As it happens, a question I have been asked several times since moving to Paris is whether or not I have visited this venerable amusement park. Of course, many questions about my life in France have been repeated--in various forms--by friends, family members, and acquaintances. It is inevitable, I suppose, that my compatriots would persistently ask me if the French are really super rude, if the food is really universally amazing, and if everyone chain-smokes while wearing perfectly tied scarfs, sporting perfectly coiffed hair, and displaying a perfectly slim figure. Of course these questions come up with some frequency given the culturally-held opinions about France in general, and Paris in particular.
Perhaps you realized as much, but my use of the term "culturally-held opinions"=euphemism for "stereotypes."
What is different about the "Have you been to EuroDisney?" question is that it always seems to be asked in the exact same manner. To offer context, when people ask: "Have you been to the top of the Eiffel Tower?" or "Do Parisians really loathe Americans?" the questions are posed with a variety of emotional inflection attached to them. The tone might imply that the interrogator is fascinated, bored, indifferent, or terrified by the prospect.
But when I entertain the "Have you been to EuroDisney?" question, the asker always poses the question in the same manner: he or she asks as if he or she is making a joke...even when it is obvious that he or she is really quite serious. No one wants to seriously ask me if I have been to EuroDisney, I would guess, because with all the "real" culture to be absorbed in Paris, it might seem rather plebian to waste a moment on such an "American" outing.
And I get that totally. I imagine that I would also say, "Oh, so have you been to EuroDisney?" and follow the question with some nervous laughter, trying to pawn it off as though I do not care at all about EuroDisney, and was just making a funny comment in the vein of: "EuroDisney!? How absurd, huh?" Yet my face would betray me as I eagerly waited to se if the person responding could suss out the fact that I am really dying to know about EuroDisney because I am an adult-child weirdo Disney lover.
Which I obviously am.
And I am certainly not alone on that front either, as it appears that the Germans are quite entirely on board with Walt's magic as well. Danke shon very much.
In the spirit of this blog, I will be utterly candid with you with regards to my thoughts/impressions/feelings on EuroDisney.
I freakin' love it.
And I have been twice, so this assessment is not merely the result of a first-timer's flush at having experienced lands marked by fantasy, adventure, frontier, and discovery.
Generally speaking, I am not an amusement park lover. The whole "I do not cotton to unsupervised teenagers" credo that marks my life (see earlier blog entries) certainly plays a part in my disdain for places which draw such creatures like moths to a flame. Yet EuroDisney is different.
For one thing, the place is extremely clean. For another, and unlike its state-side counterparts, the size of the park outside Paris is totally manageable and not anxiety-inducing in terms of the overwhelmingness factor. Thirdly, the people within the walls of the park are all celebrating America, quite the rarity in France, and I enjoyed being able to be publicly proud of my heritage for an afternoon.
Do not get me wrong, there is still a vibe of gross consumer consumption and commercialization that infiltrates the park, but such is on a MUCH smaller scale to the American Disney's.
And there are aspects of EuroDisney that are hilariously European too--which add to the place's charm. For one thing, the customer service is, as ever, baffling. Example: we waited in line to ride the "Blanche Neige" ride (the Snow White ride was my favorite as a child for reasons I neither understand nor have yet to fully examine, but given that my last name is now "White" maybe I knew from an early age that Snow and I were sisters of sorts). We stood in line for about 20 minutes--which was just about as long as any line in which we had to wait if you can believe it. Then we arrived at the front, loaded up into our "Happy" trolley and anxiously awaited the beginning of a marvelous fantastic journey.
But we sat, inert, for about five minutes before we were suddenly ordered to vacate the cart by a woman dressed in a peasant outfit. I do not know who she was supposed to be, but I would have felt better about accepting her orders had she been the wicked stepmother in the mirror. Anyway, she takes our cart load of people (six of us) and drags us to the side, reporting to us that that ride is now broken and that we will have to come back later. We ask why they are not telling all the people still waiting in line about the glitch in the works. She says that it might only be a few minutes, and the people in line might want to wait. So we say, "Okay, then we can wait too, and just stand at the head of the line?" (You know the spot we already earned by already waiting for this ride). Nope. We are ordered to come back later. This back and forth goes on for a few minutes until we finally take our leave, feeling the magic evaporate in a peasant-dressed poof.
The whole situation was so bizarre that we wound up immediately leaving Fantasyland and going to Discoveryland--where we received both a dose of whiplash on Space Mountain (which was super fun!) and confirmation that Michael Jackson was always a little "off" by watching the Captain EO show.
Well, if that did not get us right back into the spririt of things!
Another funny quirk about EuroDisney is that the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ride, which is touted as being a main attraction--basically the raison d'etre for Adventureland--was closed. No explanations, no forewarnings, we just walked right up to it and saw that it was indefinitely closed. Had this been America, you know a partial refund would have been DEMANDED by the patrons, and that many a lawsuit would have come about due to this travesty of false advertisment.
But this was Eurodisney and so people sort of "PFFFFTed" and said : "Oh it's closed, too bad" and wandered off in their beautifully-tied scarves, making rude comments about Americans and puffing away on their Gauloises. Or maybe (read: actually) they just walked over to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and enjoyed that one instead.
Well, I just love the magical world of EuroDisney. Thus, I invite you to ask with confidence next time you wonder if a Parisian-dweller has visited the park. Better yet, go for yourself...and, if you do, please report back to me about the Blanche-Neige ride.
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