Asterix Park: By Tutatis, what a roller coaster!

Discóbelix attraction area in Astérix Park.

There is a place where you can gossip at Obelix's house (there is always a wild boar on the spit and dented Roman helmets in the window), watch Cleopatra sailing her ship, join the legions, watch a menhir fly by and feel, if not that the sky falls on your head, yes you do rush from the top with your feet up: by Tutatis, what a roller coaster!

It is the Asterix Park (Parc Astérix), in Plailly, in the north of France, 35 kilometers from Paris, a themed venue with 47 attractions and shows that offers lots of fun for the whole family and delights Gauls fans irreducible created by Goscinny and Uderzo (entry at 53 euros for adults and 45 for children, which has been rounded up to 45 for all this Christmas).

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In the park, as this special envoy to the irreducible Gallic village has been able to appreciate, you have the possibility of experiencing, if you dare, strong sensations such as those provided or rather inflicted by

, a roller coaster from here I wait for you in the set area in the Egypt of

and in which you literally fly upside down doing

dizzying

.

For the faint-hearted (“

”, as Patapalo would say), we will always have attractions like

, a little ride in boats like that of the unfortunate Barbarossa pirates who are inevitably scuttled by Asterix and Obélix. The park also offers hilarious moments such as the Idéfix

Studios' 4D movie

screening, which is projected in a room with dynamic seats capable of making you feel like you jump, run or splash your face while the screen emerges so realistically one of the megaliths thrown by Obélix that makes you crouch so that it does not crush you.

Strolling through the enclosure, surrounded by forests in which, by the way, there are real wild boars, you can also enjoy such exciting experiences as an encounter with the Panorámix himself, a visit to the Ordralfabétix fishmonger or climb the Abraracúrcix shield, holding on by two warriors, to enjoy the boss's perspective.

The reconstruction of the Gallic village - which has never had a name and which we only know is in Armorica, on the Breton peninsula, and near the sea - is enchanting: you can wander through it (it is not a good idea to do it dressed as a Roman ) and visit the houses of the main characters, whose Gallic tribe we certainly do not know, although they could be coriosolites or orismos.

The character of Obélix greets in the Gallic village of the Asterix Park.

Several attractions are directly inspired by Asterix albums and have even appeared in vignettes. The facilities are divided by thematic sectors —Galia, Rome, Greece (to visit the churros kiosk in Fritapopoulos), Egypt and Vikings— and set based on comics. There are dozens of proposals from

) for the bravest to plans

like merry-go-rounds. In an area that recreates a Roman fort you can enlist as a fifth columnist in Caesar's army in the style of

.

Another possibility to consider is dropping into a kettle. The park is dominated by a mountain at the top of which a figure of Asterix looks out. There is an area that has nothing to do with drawings and that traces the history of France from the Middle Ages with sets and circus and skating shows (it includes a representation in which a modern ship is literally seen sinking). Visitors themselves can be one more attraction, such as the well-known Catalan poet who was walking through the park these days wearing one of the wild boar-shaped hats that are sold in souvenir shops and insistently reciting verses by Josep Carner, which he did A strong candidate to end up as the bard Asurancetúrix.

The visit to the park with the last book (39),

, under his arm has the grace that, although you have to be warm, it seems to you that it is less cold: the very good story of Jean -Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad (the couple's fifth album) takes place in the snowy and icy lands of the Sarmatians or Sauromates (reptilian skin referring, according to some, to their scale armor), in the confines of the Barbáricum. Some elements of the new comic have already been integrated into the venue: in the

the most literary, an exhibition that allows you to playfully discover many things from comics, such as all the cameos (from Sean Connery to Alain Prost through Jean Marais or Coluche), it includes a vase painted with the mythological creature that gave Julio the idea Caesar to launch the expedition in search of the animal.

Image of the Asterix Park, with legionaries and a Roman fort.

The park, which occupies 80 hectares (34 of the enclosure itself, 26 of parking and 20 of the three hotels in the complex), has been operating for 32 years in which it has not stopped evolving and expanding, and in the course of which it has attracted more than 50 million visitors. Paradoxically, the Asterix Park, the second most important in France after Disneyland Paris, is little known in Spain, despite the fact that the Spanish are among the largest readers of the albums of the famous Gauls, only behind the French and the Germans. and in close competition with fans from the Netherlands. 75% of Spaniards, in fact, are unaware that the park exists, according to those responsible for it, and many of those who have heard of it would not know how to locate it.

One of the objectives of the management of the enclosure is to get more visitors from our country to the conviction, according to the deputy director of operations of the park, Sébastien Retailleau, that it has plenty of attractions to achieve it. To this end, the Astérix Park, the Salvat publishing house, publisher in Spain the adventures of the Gauls, and Renfe-SNCF in cooperation have been conjured up as “strategic allies”, which take travelers at high speed from Barcelona to the Gare de Lyon in Paris (from where there are shuttles to the park) and that stand out that 80 times less CO2 emissions are caused by train than by plane.

The park, in which 1,500 people currently work (300 permanent) and which belongs to the same group as Futurescope, Compagnie des Alpes, was inaugurated in 1989 at the will of Goscinny and Uderzo. Last 2019 it achieved its record number of visitors, 2,300,000. The audience is mainly regional, with 80% coming from the north of France, especially Paris, and only 7% foreigners, the majority Belgian and British. According to Retailleau, the aspiration is to recover visitors after the covid epidemic (covid passports and a mask are mandatory in the park and hotels) and increase them, with the idea that Asterix “has all the weapons to fight face to face with Mickey Mouse ”. The park, open 200 days a year (this Christmas, until January 2),It has a seasonal offer that includes its reconversion into a horror theme during the dates of Halloween and Gala Christmas, which allows images of something as shocking as seeing Asterix chatting with Santa Claus.

