What does Bart say? – A Theme Park blog!

In the first week of June I travelled to France to visit the centre of Paris, Jardin d’Acclimatation, Foire du Trône, Mer de Sable and Parc Astérix! Parc Astérix is a park that stood on my bucket list for years. Not only because the park is beautifully themed, but also because one of my bucket list roller coasters can be found in this park: OzIris. I spent two days in Parc Astérix and stayed overnight in the hotel ‘The Quays of Lutèce’. Did Park Astérix live up to my expectations? Find out now in.. What does Bart say about.. Parc Astérix and hotel ‘The Quays of Lutèce’ 🍶

On the day of arrival, I stayed at a nearby hotel, which meant I arrived at ‘The Quays of Lutèce’ around 9 a.m., plenty of time to check in calmly and walk to the park for the extra park hours. A few days before your arrival you will receive an email from the park containing extra information about your stay and the option to check in online. I highly recommend checking in online this reduces the time you need at the reception. If you inform the receptionist that you have checked in online, you will receive additional information about your stay (this information has also been sent to you by email). Keep in mind that most of the employees don’t have English as their main language, there are English-speaking receptionists. My compliments to the receptionist, he apologised a couple of times for his English (and so did I for not speaking French), but his explanation was very clear. And he was able to answer the questions I had, well done!

If you have luggage with you, it is possible to store it at the hotel (there is a separate room for this behind the reception desk). I did not use this service because my car was parked fairly close to the hotel entrance. If you are staying at the hotel during a busier period, it is advisable to use this service. Once checked in, it was finally time to get to the park. As a hotel guest, you can take advantage of early park hours (30 minutes earlier access to selected attractions, indicated at the reception). Feeling somewhat nervous, I walked outside with the intention of heading straight to the park until I encountered Vitalstatistix and Impedimenta. If you have read my previous blogs, you know that I am a fan of characters in the park, especially when the park revolves around characters from the Astérix and Obelix comics. After a brief meeting, it was finally time to go to Parc Astérix.

The first few steps I took into Parc Astérix felt a bit surreal. After years I finally stepped foot in the park that had been on my bucket list for years. One of the attractions that was already open for hotel guests at 9:30 a.m. was Toutatis, the park’s newest roller coaster. While most hotel guests headed for Toutatis, I calmly walked over to OzIris. The grey clouds didn’t make the area any prettier, but I didn’t care at that moment. I was face to face with the roller coaster I’ve wanted to ride for years! Wow! With half an hour early access to the park, the wait time for OzIris was only 5 minutes. The OzIris queue is very themed, but I didn’t notice that during my first walk through the queue. My only focus was on riding the roller coaster I’ve wanted to ride for years. After riding Black Mamba, Nemesis Reborn and Nemesis Inferno, I had high expectations of OzIris, and after my first ride, I have to admit that OzIris disappointed me a little. Perhaps I had too high expectations of OzIris. My first ride was in row 4, unfortunately not in the front or back row (which may have played a role). Still, I expected the roller coaster to be more intense than it was. With a waiting time of 5 minutes, I spent the first half hour in Parc Astérix on several rides on OzIris, including a front and back row ride. And after several front row rides, I started to like OzIris more, but it ranks much lower in my top 10 than I had expected (or hoped). Something worth mentioning about OzIris is row 4. Row 4 does include a big seat which means OzIris can be enjoyed by a wider audience, this is something I haven’t seen at the other B&M inverts, well done Parc Astérix!

Oziris may well be the eye-catcher in the Egyptian themed area, but for visitors who find Oziris just a little too intense, there is also plenty to do. For credit hunters, there is a Zierer Tivoli (with a mirrored layout, and if I am not mistaken), various flat rides, catering facilities and a water attraction: “L Oxygénarium”. If you’re lucky, you’ll encounter Cleopatra near her throne, where a short show is performed.

Although Parc Astérix is based on the comic books of Astérix and Obelix, you don’t need to know the back story of these best friends to understand where the attractions are based on. If you’re curious to learn more about the back story on Astérix and Obelix I recommend visiting L’ Aventure Astérix. This exhibit shows how the Astérix and Obelix comics came to life, and a model halfway through the exhibit shows the attractions on which the attractions are based. Definitely worth visiting the exhibit  if you have time to spare during your visit to Parc Astérix! 

If you learned more about Astérix and Obelix, I recommend a visit to the Gallic village, this village is around the corner from L’ Aventure Astérix. Here you have the opportunity to have your picture taken with Astérix and Obelix, and if you are lucky you will run into other villagers. Astérix and Obelix are very interactive, and the member of staff is willing to take your photo if you like.Your photo will also be professionally taken, and you will be able to buy this photo in high quality for €20,00 after your meet and greet.

