun family ride! Next up, I completed my vekoma invertigo set by riding Triops. As expected, the slow lifthill climb with the inverted seats was kind of unpleasant for anyone not a fan of certain types of exposed heights and the rest of the cred was, again, as expected really. I was glad to get the set though!

We wandered around the park for a bit past a pretty lake with flamingo boats and waited probably a bit too long (i.e. not walk-on) for a themed pirate ship complete with under boat fog. We then mopped up the rest of the do-able creds, Famous Jack and Spirale des dunes as we had been denied the wacky worm. Spite! Spirale is another Soquet so it was good to try another as they're a bit different to the average kiddie creds you usually find around. We decided against doing the rapids due to the huge queue and our need to get to the second park of the day but it looked interesting and had one of those cool whirlpool elements.

Overall I would definitely recommend Bagatelle as an add-on to other trips if you're in the area or want a quick cred run across the channel.

Next up, Dennlys Parc!

 

[Fi]

This was such a fab trip! It was my first time on Eurotunnel and driving my own car on the other side of the road, and I was a little apprehensive about it but actually it was so easy! Eurotunnel check in was simple with no security faff then it’s straight onto the motorway on the other side so very simple. I would definitely do it again and there’s actually a lot of parks in the EU that are no further from SE England than say Oakwood or BPB.

I’d been to Bagatelle as a kid but didn’t really remember much, but it was lovely and much nicer than some vlogs and reviews suggest. Getting spited on the first ride we attempted wasn’t the best start, but fortunately everything got better from there! Gas Express was a great little Coaster, has a bit of a kick and nice theming, but must have been updated recently as it looked much newer than it is! The other Soquet, Spirale des dunes was good for a small family Coaster.

I was facing upwards for the start of Triops, which is definitely more relaxing and enjoyable than facing the ground! The inverted boomerangs are much more pleasant than the standard boomerangs, though still not very reridable.

The pirate boat was good and nicely themed though in hindsight would have skipped if we reaslised it was going to be the longest wait for a pirate boat Inn the history of all time! The long wait was due to covid operations. Think they were cleaning between every ride cycle, and were definitely loading/ offloading 1 row at a time and respecting social distancing and leaving an empty row between parties. So pirate boat was good in this regard, other rides not so much. All seemed a bit hit and miss. Same with masks and social distancing, they were required on the rides, but in the queue lines was a bit hit and miss.

 

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Next park of the day was Dennlys Parc, we hadn't initially planned this park but squeezed it in for the extra creds. It turned out to be the best park of the day!

The park is situated in a small french village and you walk in across a bridge by a mill to enter the park. A nice start. The park is similar to Bagatelle in that it is leafy, has some ride-specific theming here and there and has a pleasant atmosphere. The mobius mine train called Nitro was obviously our first stop. This Preston and Barbieri goes around twice so you only need to queue once to get both sides, bliss! This was really fun and again, something nice and different for a change. Notable mention to the awesome flat ride, the technical park "acrobat" which is basically like gerst sky fly seats on an enterprise. This seating arrangement meant that you could get prolonged inversions as you went over the top and was really good fun! There was another Soquet coaster, Furio (so +3 Soquets in a day now) which was once again a pleasant ride and something a bit different and then a SPF spinner style cred made by Gosetto which, for a kiddie cred had some nice mexican themed walls around it.



Other rides of note include the portable raft ride which which had a treacherous amount of water in the bottom and a big post-drop splash that got us a bit damp. The drop tower was cute and pleasant and a reride on the acrobat ride was also had because it was fab (and my highlight of the park!)!

I filmed a few bits and pieces from both parks to try out making a montage video which can be seen here:

I have also written about this trip in my "Road to 600 credits" series on my blog here:

The road to 600 credits | Part 1- France

I entered 2020 with 563 rollercoaster credits and had big plans for this year's trips. I should have been to Germany (again), LA/SoCal and F...

retrorollercoasters.blogspot.com

 

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Back for part 2!

After a nice chinese and a stay in at a hotel with a dungeon bathroom it was off to Bellewaerde for day two!

I've just written a blog post on the Bellewaerde day here but I'll add some more to the thread as well.

In short, this park is fab and everyone should go! This was my second visit and obviously there was a rare "new for 2020 coaster" but even without that I would have still gone back because it's just a really pleasant, chilled out, pretty park. Wakala is a great addition and a fun family ride that looks fab too! It can even run 3 trains! Horray!

Here is a video montage from our day: