France 07/18 – Dennlys Parc + Bagatelle

This particular crawl was meant to happen last year, but it turned into something better(?) in the same area.
Better late than never.

Day 2 – Dennlys Parc

Not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it. A tiny little place with Spanish pop music everywhere, it had a fair bit of charm.

Got extra excited for a bit as I had forgotten what this is, but damn, it’s a Moebius loop (one continuous piece of track). Sends you round both sides in one cycle, so no quandaries about half a cred or anything.
It contained a couple of rough turns, but nothing too serious. The main drops and hills weren’t bad, but it ain’t no Pax.

Can it get worse? The ‘worst custom steel rollercoaster in the world’ – Mitch Hawker 2013.

What? How? It rode with the same level of inoffensiveness as the Soquet yesterday. Does pretty much nothing.

And we’ll finish off the coasters here with pretty much nothing. At least it’s an obscure manufacturer for the list. Only 2 Gosettos in the world.

Did one of those Desperado 4D screen shooting attractions where you sit on the little rocking horses as they’re quite fun. Must have done too many now, victory over everyone else came quite easily.

Did one of these discount rapids rides, which was a laugh.

That looks like the same tower as yesterday. Eh, might as well.
No tingle from this version though. Pure ejector at the top of each main burst – they’re running it hard. Highlight of the park for sure.

That was all rather easy. Next?

Bagatelle

Bit of a weird entrance to this park. Bag check before a pink tunnel under the road, then some big metal entrance gates and many confused people standing around.

Excellent once you get inside though. The first thing you come to is a Wacky Worm on tarmac. A beautiful sight.

Was expecting some at least some moderate crowding on a summer weekend, but maybe football (World Cup final) is good for something. Walked straight on to the most intriguing attraction here.

The Soquet Aquatrax, potentially their finest achievement. 2 helices of doom, one moment of violent air time in the back and some tasty fire effects. Who could ask for more?

The name doesn’t sound like a cred, but here we are. Reverchon failed to beat Zamperla today.

The last couple of areas had seemed quite nice, but now we’ve stumbled onto concrete wasteland with a Vekoma Invertigo on it. It’s like they know not to try and glam it up.

With their Paris Metro air gates.

Oh no, Invertigo. My very first of these. Got somewhat nervous about how terrible it could be. The sign even mentions ‘side impacts’ (or lateral chocolate), so that’s reassuring.

The restraints are super hench like El Condor, already touching your ears before you move, so that’s reassuring.

It’s fine. No problem at all. Not as intense as a regular Boomerang, and smoother than most of them. Might still be a spark of Liseberg (its original home) magic left in it.

Can’t find the last cred now.

Oh there it is, a baby Soquet. That’ll do.

Again that was all rather easy, time for a baguette and to see what else they have.

Like Bocasse, they were also celebrating some sort of anniversary, by splashing out on a new(?) film for their simulator attraction. This was beyond confusing, starting with what felt like a circus horror walkthrough, expecting a preshow in a punch and judy box – nope. Expecting a preshow in a room with screens inside giant 3D glasses – nope. Straight on the ride, no glasses, the simulators are decorated with bones, pop music playing, “hold the red bar.”
The video was a rollercoaster on the moon!
Well that was a thing.

Disaster struck at this moment. Somehow my drink had leaked absolutely everywhere in my bag. An actual swimming pool of it, just stewing in the bottom.
Everything got affected, everything. It all smells rather fruity now, but also a tad sticky and I’ve had to order myself a new passport as several of the stamps are now unreadable. Volvic you heartless bastards.

The log flume here had a bit of pace to it. Drier than my bag though.

Is that a… a Hafema rapids? Had to assume it’s a Soquet again, but it does have the same crazy whirlpool element, just with less enjoyable wall collision. This became the trip of surprisingly good water rides. Drier than my bag though.

Who needs one log flume when you can have 2? Smaller than the first, but a more intense drop for its size. Drier than my bag though.

Had another go on Gaz Express and some kid in front of me decided to stick his hand/head in the fountains that spray the track mid ride. I got SOAKED by this, but still drier than my bag.