The Asterix Park area of ​​Egypt with the Oziris roller coaster.

Among the novelties that the park is preparing, is the reopening of the wooden roller coaster

(one of the icons of the venue), which will increase its excitement and will be ready in April, as well as a new thematic parade with three floats.

By 2023 a new attraction,

a category 7 roller coaster that will hold the speed record in France (110 kilometers per hour, which can be reached from zero to three seconds).

The year 2024 will be special for the park on its 35th anniversary and its 65th anniversary for Asterix, which will be celebrated with a grand parade and a musical.

It is also planned to build a fourth hotel.

The last one so far, the new Les Quais de Lutéce, has made a great commitment to the atmosphere and reproduces a part of the old Gallic city of Lutetia next to the Seine in comic aesthetics and with many nods to Asterix.

In the

restaurant

the waiters are dressed in Gallic period, helmets and swords (and the fresco of two taps!) adorn the walls and it is possible to eat wild boar sausages, as well as drink magic potion (with a secret formula that includes orange juice).

Among those who dared to ride the great roller coaster on Monday was - no wonder he did the military in aviation and flew on missions with

to the Congo— Emmanuel Christien, director of the children's and youth area of ​​the Anaya group (Hachette Spain), which publishes the Asterix albums in Salvat. Christien considers that for readers of the Frenchman's adventures the park is a sensational extension and confirms the good editorial health of Asterix expressed in the commitment to the new title, of which 200,000 copies have already been placed on the Spanish market, 150,000 in Spanish , 30,000 in Catalan and the rest in Galician, Basque and Asturian. In total, the first print run of the new title has been five million copies (three in France), currently in 17 languages ​​(Asterix's books, of which 350 million units of the 39 adventures have been sold, are translated into 130 languages).Christien points out that the plan is for Ferri and Conrad to continue with a new album every two years (alternating trips of the protagonists and adventures at home) and advances that in 2024 there will be many products on the occasion of the anniversary. At the moment, large-format editions are being published with extra material and parallel works, such as the books dedicated to the historical truth after Asterix or the towns the Gaul meets on his travels. Soon a book of adventures of Idéfix with other dogs will be translated in Lutecia. The best-selling title in Spain islike the books dedicated to the historical truth after Asterix or to the towns the Gaul meets on his travels. Soon a book of adventures of Idéfix with other dogs will be translated in Lutecia. The best-selling title in Spain islike the books dedicated to the historical truth after Asterix or to the towns the Gaul meets on his travels. Soon a book of adventures of Idéfix with other dogs will be translated in Lutecia. The best-selling title in Spain is

, followed by the founding

and

"The fans of Asterix are still very fans," emphasizes the editor, who believes that "Asterix is ​​a whole way of being European."

Christien highlights from the new book the equal appearance of the Amazons that shows the path traveled since when the women in Asterix were housewives and ladies of ... Historically, although also throwing a lot of imagination,

is very worked and and the identification of the Sarmatians with the Amazons was made by Greek historians such as Herodotus.

In the adventure, whose title in Spanish was a lot of headaches for publishers given the polysemy of the word griffin, which could disrupt all the grace of the mythological creature (it was decided to rename it by adding "behind the tracks" to highlight that it was a animal and not a pipe key), Asterix, Obelix and Panorámix travel to the country of the Sarmatians (fancifully placed further north, in the Altai) at the request of a shaman who has asked the druid for help.

We found out that Obelix feels terrible about kumis, the fermented mare's milk drink.

In parallel, a Roman expedition sent by Caesar in search of the mythical griffin advances to display it in the arena of the amphitheater.

Group of characters in the Asterix Park.

To highlight in the Roman contingent, which carries a captured Amazon, Kalashnikova (hahahaha), a geographer just like Michel Houellebecq (a cameo with a nod to the author of the novel

a

, a gladiator specialized in fighting with wild beasts, and a contingent of long-suffering legionnaires deliciously responsive, including the alarmist weed-type Feiknius.

We have credited by Amiano Marcelino a clash of Sarmatians and Romans but it is in the 4th century in Pannonia (two legions were lost).

The dinosaur and the griffin

The idea of ​​the frozen triceratops is not as crazy as it might seem: the authors have taken up the proposal of the scholar Adrienne Mayor

, 2000) that prehistoric animal fossils were the inspiration for the mythical creatures of the Greeks and Romans. Specifically, the griffin, a guardian of treasures with the body of a lion, claws, wings and the beak of a bird of prey, could have been based, says Mayor (a specialist also in Amazons, by the way), on fossils of protocetops, from the same group as the tricerátops and that it had a beak and that characteristic neck protection that could look like wings. As for the Amazons, represented as great and friendly warriors and horsemen (one, Krakatova, throws the yew trees at Obélix, who, by the way, in his cabin in Asterix park has a photo of his great love, Falbala), no there is no mention or joke about the legend that they cut their right chest to better handle the bow.This is not the terrain of myth that our beloved Gauls frequent.

Finally, a recommendation: if you get lost in the park, don't ask for Alesia ...