Parc Astérix is a theme amusement park in France, based on the comic book series Asterix by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. With more than two million visitors yearly, Parc Astérix is the country’s second biggest theme park after Disneyland Paris and its 14 million annual visitors.
It is especially well known in France for its large variety of roller coasters (including a bobsled one); it has begun incorporating rides and themes from historic cultures such as the Gauls, the Romans, Ancient Greece and recently Ancient Egypt, but always in the visual style of the stories. It is situated approximately 35 km (22 mi) north of Paris, 32 km (20 mi) from Disneyland Paris and 20 km (12 mi) from the historic Château de Chantilly, in the commune of Plailly, in the department of Oise. Opened in 1989, the park is operated by Compagnie des Alpes.
Largely funded by the Barclays financial company, with 20 other investors including Compagnie Générale des Eaux, the Havas group, Union des Assurances de Paris and the Picardy region, the park cost 850 million French francs to build at the time of its creation, which generated 1,200 jobs. The location was chosen due to the transport network: a private interchange connects it with the nearby A1 autoroute and a bus shuttle service connects it with Paris Métro Line 7. Jack Lang, then Minister of Culture, inaugurated the park on 30 April 1989 after two years of work.
The opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992 impacted greatly on Parc Astérix, as attendance fell by 30% and revenue by 19%. In 1997, Parc Astérix recorded 1.9 million visitors. In 1999, it recorded 2 million visitors. In October 2005, Parc Astérix ran La Fête des Druides (“The Festival of the Druids”), as a way to “thumbing their noses” at Halloween. In 2007, Parc Astérix opened for the first time in its history during the Christmas holidays. In 2009, for the 20th anniversary of the park, it opened during the weekends in September and October and ran a Halloween event called Peur sur le parc Astérix (“Fear at Parc Astérix”). In November 2018, it was announced that the park would be building a new multilaunch roller coaster manufactured by Intamin, to be opened in 2022.
