Christoph Sillem

While perusing Google Maps, I noticed a huge circle 30km to the east of Paris. It was actually the ring road surrounding Eurodisney, which got me wondering if Disney had an influence on the environment beyond its circle. Getting there, I was surprised to see to what extent this was the case. I found a kind of pre-Disneyland that is meant to get all arriving visitors in a happyclappymickeymood before entering the park, but that was not all. As opposed to Eurodisney, where you expect the illusion and pay for being tricked, I also discovered the community of Val d’Europe, which is reality, but you’re tricked anyway. It is a Truman Show like über-replica of a French village from the last century, which seems to have sprung up overnight. While Eurodisney is crowded with people, the streets are empty here. Clean and nearly retouched, it is an odd combination of the familiar and the odd. You feel as though you are in another country that is pretending to be French, even though you are indeed in France itself.