And that was it. The place was turning into a ghost town due to that sports thing and we had a Chunnel to catch. Assume everyone in the terminal was British as there was no reaction to the final result of the match.
Train was delayed as always. People were moaning as always. Burger King was broken as always. That’s enough of that for one year.

France 07/18 – Parc Saint Paul + Parc du Bocasse

We were going hold off a little longer, but the Chunnel booking system for the summer holidays wouldn’t have it any other way. Another obnoxiously early start and battling with closed roads, but for a worthy cause. There’s new wood on the horizon.

Day 1 – Parc Saint Paul

Walked away from this place less than a year ago thinking it was a good little park, but probably won’t be back. Then they had to be awesome and throw together a Gravity woodie out of the blue.

Look at the colour of it. Doesn’t get much newer than that.

They haven’t had the chance to put up a sign yet.

It wasn’t open first thing as they were still hammering some wood onto the lift hill.

And then taking a small group of people with Expedition GeForce, Cedar Point and the wrong coaster crate shirts for a backstage tour + Exclusive Ride Time. Ugh, enthusiasts.

Sadly Wild Train was down all day (the train has gone walkies), so we took the time to reacquaint ourselves with Formule 1.

Pax you crazy beasts. Without the other one in the park for direct comparison, this was a lot better than I remembered. Ridiculous air time in the big drop as well as the silly bunny hill and it rides way smoother than it should.

Their log flume was something different to try. The world’s dinosaur theming craze continues.

Also did this haunted walkthrough, hoping it would house a secret ride or something. The highlight was a piece of vibrating floor which reminded me of Lost Gravity. Good times.

The French were being cheeky and slithering in past a fence earlier than the posted opening time, so we assumed it was all ready.

Gravity you crazy beasts. How can you pack so much into so little? Not being much of a fan of Twister, I had assumed they were a go big or go home manufacturer, but it turns out they really are my boys when it comes to wood.

13, not that I like to count them, moments of very decent air time. Well paced with a good bit of variety, all out of a tiny 49ft drop. And the station is nearly halfway up that height, so it could have potentially done more.
*Insert derogatory Wicker Man comment here*

The trains are cute, no-belt baby Timberliners and it was weird for me to not see them in red. They seem to always be red. Except that one that’s blue. And the one they copied this from.

This park never seems to get particularly busy, and they were operating very well for 1 train of 12 people, so we got plenty of goes out of it with a consistent 10-15 minute queue. Back row was the place to be, just for the extra bonus in the first drop really.

Brilliant investment for the price. Well done Parc Saint Paul.

So what else can we find around this part of the country?

A million cars covered in bike racks and stickers were driving recklessly in the opposite direction to us while a local town ground to a halt, so we got stuck in the Tour de France on the way to the next parc. All part of the culture.

Parc du Bocasse

Celebrating 50 years with Parc du Bocasse seemed like a bit of fun. It was quite a nice place actually. Reminded me of that RCT scenario with the bridge over the road, mainly because it has a bridge over the road.

Minimal dinosaur effort on the first cred. A Zamperla version that does spin. Not bad.
I say this every time now, but it still never got better than Brighton Pier.

I’ve never managed to ride a Soquet before, so this was my first. It’s a fairly inoffensive experience, most comparable to a small French Jet Coaster, but nowhere near as cool.
The V-shaped track and lazy 45 degree up/side-stop wheels kinda bug me.

That leaves the smallest cred. DC rivals colour with a legit IP.

The twisty air time hill looked like it could rival Alpina Blitz, but only managed about as much as Shambhala.

Gave this tower ride a crack as it seemed relatively big and we didn’t recognise who made it. It was surprisingly decent. 3 rounds of 3 upwards shots, the first of each providing a bit of tingling sensation (I’ll leave it to your imagination as to where).

We had spotted what looked like a gem on the way in. Is that a… a Hafema log flume? My boys when it comes to water.

Apparently Splash-O-Saure is made by Soquet and it’s very suspiciously similar to Mami Wata (if that means anything to you). What’s all this about the Chinese copying rides when the French are at it as well.

