Theme Park Explorer - Parc Asterix

Plailly, Paris, France.

Date of last visit: June 2002.

Age of kids at the time: 7 and 4. Free entry for children under 3.

Travel: Has its own junction between junctions 7 and 8 on the A1 autoroute north of Paris. The nearest TGV station is Roissy Charles de Gaulle (from which buses run straight to the park). There's a hotel next to the park (Des Trois Hiboux), but we stayed at a campsite about 40 minutes drive away.

The Scores… (details below):

Family Factor: 8/10

We ended up ar Parc Asterix after getting lost on the way to Disneyland Paris (after we'd already driven to DLP once - don't ask). It was my wife's idea to go, and we were glad we did - it was bigger and a lot more fun than we were expecting; in fact the kids preferred it to Disney even though they knew the characters less well than their parents did. As it was relatively quiet it was a pleasant contrast to the bustle of Disneyland.

Parc Asterix is a good-looking place and has some hugely popular characters (in France, at least) to design the park a

round. Some attractions felt rather old fashioned but everything was well cared-for and the atmosphere was friendly in spite of the presence of several coach loads of French school children. There weren't really any queues over a few minutes for any of the rides (apart from the Oxygenarium) so we managed to go on a good few of them, although as we arrived late we ran out of time in the end and missed a couple of rides that the kids would have liked. There were a lot of water rides, which isn't a particularly good idea in this part of Europe (must be fantastic down in southern Spain, though).

There was no evidence of a Fastpass type setup for busier times and no boards giving estimates of queue times, although none of that mattered the day we were there. Ticket prices were fairly reasonable (as usual it was an all-in-one price).

The kids were happier with the rides here than they were with those at Disneyland Paris, and the lack of queues meant that we could go on a whole series of their rides in the time it would have taken to queue for one at DLP. They liked the Dolphin Show as well (although my mind isn't quite made up as to whether training dolphins to carry out repetitive acrobatics to amuse humans is really a bit sick). There were other shows running too, and the whole place had a cartoon Gauls-bashing-Romans feel that's appealing to kids.

Some mini-reviews (remember it's up to you to look at each ride and decide what's safe for your kids; this is just our personal experience). Lost the gate map so we can't give you the height restrictions:

Le Petit Train The Little Train, according to my 'O' Level French. It was quite nice, actually, and the kids enjoyed trundling slowly round the track

Vol d'Icare A rather clanky and old fashioned little coaster, good fun though and our seven year old wanted to ride it again straight away. Felt quite fast, considering its relatively modest dimensions. Sits inside a Greek temple and looks good, but is rather tucked away at the side of the park

Oxygenarium Sort of a mini rapids ride with stripey rafts (like overgrown rubber rings) that bump fairly gently down a shallow flume. Nice looking ride and you don't get all that wet

The Cauldrons Someone call Social Services - place your children in a spinning cauldron. Just a regular teacup ride, really

La Descente du Styx The ever-popular Intamin rapids ride, with six seater rubber ring boats and a tunnel. Probably the second best one we've been on (after the slightly better detailed one at Gardaland) and we managed to get very wet. These things really are an excellent family attraction; if your little ones are a bit scared of getting a soaking, get them a poncho and they'll be fine

Les Chevaux de Roy A big carousel, very well decorated with Asterix characters as well as the horses

La Riviere d'Elis A micro rapids ride for youngsters - nice idea, and with a great-looking rocky temple in the middle of it

Le Trans Averne Don't remember seeing this in the gate map, a pity as it looks like quite a nice junior coaster (a Zierer Tivoli) in amongst the trees Not ridden

Les Espions de Cesar A slow trundle in electrically powered cars a few yards up in the air, as per Squirrel Nutty at Alton Towers Not ridden

Transdemonium I'm afraid we don't know what this is, it wasn't there when we visited Not ridden

Nationale 7 Slightly out of place guiderail-controlled vintage car ride Not ridden

Epidemais Croisiere Gentle towboat ride that we didn't see whilst we were there. The boats look excellent, though, and the kids would have loved it. We'll try it next time Not ridden

It doesn't look like it at first but Asterix is really lacking in decent big steel roller coasters. Don't let the fact that there is a very exciting-looking one in full view across the lake fool you. Wooden coaster fans will be in their element and will most likely want to just sit on the one ride all day...

