In a time where most of the theme parks in Europe are uncertain about opening in time for the 2021 season, we decided to do a little throwback to last year’s trips and especially to a little park in the north of France, Dennlys Parc. It may be the hidden gem of the north of France, come with us as we recall our visit to Dennlys Parc!
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When talking about the north of France, Bagatelle is the park which comes first, it is the biggest park and the most well-known in the area. But little do people know that only one hour away from Bagatelle is located Dennlys Parc. Owned by the Crunelle family since its opening in 1983, this little park has been going under the radars of most enthusiasts more interested in one of the few Vekoma Invertigo left, Triops at Bagatelle. We arrived at 1pm and we planned to get all the credits and then go back home, our surprise made us stay a bit longer than we planned.
You are welcomed by a cute plaza with a few rides and shops
The entrance plaza is very nice as there are a few buildings built in typical northern France fashion with red bricks, these buildings were probably here before the park openened. Fun fact : one of the building is the actual house where the owners live !
Here another little plaza with a restaurant and a snack where people can relax
As you make your way into the park, you pass over a bridge where a tower and a mill are located, this is what motivated the creator of the park, Gerard Crunelle to build the park at this location, the bridge also passes over a river.
You then encounter Nitro, the Preston & Barbieri Möbius coaster on your left and on your left La Vigie, the park’s Zamperla power tower opened in 2014. Speaking of rides, the parks has 29 attractions including 3 coasters. The first you encounter as said previously is Nitro:
Nitro is a Preston & Barbieri Möbius coaster opened in 2010 at the park, it is a wild mouse style coaster with two mirrored layouts, you first complete the right side of the track, then come back to the station on the left side and then are dispatched again on the left side. The trains seats 4 people who are kept in place by the classic uncomfortable P&B bulky lapbars.
For the experience itself, it is very painful, some turns are really bad profiled and taken at high speed so it hit hard on the rider, having to experience these turns and rattle twice has kept us from re-riding it.
The other “big” coaster of the park is Furio a custom family coaster from Soquet, this is the traditional model you findat every medium/little parks in France. The layout is quite fun and it doesn’t hurt so which is a good point, the train is also doing two laps which is a downside because it increases the wait times which are not ideal because of the one train operation.
Finally the last coaster, Voltigo, is a spinning coaster for kids, it’s very rare because it is built by the Italian manufacturer Gosetto which has only built 8 coasters overall ! There is not much to say about this one, there is a little bump which is noticeable and quite some laterals as well.
In the back of the park where Voltigo and Furio are located, there is a little plaza which is quite well themed with a few shops, fountains and a transportable raft ride you can find on the fair circuit!
On the right side of the park you have an area which is really well made themed to the medieval era, there are few rides in this area but in the very back there is Temp’o a Disk’o coaster which is the large model without the hill, the Mega Disk’o 24.
Finally, let’s talk about the last two major rides at the park. First let’s talk about Squadron 33 which is an Aerobat from Technical Park, we quite prefered this to the typical Gerstlauer SkyFly, the way the ride is rotating, it allows for a better diversity of movements to achieve and the restraints are less painful.
To end this ride tour, let’s talk about La Vigie which is a 40 m tall Zamperla Shoot & Drop tower, it opened in 2014 at the park and provides a really fun experience. You shoot and drop three times during a cycle, the drop is less impressive than the shoot which is providing an amazing airtime when arriving at the top of the tower ! We preferred this Zamperla tower to the classic S&S towers because the restraints were more minimalistic and the airtime was stronger! (Forgive the lack of pic we were rushed by time)
To conclude this little report, I would say that Dennlys Parc really surprised us in good, we weren’t expecting a nice park like that but more of a low scale, cheap park like Le Fleury but the quality was there everywhere. The crowds were quite big but it wasn’t horrible to visit and we had a lot of fun ! We definitely recommend Dennlys Parc !
