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Me, Jammy and Burbs met up for a little jaunt across the pond to one of France's most well parks - Jardin d'Acclimatation and it just so happened Parc Ast??rix was nearby too so the plan was to hit both these parks over a long weekend.
The trip for me and Jammy started on a train fro Birmingha, packed to the rafters with Gouldy's mates (Wolves fans) on their way down to Wembley to watch them play in the Semi Final of the FA Cup. Typically it was rather.. uh.. lively on the train, but we soon got to London to meet with Burbs and get the Eurostar train underneath the English Channel to Paris. Arriving in Paris we ironically headed towards the airport as we had chosen a hotel nearby because a) it was cheap and b) it actually put us closer to Parc Ast??rix.
In hindsight we next time I wouldn't be squeezing 3 adults into a triple room, but I think we only paid under ??30 each for 2 nights so.. tradoffs. Anyway, onto the first park:
Parc Ast??rix
Overall this was a really nice park, nicely spread out, some decent theming and a generally nice feel overall. I enjoyed my day here and once they've built the new Intamin I could definitely see myself returning, without it - perhaps not. Other than the coasters we did enjoy rides on the boat ride, Zamperla Disk-O smartly named Discobelix and a Madhouse that didn't have any of the preshow (disappointing). On Burbs demand (request) we did the log flume (solid, sad to see these going out of existence), and the rapids in which Burbs and James got soaked on than ks to a rouge wave haha. Onto the coasters:
SOS Num??robis
Pretty typical Zierer Tivoli Medium coaster. Nice little kiddie coaster but lacked any charm or intrigue.
Vol D'Icare
Zierer Hornet which was pretty decent for the most part. Fairly well themed and blended into the area well. Block brakes were ruined the end of the ride as they brought the train to a standstill.
Trace Du Hourra
Mack bobsled that was which started out with some really quick and fast transitions but then it sort of dies. The latter 3/4 of the ride is slow and particulary uninteresting even given the proximity ot the themeing (which is an interesting take for a "bobsled" coaster!). I think I liked this more than Bobbahn @ Heide and Schweizer Bobbahn @ Europa Park but prefer Avalanche @ BPB.
Tonnerre de Zeus
The first half of this CCI has been retracked and it's certainly noticeable! The first drop provides some nice airtime and there's some decent laterals thrown in here and there. However, the retrack probably makes it feel a little rougher than it actually is due to the contrast and the giant turnaround didn't really do much for me... more left turns required! Preferred Megaphobia to this if I'm honest, it's a little more compact and feels more of of control.
Gouldrix
Tale of two rides really:
Backseat - Great ride, not too rough, really forceful, interesting elements.
Frontseat - More headbanging than a Metallica concert
The retracking has definitely helped, and I think they're really cool designs in terms of inventive and interesting layouts - but just perhaps the layout design was too far ahead of the track design.
P??gase Express
This was the first ride we went on and I wasn't really hugely inspired by it before hand but fair play to it - really well done family coaster. It has fun elements with a nice surprise, well themed and operated really well. THere's a bunch of interseting coaster enthusiast stuff on show like the switch track back into the station and there's a nice veiw of probably the wettest part of the rapids too.
OzIris
This was easily the best ride in the park, but embodies a lot of what I don't like about modern B&M inverts. A Good portion of the ride spent too high and everything felt too smooth with no snap into/during the elements. It just felt a little bit tame for the vast majoirty and peters out towards end. That said it was incredibly forceful for the opening 3 elements which really should've set the tone for the rest of the ride. Certainly worth a mention is the (proper) 0G roll whic was absolutely perfect. For me it was best ridden in/towards the front - which I was not expected.
Parc D'acclimatation
The park was really easy to get to - a few stops from central Paris on the metro, however upon arrival we discovered that unfortunately only 2 rollercoasters were open - Speed Rockets and Souris M??caniques due to both the Soquet coasters not back from winter maintenance. It was nice to have such a chilled out day after Parc Ast??rix and very little sleep - we got some crepes afterwards from Paris before our Eurostar home.
Souris M??caniques
This was a fun little spinner model - which seated 2 instead of the usual 4. Soem nice turns and hills, but Jammy got most spin (it was like Hollenblitz all over again!)
Speed Rockets
This was a good fun Gerstlauer Bobsled with Smooth, good elements, compact layout. Whilst probably being the worst of the Gerstlauer Bobsleds I have ridden, it's certainly not a bad ride - which probably goes for how decent these models are. Interestingly we knew more about the operations than the ride op who had a mild panic when our restraints didn't automatically pop open when we got off... only for us all to gentle push down to release ourselves.
And that's the trip report! None of the rides really broke into my favourite 5 coasters.
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