Flying chairs 40 meters high, a musical about young bards who dream of breaking into show business, a cruise among vengeful pirates… Parc Astérix (Oise) launches its new season this Saturday March 30 with many new features to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Ten million euros invested for an anniversary that the amusement park is approaching in better shape than ever: last year, it broke its absolute attendance record with 2.8 million visitors.
However, it was not a given: when it opened in 1989, the Gallic park was not cheap, especially given the announced arrival of Disneyland Paris a few kilometers away in Seine-et-Marne. But true to its reputation as a warrior, Astérix resisted, to the point of establishing itself as the second French leisure park (behind its American rival and its 15 million annual visitors) and climbing into the European top 10. Decryption of a very French success.
Before being a competitor, Walt Disney was first a source of inspiration. Asterix’s two dads admired the American for his drawing, but also his Disneyland theme park which revolutionized the industry in California in 1955. “My father was a big child and had a passion in life, Disneyland” , remembers Anne Goscinny, daughter of the screenwriter René Goscinny who imagined the comic strip with the designer Albert Uderzo. She visited the park near Los Angeles at a young age, during a family trip to the United States. “He told my mother, ‘We’re going to take the little one to Disneyland,’ but it was my father who took himself to Disneyland! He’s done Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted House 200 times!”
It was much later, when theme park fever began to spread to France with several major projects in the works, that Albert Uderzo wanted a park around the world of the diehard Gauls. “It wasn’t easy,” remembers her daughter Sylvie Uderzo. We had to find people who believed in him.” He involves his friend Pierre Tchernia in the project, in which 850 million francs are invested. “My father was overjoyed, René [died in 1977, Editor’s note] was with him every moment,” says Sylvie Uderzo.
The chosen site is ideal, on the edge of the A1 motorway between Paris and Lille, 15 minutes from Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. The work is titanic: a lake must be dug, the Gallic village must be reconstructed and attractions installed. A few weeks before the opening, nothing is finished. “When I arrived, in March 1989, they were just finishing the paintings and Via Antica [the street at the entrance to the park, Editor’s note] was still dirt,” says Danielle Hottois, head of show accessories and decorations, entrance 35 years ago as a seasonal restaurant worker. “We told ourselves it would never be ready.”
Jack Lang, Minister of Culture, finally inaugurated Parc Astérix on April 30, 1989 and the success was immediate. There were so many visitors that the site’s capacity was exceeded several times in the first months, forcing it to turn away thousands of customers. Then, after the excitement of the beginning, the first half of the 1990s was difficult. Barely 1.3 million visitors the first season out of the 2 million expected. “Some days, there were barely 1,000 people in the park, we had to go and collect visitors to fill the restaurants,” slips Danielle Hottois.
In 1992, the year Disneyland Paris was inaugurated, attendance dropped below one million visitors. But Asterix hangs on: he invests in big new features like Menhir Express and Thunder of Zeus, which are still two of the park’s flagship attractions today. The curve reverses, reaching, ten years later, 2 million visitors in 1999.
Investments then become rarer, and the quality of the park deteriorates, with attractions often broken down or with prohibitive waiting times. Attendance fell to 1.6 million visitors in 2011, with Parc Astérix even falling behind Futuroscope. Its owner, the Compagnie des Alpes, renewed its ambition the following year with OzIris, a new roller coaster unique in France where the trains are suspended in the void which should put it back in the race.
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Attendance is increasing and investments continue: Discobélix in 2016 (3 million euros), Pégase Express in 2017 (16 million euros), without counting on the success of the Halloween season – Peur sur le parc – which is full of haunted houses and actors who invade the aisles to scare visitors. Efforts rewarded: a record 2.3 million visitors in 2019, before the outbreak of Covid. Despite the pandemic, investments continue, like Toutatis in 2023 (36 million euros), a new propulsion “roller coaster” which is setting records: 2.8 million visitors over the season, unheard of.
The recipe for the magic potion seems to have been mastered. “It’s the positive spiral of investment, in the maintenance of what exists and the addition of new things,” underlines Guy Vassel, deputy general director. Certainly, amusement parks are on the rise and the entire sector has progressed since the pandemic. “But Parc Astérix does a little better than the others,” he smiles. We knew how to make the right choices, renovate the park, provide good service and keep prices reasonable.”
The new attractions seek to stand out from the competition and the immersion, which Albert Uderzo was very keen on, has been reworked to refocus the park around the world of Asterix – to the point of offering a banquet in the village on the evenings of summer, with wild boar on the menu obviously. The park has also transformed into a destination, increasing from 100 to 450 hotel rooms between 2017 and 2023, expanding its catchment area and extending the duration of visits. Visitors who drive more than three hours to come to the Gauls now represent nearly 40% of the public, 15 points more than ten years ago. And the share of foreigners has been doubled, to around 15%.
The challenge now is to “continue to grow while preserving the quality of the experience,” explains Guy Vassel. New hotel, new attractions, total overhaul of the Rue de Paris area… New features are already planned each year until 2028, with the threshold of three million visitors in the sights. In 2025, it will be a family roller coaster, about which the park is still keeping a secret. However, it promises to be original, as Guy Vassel told Le Figaro last December, since the seats will be installed there… face to face.
