The Telfers in France: Walibi

The children posing with the park mascot "Walibi"

The girls and I Went to Walibi, a fun park about an hour away, for the day on Saturday. And what a day it was, absolutely packed with fun and excitement. We went with a group of people from Sainte Marie d'Alloix - a bus full of kids and some adult supervisors. It was an outing that the young people had been raising money for for months, and was supported by the Mairie, so it only cost us 10 euros per child.
I was allocated a group of 5 and 6-year-olds to supervise along with the mother of one of the other girls.

A very sedate ride in a fibreglass "wallaby"

We started off on quite sedate rides — a merry-go-round, a little steam train puffing through the park, a boat ride which became less sedate as we got deeper into the created jungle and wild beasts became monsters, a huge spider jumped down in front, and a cascade of water rocked the boat. Our group ended up joining with Sophie's group as some of the younger kids didn't want to be apart from their mothers, who were supervising Sophie's group. That's why the rides got scarier. The roller coaster, which I wouldn't have gone on only Odette is under 120cm tall so needed to be accompanied, was the one that made me lose my appetite. I'm glad we went on that before lunch and not after, although I nearly had to stay on it. The supervisor thought I wanted another turn — but I only stayed on because I couldn't get out! I was stuck and the safety bar wouldn't unlatch. Odette could easily slip out, but not I. The supervisor brought a spanner, but I don't think she knew what to do with it and was no help. Onlookers were very helpful telling me to put this leg out, put both legs out, try going that way, etc etc. in moves reminiscent of a game of Twister. But now is as good a time as any to acknowledge my child-bearing hips (ok then, obesity) as I remained stuck. Then one of my friends got behind the bar and pushed, which moved it just far enough to let me slip out. To a huge round of applause. Talk about embarrassing!!!

After lunch the water park section was open, so we went and pretended it was summer (the weather was cool and there was a slight breeze) and frolic in the "heated" water. The water temperature was meant to be 20 C, which still felt extremely cold to me. The water park had scary looking slides, and I thank Sophie for making me go on the smallest of the four so that I could experience it. I am certainly no dare-devil (yes I'm a wuss) and I can't understand why people pay money to do those rides. There was something for all ages from the very shallow pool with life-like turtles and tiny slides, to the deeper one that was decorated with crocodiles and had slides that we more fun and surprising, to the wave pool that was like a beach and created real waves.