These were the words of the chorus for the main song of the Disney Parade, and thus after our 2 day excursion to DisneyLand Paris, we had this on repeat in our heads. Except of course for Hannah, who instead was singing “It’s chestnut leaves”, but that’s another story.
But it got me thinking, I wonder if DisneyLand Paris is anything like the French were dreaming it would be when they agreed to have it in their country? Don’t get me wrong – I loved it; we loved it. I’ll admit to being a bit of a Disney fan, and we had an awesome 2 days: both Abby and Hannah loved the songs, the dances, meeting the characters, and some of the easier rides; while both their parents had a ball on Space Mountain, Tower of Terror etc etc – for one of us it was the first time on an upside down roller coaster – very cool!
But it’s not very French. In fact it’s not French at all. All the signs are in French as well as English, but that’s about the only way you’d know it had anything to do with France. All of the announcements and most of the songs are also in German and Spanish – which is quite amusing and means all the routines are about 4 times as long! – so in fact you could be almost anywhere in Europe, except for the fact that you’re in DisneyLand, which is just oh so American!
So it’s kind of bizarre that a country that prides itself on its culture and it’s language, and is renowned for being particular unhelpful towards those who don’t speak French (although to be fair, we've found this to be very untrue) would agree to host an enormous theme park for a company that has made a fortune taking lovely European fairy tales, and turning them into populist cartoon rubbish for a nation that probably believes French Fries are the height of French cuisine.
Yet they do it amazingly well. They have the infrastructure and co-ordination ability to handle the logistics. We caught the TGV (train with great velocity!) which turned the 500km trip into a relatively easy 2 hour journey (direct from Lyon to DisneyLand) – sure it was 10 minutes late which the Germans wouldn't have allowed but still very impressive. They’re ideally located: between what appeared to be the 3 major hordes of people who go – the UK, Spain and Germany (and possibly some French go too?). And they've managed to turn the ubiquitous “Bonjour / Au Revoir / kiss kiss” meet and greet routine into something resembling the lovely over the top American hospitality. Not in quite the same way – after check-in we hardly saw anyone in our Disney Hotel, which I’m sure wouldn't be the case in America – but in a very friendly, lovely way. Maybe even more lovely than the American way.
They've dropped a fair bit of their “Frenchness” – the food is full of fat like French food, but horrible like good American food is; and there’s no need to attempt to speak French and explain that you’re Australian before resorting to English. It was actually amusing to watch the character minders interact with a crowd: they would generally speak in French, but with lots of hand gestures, but when they really wanted to control a crowd and get their point across, they’d resort to English – obviously used to rowdy Brits! But somehow it’s still got a French flavour to it.
It was never on our agenda to visit DisneyLand while in France, but after weeks of wine tasting we thought it was probably appropriate to give the kids a treat while in France. And the French didn't let us down with their interpretation – I’m sure helped by imported (I’m assuming, based on her name alone), “cast members” (they don’t have staff or employees) such as Melody to ensure the fake smiles and “you’re welcomes” flow like they should in the happiest place on Earth. The weekend after DisneyLand was back to normal with Coteaux de Lyonnaise wine tasting till 9pm on Saturday night, and then lunch and some 10 year old Burgundies with a sister of a friend of a friend (long story). And while she mightn't have previously dreamed it, I wouldn't be surprised if Hannah’s only long term memory of France is DisneyLand, and she dreams of it in the future.
More pictures by clicking the image below.
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