It does a Tidal Wave to the exit path, soaking the unsuspecting guest, or in the case of a hot day, the ready and willing guest.

Couple more dinosaurs than the cred here.

Dinosaurs crashed a plane.

Or something about time travel? My stamps don’t quite last that long.

One of the staff members at this ride spotted the shirt I was wearing and was either from ‘Parkfan’ or calling me a ‘park fan’ (apologies for me being massively confused and tired at this point).
I assumed the former (but without actually knowing that was a thing) and I kept saying no as if I wasn’t the latter.
The conversation ended with “Kärnan – great ride” with a thumbs up and a nod, so all was well.

Up next: Reverchon vs Zamperla Spinners. The showdown continues.

Day 2

France 07/18 – Nigloland

After a tricky night of finding everything closed (in the usual French fashion) and a quick burst of driving down the wrong side of the road, we set off a little earlier the next morning to hunt down some breakfast, ending up with some tasty Pain of Chocolats. Still doing it right.

Day 2 – Nigloland

The sight of the 5th tallest drop tower in the world surrounded by some trees soon greeted us and we were amongst the first 50 cars or so to arrive at the car park. I was expecting it to get busier throughout the day, but it was all far too easy again.

The world’s most lax bag check followed and we joined the crowd that had just been let in the park, all powering along the main pathway. They eventually all dispersed around us (not sure where to), leaving us with a virtually empty queue for Alpina Blitz. That works.

I’m being spoiled by the number of these Mack Mega trains I’ve sat in this season, they always feel so homely. Being a bit biased, I wanted this to be better than the Intamin almost-equivalent layout, but it never quite matched the ferocity of Piraten, who seems to be a particularly special beast.

I was very happy to learn that it has its slight variations, so at least you get a somewhat different experience out of it other than the trains.

And it is of course still extremely good, for me the best ride in the country by some margin, combining comfort with a punchy mix of strong airtime.

Also wonderfully photogenic and nicely ‘styled’.

Well I do feel like lazing around in the shade too.
But what else do they have on offer here?

Got your standard Mack mouse. This one is offensively smooth, almost to the point where it loses its fun.

Got your standard Wacky Worm. Can’t go wrong there.

Hérissons de la Forêt Magique lets you ride in a cute little hedgehog and has a hint of a dark ride section.

Big wheel. Can’t see a huge amount of the park from up there as it’s so well… vegetated?

Only the big rides stand out from the trees.

Was rather looking forward to the space themed indoor coaster as well, being a big fan of Eurosat (nervous about its refurb).

The spirit lives on in the smaller brother here. Hasn’t quite got the musicality, but it rides like a beast and is a lot of fun.

Also got rather excited for Donjon de l’Extrême, being a big fan of drop towers. And since when do they have pseudo lap bars? It’s also massive and does give you your observational spin at the top first (for those who can bear to look), which is an added bonus.

The drop itself was a tad underwhelming force-wise, as the big ones often are, but it goes on for an age. Got a bit stapled by the restraint on both attempts which may have hindered things a little.

Haunted Mansion was great. A fair amount of obvious Disney inspiration going on, but still of decent quality. Absolutely love the cars, which are just like an ornamental bench on top of a platform. They’re very ‘open’ and give a rather good spin too.

The park Euro-spited themselves here by having a new for 2018 declaration for this ride already on the map. It wasn’t ready.

Powered mine train was a thing. Bonus points for the log flume interaction. Minus points for teasing the log flume, which had the only massive queue all day.

Really liked the park overall.
Nice atmosphere, not overly busy.
Well kept, looks nice – the castle and Swiss areas are simple but effective.
Efficient operations, lots of fancy bag holders actually in use (take note Parc Asterix…) and a couple of smart turnstyles that count down the correct number of people per batch.
Water jets scattered around to keep people cool.
Good ride selection.
Decent food.
Free parking.
No complaints at all really.

Good for you Nigloland.

We returned home through the Channel tunnel that night, but our work in France wasn’t done yet. Due to an exciting new addition at one park, we came back for more a mere 2 weeks later.