Festival Toutatis is the park’s newest themed area, this area opened in 2023 with a new restaurant, playground for the younger ones, a Zemperla Nebulaz and ofcourse Toutis (whats in the name?). Many roller coaster enthusiasts I have talked to have Toutatis in their top 10, or sometimes even in their top 3 roller coasters. As with OzIris, my expectations were high for this coaster. Toutatis amazed me from the first few seconds. Not only is the decoration in the queue beautiful but the ride itself is very intense. And the reverse launch on the spike, amazing! Toutatis is sometimes compared to Taron, but I cannot make this comparison. Both roller coasters are LSM Launch coasters by Intamin, but both are unique in their own way and for me cannot be compared to each other. Toutatis failed to knock Taron off my No. 1, but Toutatis is good for my No. 2. I have had a frontrow and a backrow ride at Toutatis, and I must say I find it hard to say which I like better, both have something unique. If I have to choose I will go for the backrow, especially after the 3rd launch, once at the top you feel the train being pulled along to the bottom, and that feeling is something that is hard to describe, you have to experience it.

From the queue, I saw that Getafix and Cacofonix were walking around the area, and as you read earlier, I need to have my picture taken with a character when I get that chance. Fortunately, both characters were still present in the area when I came out of Toutatis full of adrenaline, and I was able to take a photo with both gentlemen. If you know the stories of Astérix and Obelix you probably know how the characters are supposed to behave, and they really lived up to their characters. Cacofonix is very vain, when I wanted to take a picture alone with Getafix he quickly jumped in front of the camera to photobomb us, well played Cacofonix.

Just outside Festival Toutatis you will find Trace du Hourra, a bobsled coaster by Mack Rides. This bobsled is anything but smooth, I have done many roller coasters, but I really needed a break after my ride on Trace du Hourra. It’s great to see that the parks still maintain the coaster, despite the un-smooth experience. But this is a one and done for me. Should you get the chance to ride Trace du Hourra, take it! It could just be that this roller coaster is leaving any year now (after seeing them removed, or rumoured to be removed in the other parks where they still operate a bobsled coaster). Fun fact: after riding Trace du Hourra I have ridden all operational bobsled coasters in Europe.

You can’t always have the best roller coasters in your park, especially when  you have eight operating roller coasters and a 9th opening later this season. Movie Park Germany has ‘Bandit’, Walibi Holland has ‘Condor’ and Parc Astérix has ‘Goudurix’. To pass judgment, you have to have ridden Goudurix, and with the motto ‘a cred is a cred’, I also took a ride on Goudurix, I was told that Goudurix was rough, but with this years investment in new trains I stepped  in the queue with positive hopes. I don’t mind a rough coaster; it’s part of the experience. And there isn’t much that can go wrong.. right? During my visit it was very quiet in the park, and seeing empty spaces in a train was not only the case with Goudurix, but also with the other roller coasters and or attractions. After my ride on Goudurix I know why it was running trains with empty seats.. it may be quiet in the park but this thing is rough, and not in a fun way. The park might have invested in new trains, but they need to do way more to make Goudurix a comfortable coaster. I hope to see a full retrack for Goudurix, like what Efteling did in 2017 with Python. The layout is fun, and it’s an eyecatcher in the park. I prefer to ride Trace du Hourra again, then Goudurix, and that says a lot.

From one rough roller coaster to the other: Tonnerre 2 Zeus. This wooden roller coaster has one of the most iconic entrances you will see. If you have nerves for your ride on Tonnerre 2 Zeus I’m pretty sure your nerves will disappear when you walk underneath the legs of Zeus. If you taunt Zeus he looks at you angrily, but he has a small, good heart and you can see that reflected in his happy underpants, look at these ducks! Wooden roller coasters are not exactly known as the smoothest roller coasters, and Tonnerre 2 Zeus is anything but that, but what a ride this is. My first ride was front row which allowed me to see all the elements of the roller coaster coming at me. And that first drop, my initial reaction isn’t worth repeating here but I was nervous, scared and excited at the same time. The drop is very steep down straight into a dark tunnel with light effects meant to represent Zeus’ thunder. And the elements that followed were amazing, especially the 45° turn I didn’t see coming. Tonnerre 2 Zeus is surprisingly a very long coaster which surprised me. Tonnerre 2 Zeus is located at the edge of the park which makes the layout hard to see while you’re in the park. The only way to see the full layout is from the skybar: L’Aérolaf.

Speaking of L’Aérolaf, I do love a drink and having a cocktail at 35 metres high sounds like it sounds like fun, having a drink this heigh, until you reach the 35 meters point, with just a belt holding you and your legs dangling above the ground. I can tell you, with the wind starting to pick up, I was glad to be back on the ground after +- 10 minutes with both feet. I was way too scared to grab my phone at this altitude, everyone riding with me took their phone out, and all I thought about was.. what if it drops down now. All in all, it is an experience I had to experience, and on my next visit to Parc Astérix I will probably visit L’Aérolaf again only if it is not too windy and preferably with nice sunshine instead of gray skies.

