Paris PTR

[caffeine_demon]

A couple of weekends ago I had a long weekend in Paris

DAY 1 - Parc St Paul

Took the overnight coach from london to paris, dropped my luggage in the lockers at Gare du Nord and got the train to beauvais.

Beauvais was a nice little town, and worth the hour or 2 I spent before getting the bus to the park - I took this picture of an amusingly named shop

There are 2 or 3 buses a day that go to the park from the bus station in beavais (about 200m from the train station), although the timings worked so that I either had just over an hour there or 5 hours.

this is the sight that greets you at the entrance

and the kiddy drop tower just to the right

First ride of the trip was the "maison foldingue"

a cute little family spinny ride

it spins and giggles and makes fart noises!

(when it farts it emits the mist you see above, and a rather strange sweet smell!)

Next up was the Telepherique - the rather strange aerial slide

cred or not, it was a fun ride, and quite scary holding on when you're a bit on the weighty side!

the little disks which you stand on

I didn't do the mini mouse coaster (zamperla)

or the family coaster(big apple)

as I'd done similar before, and I'm not THAT much of a creho

and I had to do the walk of shame on this little boat ride...

onto the coasters:
Wild train was a pretty good fun, compact family coaster (by PAX)

The "souris verte" (green mouse), spun lots and lots and lots!

and I was a bit dizzy when done!

There was also a nice drop tower

NICE TOUCH:

The stairway on the right is actually part of a viewing platform that goes around the tower.

the star ride was Formule 1 (also PAX)

a wild mouse type ride with a super steep lift hill

outwards tilting track

and insane slam you into the lap bar airtime on this 2 stage hill

after all this, I realised I could either leave on the bus in 20 minutes, or stay for another 4 and a half hours - I decided to get the next bus back, although I'd have liked another hour there - there just wasn't enough to keep me there for 4 more hours! (on the way back I realised I'd missed the haunted castle and 3d thingy)

 

[caffeine_demon]

DAY 2 part 1
For Bastille day morning, I thought it would be really busy and decided to go to one of the lesser known attractions in paris

I took this picture from the walk there:

It was this little tower thing -

I can't remember the name - anyone know?

I joined the queue, and 2 hours later I had my ticket

and got in the lift to the first of the 2 floors

the first floor had nice views:

structure porn

and a queue for the lift to the top

The top floor had more views:

is it just me, or does this look a little phallic?

You can also see this rather cool 2 level road / rail bridge

I had a rather average pizza lunch, which wasn't too terribly priced at about 6 euros, although I didn't bother with a cold drink as they were 5 euros for a bottle of coke! Coffee wasn't too bad at 2.5 euros - so I had one of those!

I also bought some "eiffel sours"

I made sure I didn't leave anything behind

and then walked down the stairs - I can recommend this as it gives a good impression of the scale of the thing!

The tower had this big shiny dangly metal ball! - Maybe part of the bastille day fireworks

 

[caffeine_demon]

DAY 2 part 2 - Jardin D'acclimatation

After spending most of the day at the eiffel tower, I went for a couple of hours in this nice little city centre park.

It's a five minute walk from the tube stop "les sablons" or there's a mini train that goes from somewhere near the "porte maillot" RER/tube stops - I couldn't find the station (and rather cleverly, left my map in the hotel) so walked.
the train station in the park:

I was thinking of getting the train back, but it wasn't running just before closing time.

It's a nice large green park with a few smaller areas for rides

Entry is 3 euros, ride tickets are 2euros70

First coaster was Tacot express

A nice little powered coaster by Soquet

There was also the dragon - another Soquet coaster:

SPLASHDOWNS!

NOM NOM NOM! (looks fierce, doesn't it?)

RAHRRRR!

Both these were 1 token each, however, I got to the spinning coaster:

and saw

CALL THE POLICE, We're being robbed!!

There were also some flat rides, and a strangely disorientating mirror maze, and just what every park needs:

Exercise equipment - in case you have to do any walks of shame

Oh - and some wildlife:

mmm - worms!