France 06/18 – Walygator Parc

Had these parks on the cards for what feels like forever now, but never quite got round to it. They were always toeing the line between too much of an effort to drive and not worth the hassle to fly.
Even after making the effort and getting up at 4am (nutters), life was against us as 90% of the roads on the way to the Chunnel were closed. Made it there 1 minute later than ‘check-in’ but were lucky enough to keep the time slot.
Many hours later…

Day 1 – Walygator Parc

Car park was surprisingly empty, though I do believe it never gets that busy here. Figured it should be an easy job and headed for food first rather than creds. Queued more for the food than any of the rides and then it took about 20 minutes to get a signal on the payment card reader. The staff were friendly, so no harm done. Croissants for breakfast. Baguette for lunch. Doing them proud.

Rides then. Started strong on the faithful family ride. Classic wacky worm but with bonus Walygator face on the train and a rotting apple to decorate. Effort.

Less effort went into the big boy it seems. Temperatures in the high 30s (°C) and no roof on the station wasn’t the best of combinations, but there was never more than a trains worth of queue.

This was my first of the ‘big’ B&M inverts and you can definitely feel the difference in the way it’s all spaced out. Rather than the consistent flurry of forces there’s pauses, strange transitions, extended straights while the train sorts itself out for the next element. Which was weird, but I kinda liked it. Adds a bit of character.

The elements themselves were great. A forceful loop, air-time out of the zero-G, hugely snappy (but never ear-punchy) cobra and corkscrews, and a killer helix to finish (which hilariously makes every single person in the train shout ‘AHHH’ in unison). I imagine the lack of mid course braking helps that second half of the layout a lot. Great stuff.

Bog standard Vekoma looper was bog standard. The layout that inspired so many Chinese classics.

Which leaves L’Anaconda. Expected one of two things going into this, it was either going to be be horribly rough or horribly boring. Managed to not quite achieve either.

The layout is almost pointless, but the train bounced along in a mostly rhythmic and amusing fashion. On the more pronounced moments I could feel just my heart bouncing up and down, but I’ve felt worse sensations on rides. The locals love it, for reasons unknown, and it got a round of applause on return. Normally that’s saved for something particularly special, but who am I to judge?

I lied about the food queue being the longest. The water rides were hugely popular given the weather, but the queues were a good excuse for a bit of shade.

The dinosaur themed rapids is a weird one. Only ride I’ve seen other than Valhalla that has 2 different types of boat in active service. Layout was decent fun and the typical waterfall section was probably the most wet in recent memory with the boat actually ploughing straight into it, rather than teasing along side it as per the usual design.
The Jurassic Park theme was playing here in full force, but there weren’t that many dinosaurs. It’s only Walygator, we’ll let em off.

Speaking of Valhalla.

The log flume was somewhat shorted than expected, comprising of a single drop.

Managed to last until the end of the day (without even noticing the time fly by) by spacing out the intense laps on Monster and I didn’t mind the park as a whole, as it has a certain crummy charm about it. They were announcing the live progress of the French team in their world cup game while guests were on the rides, to the sounds of cheers or groans, so they know how to crowd please.

Spotted this on the way out, which I thought was a very nice touch. They’ve got a bit of a museum building with some park history.

A B&M wheel, not for sale.

I remember him.

Walibi Schtroumpf. Gotta be the best Walibi park name.

Monster was relocated from Japan. No mean feat for a ride of that size.

Many people were gathering outside the park and sweating profusely in preparation for a semi-marathon.
The car at this point, perhaps falsely, reported the outside temperature at 50°C as we got back in for another couple of hours drive to the hotel.
Who were the real nutters here?

Day 2

France 07/19 – Walibi Rhône-Alpes

Day 2 – Walibi Rhône-Alpes

Another scorcher of a day found us caught up with hilarious car park antics in which 50% of the locals would outright ignore the staff directing them into parking spaces and do their own thing, mess it up because it was a tight squeeze, then speed off in disgust only to instantly get stuck behind pedestrians heading towards the entrance.

With that fun out of the way we headed in to the great 40th birthday present that this park decided to give themselves.

Mystic is a very pretty ride to be around.

I like the detail of the little cemetery entrance to the area (complete with mist) and the station looks amazing.

