Home » France » Disneyland Paris

You enter the park at the Disneyland Hotel, a remarkable confection of pink and purple...

Disneyland Paris

Hank Shiffman
2003-11-26 17:47:38

Displayed times (last time: )

How could I refuse a request to substitute for a colleague at a CAD conference in Paris? I couldn't. Then I discovered that the conference was at Disneyland in Paris and I had second thoughts. But these are the sacrifices we computing professionals have to make. And with a day free between my arrival and the talk, off I went to discover what kind of stew you get when you serve up Disney's white bread view of Americana with a seasoning of Gallic sensibility. (What do you think? Did I push that last metaphor too far?)

You enter the park at the Disneyland Hotel, a remarkable confection of pink and purple. The hotel is supposed to be magnificent and one of the finest hotels in the country. Unfortunately, you don't actually get to see inside; the entrance takes you through tunnels beneath the hotel. I never did spot the entrance. I guess they don't want ordinary tourists intruding on the ambience.

Once inside the park you're faced with Main Street, USA. At first it seems like a close recreation of the one at the Anaheim park. But I don't remember quite so much gingerbready detail on the buildings. That turns out to have been a good introduction to the park: it's like the original and then again it isn't. There are all these little details that I suspect seem familiar to the locals at the same time that they seem the tiniest bit exotic to me.

The castle is another big surprise. It's a lot sillier than the American versions, with its towers that end in court jester caps. Which makes me wonder: is it really less realistic? Or am I so used to the American Disney version that I think that's how a castle is supposed to look?

Of all the areas of the original park, Tomorrowland was the one that dated the fastest. Its view of the future was trapped in the 50s, which is not a place I particularly want to hang out. The Parisian version of ...