Richard Bannister

Parc Saint Paul has been through a rough patch since my last visit. Two serious accidents on park roller coasters within a few days of each other have been expected to close the curtains on most theme parks, but not here. True, both the offending rides are closed and have been for some time (Formula One and Looping), but the rest of the park appears to be going from strength to strength. One of the first things we did on entering the park pay a visit to the site of Formula One, as we had no prior knowledge that the ride was in fact shut. It does look like a lot of fun, so hopefully the park and manufacturer will work together to get it open to the public once again.

At the end of 2004, the park removed what was then their Family Coaster, replacing it with a brand new model of exactly the same layout. Only a coaster enthusiast would spot that Family Coaster (#689) is new; the chain lift has been replaced by a tyre drive, and the lighting package is slightly different. One Big Apple ride is the much the same as any other, though this one earns novelty points for being manufactured by DAL in Turkey.

The only other operational full size coaster was Wild Train, which remains as amazing as it was on our first visit. With plenty of time spare to explore the park, we had a look around the various other rides. Most were standard fare, though we did finally try out Telepherique, classed by some sad people as a Roller Coaster, albeit a stand-up, suspended, and spinning model. The premise is simple; it is a track based ride, with poles hanging from it; victims cling to these poles as they traverse the course. The amount of spinning is on the far side of insane; it is very difficult to walk in a straight line after even one circuit. I don't think I could have managed it twice. A certain mancunian dentist, in his own words, nearly died on riding. George, always quick off the mark, immediately suggested that he should try again so!

 

On approaching Bagatelle one cannot help but notice the large billboards for their new ride for 2006, Ragondingue (#690). What they don't mention is that it is a second hand attraction, acquired from Pleasurewood Hills in the UK. They also fail to mention that an identical ride travels the fair circuit in France and has done for several years. Arguing over these minutiae is, however, churlish in the extreme, especially when one sees how many people are waiting in line to try it out. Admittedly a lot of the wait was due to the speed of operation, with no more than two cars out on course at a time (out of a maximum of nine). Nonetheless, the riders faces indicate that the park does have a winner on their hands, even if it is a widely cloned one.

More interesting to me, insofar as I'd not ridden nineteen of them, was Bouzouk (#691), a Soquet built attraction not altogether dissimilar from the one at Parc du Bocasse. In this case, however, the park has built the ride over water, and has added to the illusion with a large fountain in the middle of the ride, which the train mostly avoids (but not completely!). Additionally, the final drop actually goes into a partially submerged trench, with water running down the walls on each side. The park has taken an average ride and turned it into a quality one with the setting they've placed it in. Better yet, the restraint design is that of a single buzz bar, which allows riders maximum air time. In the back car I actually slid sideways to the point that I almost came off my seat. Great fun, although it would probably not be a good idea for a child to ride unaccompanied in the back car.

While on the subject of forgiving restraints, one must mention Coleoz'Arbres (#692), which operates as Schwarzkopf designed, with no restraints whatsoever. This relies on the sensible behaviour of riders, which is probably why it can operate safely in France. One can only imagine what might happen in other countries, with the possible exception of Japan.

After credit whoring Spirale des Dunes (#693) we went on our now typical walk around the park with cameras at the ready. Both the Ferris Wheel and Monorail helped out with that objective, and indeed we managed pictures of everything worthwhile except the shiny new coaster, which was hidden carefully behind trees. We took comfort however from the fact that the average reader of this diary probably knows what a spinning mouse coaster looks like.

 

Trying to get from Bagatelle to Dennlys Parc without a navigation system would not have been fun at all. The route we adopted was no doubt the fastest, taking less than an hour, but it routed us across quite a few unsignposted roads. I recall reading an article about some villages complaining about the onset of satellite navigation, and from this route it was not hard to see why; roads only designed for local traffic are now being used by cross country travellers. Naturally, the destination was spot on other than one minor glitch, that being the advice to make a U-turn after entering the official car park. I chose to ignore this advice.

The park is home to a powered coaster called Tornado, apparently built by Top Fun, at least if you believe the plaque mounted on the side of the station. The layout was very simple, an ascending helix and a descending helix, and to make up for this riders get four laps of the track. It did seem that the motor on the train had a lot of difficulty getting the train to climb the lift, a bit worrying given only two passengers, but maybe the horrible straining sound was just for effect.

It is a true pleasure to find a coaster built in such a way to make life easy for photographers. Furio (#694) is a rare example of the breed, a moderate sized coaster reminiscent once again of something we had come across yesterday, in this case the Drakkar Express from Festyland. It seems that Soquet must have a few standard track designs that they reuse with small or no alteration. Their rides certainly seem to have a lot more in common than would be typical for other manufacturers.

We also tried out a walkthrough dark attraction called Chateau Hanté. I do like walkthroughs, especially well done ones like this, but there was one technical problem; I wear reactive glasses, and moving from blazing sunshine into darkness is, well, problematic. It takes at least five minutes before my lenses can adjust to the half light, and by that stage it is likely that I'll have collided head on with at least one wall.

To finish up, we took some photographs from the side of the Ferris Wheel.