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[Cafefantasia:] When Euro Disney opened in April 1992, they sold a book in the park’s shops about the architecture of the resort, called Euro Disney: Connaissance des Arts, at a cost of 55 French Francs. Sadly the book is no longer in publication, but I was able to get hold of a copy and type up their great interview with Tony Baxter in which he explained how the park was designed. […]

CdA: The majority of visitors to Euro Disneyland will be European. You have certainly taken that fact into account in your design of the park. What are some of the differences between the French and U.S. versions of the Magic Kingdom?

TB: We have taken American themes like Main Street, U.S.A., and enriched them so that they become readable for a European audience. We have also added areas, for example in Discoveryland, which are based on French or European culture.

Let me take the example of Main Street. When we did our early research we realised that the Europeans, and particularly the French, seem to prefer a little bit more substance than American audiences. To be perfectly clear, they felt that the American approach was too shallow, and that we needed to temper down the commercial aspect of the presentation.

The entry process itself is another example of the difference in cultural attitudes between the United States and France. The approach to the Palace of Versailles or to the Louvre through the Tuileries Garden set the mood before you enter the castles themselves. The entrance to Disneyland in California is simply marked by a series of ticket booths.

We offer a very grand public space that is American in its imagery, but European in terms of its layout and its function. Given the local climate it was also necessary to cover the ticketing area, which is not the case in California. Climate was also the reason that we incorporated a series of arcades and covered spaces that link all the attractions.

On Main Street, we wanted to create the atmosphere of an American town, but we cannot expect everyone here to fully understand that imagery so we tried to tell more of story, to create a little more romance.

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