Third and last part. Not Disney I know but hopefully still of interest.
On the last day of our 10 day holiday in France, we left our campsite and headed to Parc Asterix about an hour away. I had got my tickets through the Tesco clubcard offers scheme. £25 of vouchers got all 4 of us tickets - bargain!
We arrived just after 10am and the park was already open. We exchanged our vouchers for tickets (easy) and went through in to the main street. I have to confess that I don't know much about Asterix but it seemed nicely themed and most importantly, not madly busy.
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It was still a bit chilly to do the water flume rides (people seemed to be coming off soaked) so we headed to Trace de Hourra which is a fast roller coaster where you are not actually on a track. Great fun and not as scary as it looks.
We had some breakfast and here I think Parc Asterix scores well over Disney. Their "fast food" service outlets offer healthy options - baguettes etc rather than hot dog and chips. Relatively speaking the food was cheaper than Disney too.
After we went to the Oxygenarium which is basically a water ride where you are in a giant inflatable ring. Here we had a bit of drama - we got into our ring and were taken up the slope. Just before we were tipped over the edge and down the rapids, the ride stopped and we were stranded for 10 minutes or so. Eventually one of the operators climbed up to us and in my schoolgirl french I understood that he was asking us to get out of the ring and climb back down to the beginning. Easier said than done as the slope was pretty steep! Fortunately when we got back down they put us at the front of the queue and when it restarted 5 minutes later we were straight back on.
DH and Alex then headed over to the Terreur of Zeus rollercoaster which was an enormous old fashioned wooden roller coaster. Apparently it was pretty scary.
By now it was a beautiful day so we did the water rides and got the requisite soaking.
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There were several other roller coasters and we tried most of them. Fortunately the really huge one with 4 loops was closed that day - I definitely wouldn't have been giving that one a go but I'm sure DH would have taken Alex on and I'd have been just as terrified waiting for them to make it off in one piece. There was also an interesting area where they had craftsmen demonstrating their skills such as a blacksmith, statue carver etc.
All in all I was really impressed with Parc Asterix. There was a lot to do and whilst it doesn't have the magic of DLP it was definitely well worth the visit - probably more so for those with children of 7+ than those with really young children. We left the parc just after 6pm (with a quick stop for a photo op with Obelix on the way out) and made our way to Calais just in time for the 9.50pm ferry crossing home.
[/IMG]
On the last day of our 10 day holiday in France, we left our campsite and headed to Parc Asterix about an hour away. I had got my tickets through the Tesco clubcard offers scheme. £25 of vouchers got all 4 of us tickets - bargain!
We arrived just after 10am and the park was already open. We exchanged our vouchers for tickets (easy) and went through in to the main street. I have to confess that I don't know much about Asterix but it seemed nicely themed and most importantly, not madly busy.
It was still a bit chilly to do the water flume rides (people seemed to be coming off soaked) so we headed to Trace de Hourra which is a fast roller coaster where you are not actually on a track. Great fun and not as scary as it looks.
We had some breakfast and here I think Parc Asterix scores well over Disney. Their "fast food" service outlets offer healthy options - baguettes etc rather than hot dog and chips. Relatively speaking the food was cheaper than Disney too.
After we went to the Oxygenarium which is basically a water ride where you are in a giant inflatable ring. Here we had a bit of drama - we got into our ring and were taken up the slope. Just before we were tipped over the edge and down the rapids, the ride stopped and we were stranded for 10 minutes or so. Eventually one of the operators climbed up to us and in my schoolgirl french I understood that he was asking us to get out of the ring and climb back down to the beginning. Easier said than done as the slope was pretty steep! Fortunately when we got back down they put us at the front of the queue and when it restarted 5 minutes later we were straight back on.
DH and Alex then headed over to the Terreur of Zeus rollercoaster which was an enormous old fashioned wooden roller coaster. Apparently it was pretty scary.
By now it was a beautiful day so we did the water rides and got the requisite soaking.
There were several other roller coasters and we tried most of them. Fortunately the really huge one with 4 loops was closed that day - I definitely wouldn't have been giving that one a go but I'm sure DH would have taken Alex on and I'd have been just as terrified waiting for them to make it off in one piece. There was also an interesting area where they had craftsmen demonstrating their skills such as a blacksmith, statue carver etc.
All in all I was really impressed with Parc Asterix. There was a lot to do and whilst it doesn't have the magic of DLP it was definitely well worth the visit - probably more so for those with children of 7+ than those with really young children. We left the parc just after 6pm (with a quick stop for a photo op with Obelix on the way out) and made our way to Calais just in time for the 9.50pm ferry crossing home.