Parc Astérix has, besides the almost 9 roller coasters, many unique flat rides. As a park you need flat rides to spread the crowds through the park, while during my visit most queue times didn’t go over 15 minutes (with some exceptions) I had to ride some of these flat rides. Normally I spend my time on roller coasters and thrill rides, but with these queue times I had plenty of time left to ride them without the fear of running out of time. One of the flatrides I think are worth mentioning is the Diskobelix. It remains a debate whether the Zamperla Disk’O is a roller coaster or not, in my opinion it is not, hence I discuss Diskobelix under flatrides. This probably has to be the most beautiful Disk’O Coaster I have ever seen. The designer of this attraction used the attraction type well to make this a fitting ride. A Disk’O is usually not the most beautiful attraction to put in your park, but Parc Astérix has appropriately themed the ride, station and queue.

As a credit hunter, you prefer to get all the credits in one day so you can take it easy on your second day, revisit your favourite attractions, and maybe ride the missed flatrides from day one. So after my ride on Diskobelix I made my way to the Pégase Express. Whereas queues fluctuate between 5-15 minutes all day, the Pégase Express queue took around 25-30 minutes. In retrospect I would have been better off doing this credit on my 2nd day, there were more trains running on the layout then and the operations seemed a lot better than the first. But as said, you don’t want to take that risk so I was glad I already had the credit. And a re-ride was nice on my 2nd day. All in all, the Pégase express is a fun family coaster, long and a nice surprise halfway through the ride. Tip: don’t watch a POV of this roller coaster and keep this as a surprise.

Pégase express and Diskobelix, are located in the Greek-themed section of the park. In addition to these attractions, the themed area includes several flat rides, another Zierer roller coaster (Vol D’lcare), catering, stores and a dive show (check the digital map in the park or the app for current show times). I did not visit the dive show, like most shows in the park, this show only speaks French, and to be honest.. a dive show I have seen several parks already and often they are similar. The Greek-themed area felt like visiting Europa-Park and I immediately felt like going there (August is still a few weeks away, but the countdown has started). Both parks probably were inspired by the white with blue houses in Santorini, I never been to Santorini, or Greece in general but it might be worth looking into a trip there (or just revisit this one, closer and probably cheaper). This part of the park does live the most, as it is compact with catering, attractions and entertainment. I can say with certainty that this is one of my favourite spots in Parc Astérix.

You can tell that Parc Astérix values their merchandise, the newer attractions have a small store with merchandise and/or a photo booth where you can buy your attraction photo and some selected items from the attraction (like shirts and mugs). The big stores with merchandise, and there are a number of them, are located at the entrance/exit to the park. Most merchandise items are reasonably priced, and a nice added benefit is the 10% discount you receive in the stores as a resort guest. The prices are slightly higher than at any other theme parks, but the prices for merchandise are still very affordable, and of course I had to bring something home. If you’re staying in one of the hotels I recommend buying merchandise in the park. If you are staying at one of the hotels, the park offers the opportunity to send your merchandise to the hotel reception desk. In ‘Les Quais de Lutèce’ I haven’t discovered a souvenir store.

During your stay, dinner is not included (breakfast is), a few days before your stay you will receive an email with a booking ID, you can use this to make a reservation for dinner and breakfast (don’t wait too long, this way you avoid that desired time slot).  Parc Asterix offers several options for dinner in the park, but I chose to dine at the hotel.I am a picky eater, but here I even had the option from a variety of vegetables, meat and side dishes. There was plenty of choice, and as soon as something ran out and was immediately replenished. The staff were also open to questions, and each dish indicated what it was in French and English. Dinner is a running buffet (drinks not included). With the wide range of hot and cold dishes (and plenty of different desserts!)I definitely recommend reserving a table for dinner if you’re staying at ‘Les Quais de Lutèce’. After dinner you could head to the hotel bar where they offer a range of drinks including signature cocktails. Anastasia was our bartender and, with the right questions, she offered the perfect cocktail to end the night. Should you meet her during your stay, give her my regards ;)!

During my stay breakfast was included, normally my breakfast consists of a cup of coffee, and maybe a bowl of yogurt, but when breakfast is included I have to take a look at what is offered. Like dinner, there is a wide selection of breakfast. Various warm and cold buns and sandwiches, croissants (you are in France after all), pancakes, various fruits, yogurt and toppings for bread (sweet and savory). They even offer a full English breakfast.  I am very pleased with the breakfast, although I have one small criticism and that is the coffee maker, there was only one available at that time, which caused long lines for coffee. Parc Astérix should you be reading along, I’m sure you can come up with something on this.

My first experience with Hotel ‘Les Quais de Lutèce’ and Parc Astérix were great!Hotel ‘Les Quais de Lutèce’ is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a full hotel/park experience. The rooms are spacious and if you book in advance you can benefit from discounts on your stay. For me, Parc Asterix is not a park I want to go to every year, but it is certainly a park to visit once every few years. My top 3 roller coasters have changed because of this visit (welcome to the top 3 Toutatis)! Unfortunately, Cétautomatix was not yet open during our visit, but this roller coaster looks very promising and I already can’t wait to ride it during my next visit. Getting back to the question, did Parc Astérix live up to my expectations? Yes they did!

If you travel to France to visit Parc Astérix, or any of the previous parks I wrote about, I wish you lots of fun. With this blog about Parc Astérix comes an end to my series of blogs from France.

Thanks for reading and until the next one!
Bart