Goudurix This big, seven-loop Vekoma coaster must have cost Parc Asterix a fortune to install. Perhaps it held the record for the biggest number of inversions for a while, which would have been good publicity, but the ride is shockingly uncomfortable and shakes you around so much that you can't really tell what's going on - you just hang on until it's over and then break out the Disprins. It's a real shame because some parts of the ride (especially the butterfly inversion) look so elegant from a distance. It's in a very photogenic position next to the lake, but it has no theme whatsoever and its station is like an urban bus stop, without even a roof over it - it wouldn't take much to make this more attractive. A couple of pot plants, perhaps. A major missed opportunity and the only really disappointing thing about the park. I don't know whether the problem is with the track or the trains - if the former, could some re-profiled sections be dropped in where the discomfort is worst, before someone's spine gets snapped in two?

Menhir Express I was sorry to miss out on this, but none of my family would go on it with me and I'd feel a bit of a saddo queuing for a flume ride on my own. Looks absolutely excellent, lots of attention to detail, but there we are Not ridden

The Galley Pretty imposing pirate ship-type swing ride Not ridden

Flying Chairs The female contingent of our family love these things - a high chair-o-plane ride

Hydra Went on this at our eldest's insistence, but as usual with spinning rides I was feeling a bit dodgey afterwards. She loved it, though, and wanted to go on it again. Unfortunately I wasn't capable of doing so. Very effective (it certainly jangled up my inner ears) and with a suitably menacing hydra lurking in the middle of it

Wooden Horse of Troy Tall Flying Carpet ride which would no doubt give a pretty good view of the park from the top Not ridden

The Big Splash We were out of time when we got to this ride, which is a flume with big boats and two drops, one of them a double (like Canada Creek at Thorpe Park). The weather wasn't that great so I didn't go out of my way to try it Not ridden

Trace du Hourra A bobsled similar to the Avalanche at Blackpool, where the train is free to run down a big steel drainpipe rather than being attached to rails. Wasn't able to try this one, but the Blackpool version was good in a laid-back kind of way, as I remember. Will definitely be giving this a go next time Not ridden

I headed to Zeus still looking slightly green from riding the Hydra just before. In total contrast to Goudurix (which is just a bit further around the lake) the park had completely gone to town on the setting for this huge wooden coaster, with a giant statue of the man himself and a station in the form of a greek temple. For me this ride was very similar to its cousin at Oakwood, Megafobia. Zeus has a better theme but I enjoyed the ride less, probably thanks to the lingering centrifugal after effects from Hydra. It's fast and furious, and presumably the Thunder referred to in the ride's name is down to the racket it makes on the way down the track. There wasn't much of a queue and I wanted to go for a second ride, but the first gave me a colossal headache so I didn't bother. Instead I downed some painkillers and then went on Goudurix. Not a very good idea.

Zeus is definitely to be recommended; wooden coaster fans won't be able to get enough of it, but I'll happily stick with Megafobia, especially as we live just down the M4 from it

Parc Asterix is very well looked after, all the themed areas looked good and we didn't see any stray rubbish. I'm sure the park management wouldn't want to let down the popular image of Asterix by allowing it to get grubby. Not quite as pristine looking as Gardaland, probably due to the age of some of the scenery, but still very good

We ate toasted sandwiches from one of the booths quite close to the entrance. Prices were reasonable and the food pretty good, if not up to the standard of Gardaland. Much more pleasant than the equivalent at Disneyland Paris. We didn't get to try any of the larger restaurants