I JUST SAW A G-G-G-G-GHOST!!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Day 3 - Parc Asterix

Thinking it would be very busy on the sunday after bastille day, I splashed out on the premium passes - queues weren't too bad at all - only Oziris topped the hour mark - so I could have got away without them - even if it was great to get on the big rides a few times. One word on the premium passes, is that you enter via the exit ramps - and they usually ask where you want to sit - I couldn't find where it was on the madhouse, it's not that obvious!

I guess everyone's waiting for an Oziris review - so here goes.

The ride isn't as forceful as nemesis or batman, but it does have some lovely pops of airtime throughout - I'd describe it as a kind of "troy with inversions" - which I think is a pretty good thing - I really enjoyed it, had 4 rides, I think row 5 (or was it 6?) gave the best ride..

Also - it looks lovely!

and an arty shot!

Also - it's the only ride there which has a loose article drop off - all other coasters you have to take your bags with you.

first rides were the spinny flat ride hydra, and Vol D'Icare - a strange Zierer coaster, which was decent fun

and then on to transdemonium

a rather strange dark ride

Wasn't too sure about it to be honest - didn't wow me like Brean or the haunted house at knoebels

Next up - Trace du hourra

Was ok - but I still think avalanche in blackpool is the best bobsled coaster!

SOS Numerobis is next to oziris, and is what you expect from a zierer medium tivoli...

Goudurix looks awesome

but rides like it wants to snap your neck! (particularly in the first 4 inversions)

Tonnerre de zeus was a ride I was really looking forward to

definitely better in the front, but rather disappointing - not much airtime

looks like zeus is about to smite a duck!

I then plucked up the shame to ride ronde des rondins

Glad I did - it was surprisingly fun!

Another main attraction is the Vekoma Madhouse - there are 2 preshow rooms, the second one is a sort of "hydrotherapy" room and is rather lovely! (no pictures - seems I forgot to take pics!

Other rides included - l'espions de cesar

a monorail thing - don't bother with the pedals as they don't seem to do much

one of those circle boat ride thingies

the park also had a dountain area for kids:

lots of shops:

odd signs

and nice theming

The premium passes included a 3 course meal in the fruitbowl themed restaurant

you only had a choice on the main course, but the starter and desserts were fixed.

 

[davidm]

Where is the entrance to that ghost train thingy?

('cos I totally missed that the other month when I was there... amateur! - I recall the big blue face thingy but there were just shut doors and poeple hiding from the rain inside that face - is that the exit?)

 

[caffeine_demon]

the blue face is the exit - the pic above with the "gate" is the entrance!

 

[davidm]

Yes I understand that, the key thing in my Q was "where" is the entrance? ;-)

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

So angry, I didn't realize there were three creds near a tube stop in Paris! How disappointing! I did manage to snag a Big Apple at a fair when I was there though.

Nice reports! I really wish I had the chance to go to Asterix; it looks pretty fab.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Yes I understand that, the key thing in my Q was "where" is the entrance? ;-)

ahh
head back towards the pirate ship, and it's next to some turrets - i think!!

 

[peep]

the park also had a dountain area for kids:

Wow, they got that finished and open quickly, that was just a big building site when I went a couple of months back. I love those new little islands with things for kids, brilliant idea and just completes that area of the park.

Sounds like you had a really good time. Nice PTR

 

[nadroJ]

Yay, cool PTR! I'm doing a similar sort of thing soon, hope it's as fun as yours looked =]

 

[davidm]

head back towards the pirate ship, and it's next to some turrets - i think!!

Right found it now thanks;

http://goo.gl/maps/m3XZ7

How on Earth did I miss that, must have walked past it (through those turrets) a dozen times! :shock:
Muppet I am.

 

[CookieCoasters]

Did you ride any water rides? If you didn't you missed out on an amazing log flume with Menhir Express and a pretty awesome spillwater with Le Grande Splash. Rapids is pretty rubbish, you missed nothing with that.

 

[marc]

If you missed all the water rides you actually missed nothing at all.

Found the same as you on Zues, no airtime despite people saying there was loads.

 

[caffeine_demon]

I did grand spatch and missed on the flume as it had been raining a bit!