Jurassic World at the Cité du Cinéma is probably the closest you’ll ever get to the “real” Jurassic Park. Luckily. Those dinosaurs were rarely in their enclosures!
Scratching about for ways to spend an overcast bank holiday in Paris – when so many things are closed – I found an attraction that had to be open, as you could book tickets online in advance (hurrah). Located slightly outside of the city, but still easily accessible on the underground, Luc Besson’s studio complex is currently hosting a Jurassic World exhibition until 2 September 2018. It also gave me the perfect excuse to invite my friend and her five-year-old to hang out, so off we went…
Staff dressed like rangers
Even for those who had bought tickets, there was some queuing involved, but the staff outside dressed like rangers only added to the excitement. Having watched every video posted online before I went (and in hindsight wished I hadn’t), I’ll try not to spoil it for you too by giving away all the surprises in store.
The sheer scale of these studios ensures the whole experience feels completely immersive – they have to hold what feel like very life-size animatronic versions of species including the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops and the one with the really long neck. Diplodocus…? Brontosaurus, maybe…? I was quite distracted by the head of this curious creature, swinging about above us, seemingly keen to introduce itself.
Touchy feely dinosaur poo
Perhaps I imagined it, but some of them definitely seemed to be watching us – you only had to watch them pretend to feed out of your hand! The star attraction was the T-Rex, of course, but Jurassic World has got it all… creation lab and touchy feely dinosaur poo included. Even the way that visitors get shepherded through the exhibits reminded me of the films.
I’m not sure some of the children were overly impressed, having been brought up their whole lives on CGI, but anyone else who thought the original Jurassic Park film was the most realistic will be in their element! If only I could have spent a bit longer inside than the allocated 1 hour per visit.
Ultimately, I can’t say the Jurassic World exhibition is the next best thing to being hunted by raptors in real life… it’s much, much better than that!
Eleanor of Angleterre 