Born in Chicago in 1901, Walter Elias Disney was truly innovative, a pioneer in the field of filmmaking. Few film producers capture the imagination or have created such enduring and enchanting characters. Disneyland Resort Paris brings these characters to life.Cashing in his life insurance, Walt Disney opened the world’s first theme park, Disneyland Park (also called the Magic Kingdom), in Anaheim, California in 1955. It proved enormously successful and Walt’s imagination soon fathered a second, more ambitious project in central Florida. Sadly, Walt Disney was never to witness the realisation of his Walt Disney World Resort; it opened in Orlando in 1971, five years after his death. The new theme park became an even bigger success with the young and young at heart arriving in their millions to share the magic of Disney. As a result of this continuing success another Disneyland Park opened in Tokyo in 1983, and the sights of the Walt Disney Company soon turned to Europe.
After much deliberation a site was agreed for Disney’s European venture. The French government purchased 4,800 acres of sugar beet fields 20 miles (32km) east of Paris, to which the Walt Disney Company agreed a 30-year development plan in 1987. The choice of site seems at first somewhat puzzling; the climate in the Marne-la-Vallee region is certainly not as clement as in Florida! However, the land was readily available and lay at the heart of the network linking the most densely populated cities in Europe including, most importantly, Paris. Perhaps when considering the Disney family’s French ancestry (the name is believed to have been derived from d’Isgny, a family name taken from the Normandy coastal village of Isigny-sur-Mer), the site chosen for Disneyland Resort Paris is a spiritual homecoming.
To enjoy this fabulous place take a look at the Disneyland Paris Hotels