Inside is cool as well. The return of the themed bookcase baggage holders. Front of the trains with their voodoo dolls are also a joy to behold.

First impressions in the front of the train were really good. The twisted, almost-vertical drop kicks ass and you’re thrown into a weirdly shaped top hat reminiscent of Lost Gravity.

Only some zero-Gs in the world are beautifully executed. This is one of them.

Then you dive loop past the turntable and station into a weird airtimey banked corner (which is even better backwards).

And up into this ridiculous thing. Perfectly on my limit of upside down-ness to be in hysterics and clapping rather than holding my head and shouting. Love it.

Backwards from there is really cool but a little too short and ends on my only real gripe with the ride in that it brakes a little too harshly on the backwards pass of the turntable. Seems like it would have been easy for it to shuttle back into the dive loop a bit more for that last little kick, but it falls short of that and then you’re done.

Proper good stuff though. Gerstlauer are definitely on the up with these things.

The park was beginning to fill a bit and we only (if we were being sensible) had half a day to avoid another chunnel mishap so it was time to mop up the creds.

Coccinelle lives on here after Walibi Belgium spited their own. Such a good name for the English to say.

Bypassed the Boomerang queue as it looked deeply unpleasant.

Straight to the other main event then. First thing I notice upon entering the queue is that the audio shouts TIIIIIIIMBERRRRR! as the train takes the drop. Nice.

Baby Gravity Groups always pack a punch and this one is no exception. Every one of its hills was properly chucking me out of the seat in a joyous fashion and it was nice to see the variety of some little twisty banked ones as well in such a tiny layout.

Problem is that it feels short. Really short. It enters the return run section of the layout and you start to really get into it thinking ‘oh yes, here we go.’ Then it trims in a double down and ends abruptly. Hilariously abruptly. We just burst out laughing at the unexpectedness.

For me, both Twister and Wood Express had that feeling of the ride going on really long for how tiny the drop is, and you admire them for it. Somehow they didn’t manage that here. But the sensations it does give are amazing and potentially the strongest of the three.

Woodstock Express was a sufferance being the longest queue of the day. Turns out I’ve never done one of these Zamperla versions of the standard wild mouse before so that was the slightest of upsides.

It’s just a poorly built copy of the standard layout really. The shaping is off in a lot of places and what happened to the usual big airtime at the end here?

The Boomerang queue was now slightly less unpleasant but still very slow and filled with sunburn. They’ve got the weird metal lap bars on this one, but apparently it isn’t done by the same people as the one at Wiener Prater (the one I kinda like).
Instead these are virtually impossible to climb into. I spent the first 15 seconds trying to manouevre my foot in between/over/round the bars while my friend was about to be trapped in the airgate. Makes getting into Colossus look easy.

After somehow contorting into the contraption, away we went. It takes more tactical bracing this way – tightly gripping the handles in front to stop yourself falling stomach first into metal and to stop the handles themselves destroying your legs. If you can put up with all that it’s a slightly better Boomerang experience, but it still isn’t really enjoyable. Apparently it was meant to have raving soundtrack like Speed of Sound as well, but it didn’t at this time.

With not long left in our day we thought we had to be a bit tactical with rerides, starting with another go on Timber in the back which was even better. Luckily the queue boards were wildly overestimating and both major attractions had actually quietened since earlier. Either people finish with this place very quickly or it had just got too hot and they had given up/gone to the water park.

So we ended on with several almost walk-on goes with Mystic, which also felt even better in the back. Then on the last lap I got stung in the lip by something while travelling at around50Mph. Worth it.

Sadly it was then time to leave this great little park, which seems really up and coming with their lineup now containing a very solid one-two punch. Could have stayed on them all day, but unfortunately it’s just too remote a location to allow for that with the time we had. Walibi as a chain do seem to know what they’re doing these days.

A grim 7 hour drive followed and then for the first time we actually got put onto an earlier chunnel instead of getting stuck in Burger King for 4 hours. Amazing.
I might just slither again before the year is out.

