Forget Disneyland Paris, nearby Parc Asterix theme park is a steal – and has a new 110km/h ride

My nine-year-old son holds my hand tightly and leads me toward a benign-looking mound of fake Neolithic stones.

‘Come on, mom! This is the new ride, we have to try it.’ Had I taken a closer look at the skeleton track behind it, I would have opted out.

The ride is called Toutatis – Parc Asterix’s new attraction, which accelerates at 70 mph (a record speed for France), before abruptly backing up, dragging passengers 51 meters up a vertical boom and plunging them back down to earth.

I can’t count how many times my ass leaves my seat as we hurtle through sharp turns and get flipped upside down. When I finally emerge on jelly legs and get a good look at the carriages rumbling over the steel rails, I realize it looks as terrifying as it feels, but I go again the next day with my eldest daughter.

The hallmark of a good roller coaster, according to Toutatis project engineer Julien Simon, is that you go on it the first time to brave it and then move on because you love it. Judging by the 70 minute queues at 10:30 am, there are clearly thrill seekers all over Europe either defying it or loving it.

Toutatis (left) accelerates to 70 mph, before abruptly backing up, dragging passengers 51 meters up a vertical boom and plunging them back to earth. Pictured on the right is Antonia and her family in the park. She writes, ‘It may not be Disneyland, but it’s the stuff childhood dreams are made of’

I came to Parc Asterix, just north of Paris, with my three children, ages seven, nine and eleven. It’s a post-SAT treat for my oldest, who has been craving a visit to Disneyland. Parc Asterix is ​​half price.

My eldest had accidentally found an Asterix comic book at school, so already knows something about the warrior’s scrapes and mishaps as he defended his Breton village against the advance of the Romans. The other two have a crash course in the story of Asterix and his sidekick, Obelix, at the park’s 4D cinema and don’t even seem to notice that the movie is in French.

It is the ‘French’ of the park that makes it so attractive. Who wants to go to France to engage with American culture? Here they are surrounded by the language and the Gallic characters created almost 65 years ago by Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny.

Beautifully landscaped with forests and lakes, the park is divided into zones: Egypt, featuring a thrilling inverted roller coaster called Oziris; Greece, with wooden coaster Tonnerre 2 Zeus, which was renovated last year, and the family coaster Pegase Express (a speed limit of only 30 mph, and a hair-raising – for my youngest – encounter with Medusa); and there is also Rome and Paris.

The park is beautifully landscaped with forests and lakes and is divided into zones. Above is the ride ‘Le Grand Spplatch’

It is the ‘Frenchness’ of the park that makes it so attractive, says Antonia. Pictured is the park’s Discobelix ride

The new area, Festival Toutatis, is an extension of Asterix’s Gaul village.

Everywhere in the park the food is exceptionally tasty and you sit on the terrace of a restaurant and imagine yourself in a Provencal village instead of in an amusement park.

There are many smaller attractions, including a 19th-century carousel, seven water rides, and a daily program of shows, including the excellent Les Plongeons de l’Olympe, in which Olympic-level divers jump from ever-higher platforms (all included in the park’s rides). € 39 day entrance).

As the sun sets behind the trees, we wander back to the three-star hotel La Cite Suspendue, a fairytale collection of wooden cabins hidden deep in the woods.

It may not be Disneyland, but it’s the stuff childhood dreams are made of.