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JULY 2019
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Flight Time
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Inspiration
character in the park at over 75 feet long.
You enter a dark, spooky cavern to find the
slumbering dragon, who then moves and lets
out the occasional roar accompanied by a puff
of smoke – much to the delight of Leo, who
insisted on repeated visits.
There are shops galore (we went home
laden with toys and a
Frozen
balloon), but
the most interesting for me was the Culture
Vintage corner in the Disney Fashion Store
in Disney Village. Culture Vintage selects
and recycles second-hand Disney clothes and
accessories, giving them a new lease of life
so you can buy – and wear – a little piece of
history. There are over 1,000 unique pieces,
dating back to the 1970s – for instance,
you can find the Mickey Euro Disney red
sweatshirt released for the opening of the
theme park in 1992.
The Disney Park is split into four areas –
Fantasyland, Discoveryland, Adventureland
and Frontierland, and Fantasyland has the
biggest concentration of rides for young
children, so that’s where we headed. First up,
we visited the colourful It’s A Small World,
which I remembered from my Disneyland
visit all those years ago. We climbed aboard
boats and sailed along the Seven Seaways
Waterway, where a cast of almost 300
traditionally-dressed dolls from around the
world sing a maddeningly-catchy song about
universal peace in their native language.
Toy Story Playland was a must for Leo,
who’s a huge
Toy Story
fan. He enjoyed
the Slinky Dog ride, and we watched the
Parachute Drop, which towers 80 feet above
the park and echoes the Green Army Soldiers
scene where they parachute down the stairs
to inspect Andy’s birthday presents. The
highlight for Leo, though, was having his
photograph taken with Buzz Lightyear.
We rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, soared
the London night sky with Peter Pan’s flight,
saw the Seven Dwarves on Snow White’s
ride and whirled gently in the Mad Hatter’s
Tea Cups.
We rounded the day off with the 4D
Ratatouille
: The Experience ride. Based on the
film of the same name, you enter the world
of Gusteau’s famous Parisian restaurant, but
shrunk down to rat size. One minute you’re
being chased by the cooks in the kitchen
and terrifying the dining room, the next
you’re scampering over the Paris rooftops. A
brilliant experience.
As well as the rides, there are live shows,
the daily parade and fantastic evening fireworks
– too much fun to fit into one day, sadly.
Dinner was at the amazing, jungle-
themed tropical Rainforest Café. In fact, it
was so amazing that it was difficult to keep
Leo in his seat for more than a few minutes
before he was off again to see the life-sized
gorilla pounding his chest in the bushes and
the trumpeting elephant rearing his head,
accompanied by sounds of far-off thunder
and cascading waterfalls. Then there were
the huge aquariums of tropical fish. The food
was good, too!
It was live animals that were the order of
the day in the morning, when we made the
30-minute journey to Lumigny. Earlier this
year, Parc des Félins and its neighbour Terre
de Mones, a few minutes’ walk from each
other, decided to combine their knowledge
and skills under the name Parcs Zoologiques
de Lumigny (
www.parcs-zoologiques-lumigny.
fr
). The first is the world specialist in captive
“Sleeping
Beauty’s
castle is the
only one with
a dragon in
its dungeon”