France 07/19 – Parc Le Pal

The summer chunnel officially became a tradition this year, but we’re having to delve deeper into the country each time to get something notable out of it. Fortunately France seems to be on the up when it comes to good investments recently, so lets check a couple of them out.

Day 1 – Parc Le Pal

For some reason the main road to this park from Calais takes you directly through the middle of Paris, which was less than ideal given the length of the drive. There were wild plans of a more ambitious cred run on the cards, but we arrived already overtired and stupidly hot in the middle of the afternoon and only just about managed to drag our feet into this place.

In anticipation of greater plans (or not wanting to suffer queues in the heat, as previously experienced on July weekends in France) we had also picked up a fastrack deal online as it was only 6 euros on top of entry to skip 6 of the major ride queues. The system was unusual, using a pink plastic wristband that had tear-off tokens – one for each ride. It was a little tricky to do from your own arm, particularly while expectant ride staff are watching you struggle and operations are being held up.

Did you know that Reverchon made something other than a spinner? Well here’s one of them. Look at that beautiful B&M inspiring drop entry.

It’s a respectable enough family coaster. More interesting than your standard Vekoma Junior entry.

Good face on the train, asian themed station, what more could you want?

From there we skipped the queue for Azteka, which broke down in front of us. Don’t be spitey Soquet.

Talking of spitey, thought we’d better get the Intamin out of the way. It’s a French clone of Juvelen – Sascha Czibulka’s favourite ride.

I like Juvelen a lot. It packs a real punch for the size and target audience. The turns can get really forceful, there’s a couple of whippy transitions and the second launch really grabs and drags you hard.

Yukon Quad doesn’t quite meet the theming standards of the original. The preshow contains only revving noises and smoke rather than statues jiggling their spears.

The outside area looks to be nicer, but doesn’t really manage it on ride. There’s a bit more consistent landscaping throughout with the rockwork and it’s all a lot more accessible for pictures – you can get around the outside of most of the layout. But the rocks are just there, where Juvelen has the archways/pillars and water features that give significant interaction to riders before it becomes a field at the end.

We then stumbled back on Azteka the very second it happened to reopen. This park has a good train face game – love this one even more.

It might be my new favourite Soquet (sorry Gaz Express). It moves with a real sense of purpose, it has character and it kicks some ass. The ride starts off bigger than I expected, helixing then hurtling down that first drop. Some forceful and shaky turns follow before a Shambhala style zero-F (Force) hill, rounded off by another helix with square corners. Quality.

Talking of quality, it time to get the final coaster in the park, a Mack Spinning coaster. I was going to say French Dwervelwind, but this version was built first first, so French Dutch Twist.

It lacks the on-board sound of its twin and we only gave it one opportunity (where Dwervy was only really good in 1 out of 3 attempts), but this one grabbed that single chance and rode very well for us.

Forceful spinning, twisty layout. There’s a fun little lurch in a sharp downwards transition that I haven’t noticed before. It is a bit too short though, ending with a underwhelming sense of abruptness just as you really get into it.

Creds complete, we considered the Disko purely for the sake of fully utilising our wristbands but it had no queue to skip anyway and they aren’t particularly pleasant rides.

Did this instead because it amuses. Didn’t know there were so many of them, my King Kong flat ride count is up to 3!

The water rides were also included in the big 6 rides, so took a courtesy lap on them, skipping the most significant queues of the park due to the weather. It all paid off nicely.

Log flume was short and mostly pointless. Potentially the same as Walygator’s, realising as it sets off that it’s just a bit of meandering before a single drop.

The Rapids was alright. A bit on the tame side and not wet enough for a hot day. The manufacturer, Soquet, didn’t try and channel the spirit of Hafema here sadly.

As it was too hot for more rides, impressed a staff lady with my French and had some ice cream instead.

Then checked out the animals. For normal people, this place is actually more zoo than amusement park.

Too hot for snow leopards. Poor thing.

Too hot for elephants? Probably, they were covering themselves in dust and then trying to topple this tree.

Too hot for more.

And that was Le Pal. Liked it more than I had anticipated from when I only knew it as the park that irked me by getting a Juvelen clone. Nice little place to spend half a day.

Day 2