Tourist attraction: Mini World Lyon, miniatures park

(article en français)

All aboard for Mini World Lyon! All aboard the miniature train, that is.

The Little Prince told me he wanted to visit this park. We missed the preview last year and now with the grand opening looming he said he was dying to see it. He said he enjoyed his time in Mini Europe in Brussels with his new friend, Tintin, and now it was his time to show Tintin a good time in our very own Mini World Lyon!

So I wrote to Mini World expressing our interest and they invited us both to come to the press conference/inauguration. How exciting!

Mini World is located in the new(ish) shopping mall, Carré de Soie (‘silk scarf’), in Vaulx-en-Velin. It’s very easy to get there by tram. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but on the inside it’s huge!

So come with Le Petit Prince and I as we take a look inside…

They’ve obviously prepared this area for visitors to queue. Given how cold Lyon gets in the winter it’s a good idea that it’s all indoors.

There’s an app you can download (both App Store and Google Play) before or during your visit which will guide you around but I didn’t try this out.

Before we get to the ticket office, the first thing you’ll see is the restaurant (so you can eat there even if you don’t visit the park). This animated screen projection of an underwater scene all over the walls and real working fountain are pretty cool.

After the ticket office is the gift shop but it was not stocked yet when I visited.

After the gift shop, we’re finally in! Here is a scale model of the first of the three ‘worlds’ with a figure for scale.

Then we get to see the ‘control room’. I can imagine all the geeky engineering type people going crazy over this sort of stuff, seeing all the configurations of the train tracks. It’s not just the trains that are computer programmed. There are also cars and buses running on some roads (I guess there must be a magnetic track underneath?) and the lights that go on at certain times to simulate day to night and back to day again.

No strollers or selfie sticks are allowed inside. I imagine tripods and anything else that can obstruct are forbidden too. The reason for this is because it’s extremely dark inside and it can be easy to trip over things that get in the way. Also, the figurines are extremely small (about 2cm tall) and fragile and they don’t want anyone accidentally knocking something over.

The thing that surprised and amazed me the most was the changing from day to night. Around sunset you see the lights come on gradually too, just like they would in real life.

The accompanying time-relevant sounds are great too from the traffic, to overhead planes, to the chirping crickets in the countryside, to the SNCF tune, it gave it a sense of realism.

Here’s the Little Prince getting super excited!

Look at this elaborate city scene.

The space is extremely well designed with a step for kids.

You’ll notice the buttons too as certain scenes can be activated by visitors.

Le Petit Prince wanted to show Tintin a part of Lyon. “Here, look at Cathedral Saint Jean!” he exclaimed. He also said that this world was so mini they felt a bit like Godzilla 😀

Pretty snow/Christmas market scene at dusk.

Look! A giraffe in a suburban swimming pool lol.

Mini World Lyon was so big for them they got a bit lost… “Where are we?”, asked Tintin. Luckily they eventually found their way out! 😀

Parc Astérix! Look carefully and you can see tourists taking photos…

I was told that there are lots of funny scenes and pop culture references if you really look, including this Alice in Wonderland scene…. and this car camouflaged in grass! Hilarious!

Shaun the Sheep, made from…. sheep! What an imagination!

  Jurassic Park film set

It’s not Hollywood but Miniwood!

Le Petit Prince and Tintin wanted to relax in this camping ground but forgot to bring their swimwear 😀

Aerial view of the camp grounds. Look at the detail!

–> See more photos in my Flickr album

After we spent around an hour looking around it was time for the official unveiling.

Richard Richarté, the man who had this brilliant idea 4 years ago… He must be so happy to see his dream realised.

Grand Opening ribbon cutting ceremony, with the Mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Pierre Dussurgey (second from left).

Myself with Richard Richarté. He had hundreds of people who wanted to interview him so I was humbled he took some time out out of his busy schedule to speak with me and let me take a photo with him.

and with my two little mates…

They also invited us all to try out the restaurant (cafeteria). My baguette was miam! After lunch I actually spent another hour looking at everything again where I discovered things I hadn’t seen the first time around (like Dory and Nemo  from Finding Nemo underwater, who were only about 5mm long).

I was also overjoyed that everyone else was still having lunch or had left so there was only myself and two other people there. Given that it’s so dark and has dolby stereo sound it was really an immersive experience! I felt like a kid in a candy store having the space practically all to myself.

I found myself speaking to these two men who had come all the way from Spain for this. One was a journalist who ran a model railway magazine and the other was also a model railway enthusiast having started a similar park (on a much smaller scale) in his hometown 100km south of Barcelona.

I could have easily stayed all day but I felt like I had to get home as I’d need a LOT of time to edit all the photos and videos. Speaking of videos

–> Watch the video here!

Thanks to Mini World Lyon for inviting me to the press conference. I had a great time! 🙂

–> See more photos in my Flickr album

Here are some interesting figures:

• 3,500,000 euros investment
• 200,000 metres of cables
• 70,000 hours (3 years) of work
• 40,000 trees
• 30,000 people
• 30,000 LEDs
• 6,000 vehicules (200 animated)
• 4,000 animals
• 2,500 square metres (to be 4,000 sqm when the new part is finished in 2017-2018)
• 2,000 metres of train tracks
• 300 animated scenes
• 150 trains
• 120 seats in the restaurant (350 people cocktail)
• 40 seats in the private conference room
• 20 mins for a complete transition from day to night
• 3 worlds: City, Mountains, Countryside

Here are some interesting facts:

• The park’s engineers have created “smartcars”, capable of driving themselves and regulating their speed without having a collision with the vehicle in front. If the vehicle’s battery becomes low, they will go towards a recharging station to recharge themselves!  The engineers can also control the vehicles from a distance.
• A large part of Mini World was also crowd-funded,  raising over 30,000 euros. Each donor has a house in their name and they can control the lights on their mini house from their smartphone! How cool!