2004
Coaster Trips: 2004: Jardin de Acclimatation
Tuesday August 31st
Jardin de Acclimatation
George wanted to do some shopping early in the morning before a park visit. I elected to go watch the keynote presentation of the 2004 Apple Expo. Such a talk is always going to be a gathering of the faithful and preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, I was absolutely amazed when I arrived ninety minutes early to see several hundred people in front of me in the queue. The first ninety minutes of the presentation was a rehash of what I had seen at the WWDC keynote in June, and I spent the time reading my book. The interesting bit was the announcement of the new iMac G5, which no doubt will become a fixture in movies for the next few years. It seems to be an unwritten rule of Hollywood that a single person with an Apple laptop can prevent an Alien invasion
At any rate, after the presentation ended I headed across to the Jardin d'Acclimatation to meet George. Park entry was just €2.50, though that price did not include any rides. We decided to take a look around before spending any more money, as like in many other parks there were special prices for larger quantities of ride tickets. In the end, we decided to ride just the two Roller Coasters and the one powered coaster, as there was nothing else there we wanted to try. It should be noted at this point that the Jardin is very much a family park, so this was to be expected. The only thing among the rides that I had not seen before was a wave swinger running backwards, but for €2.50 we decided to pass.
Papillons d'Alice (#356) is a junior version of the ubiquitous Reverchon spinning mouse coaster. It was not as small as photographs on the Internet had led me to believe. Though the ride has no really large drops, the maximum height doesn't appear to be a great deal smaller than the adult version. The layout ensures only a limited amount of spinning, making the ride just right for those wanting to try their first coaster. Of particular note was the device used to straighten the cars at the end of the circuit; it latched onto the car smoothly and rotated it with no bumps whatsoever; Maurer could definitely learn from this!
Dragon (#357) does not look like it is twenty four years old, but the operator told us that it had been installed in 1980. Like Looping a few days ago, this coaster appears to have been used by Soquet to test an experimental propulsion system. In this case, there is no motor on the train or a chain lift; instead, there are a few separate tyre drive sections in different locations of the first half of the track up to the highest point. They are triggered by a clever mechanism that ensures the wheels only receive electrical power when the train is passing them. Anyone know if this scheme is in use on other rides?
We finished up the day with a circuit on the Tacot Express, a surprisingly good powered coaster with an intense (but very smooth) helix in the latter half of the course. A section of the track was lined with coloured lighting though this was not switched on during our visit; it seems likely that it is only used after dark.
At this stage it was time for George to leave to catch his early evening flight back to England. Luck was not on his side; due to engine trouble the plane was cancelled and he ended up being diverted to London Gatwick with a long coach journey back to Birmingham. He was not very happy about that, as it resulted in arriving home at nearly 3:00am.
I headed across to the Apple Expo show floor to take a look around. Unfortunately, my French was simply not good enough to find out everything I wanted to know, though I did find the occasional exhibitor who could speak English. Fatigue had really caught up with me at this point, so I returned to the hostel for a few hours rest before going out for dinner, and then on to the Eiffel Tower. For those who are not aware, a lighting system has been installed on the tower which makes it sparkle brightly for the first ten minutes of every hour after dark. It is quite a sight to behold, and was a fitting way to end my few days in France.