From central Paris, use the RER line A to Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy station, at the entrance to the park; trains run every ten to 20 minutes, depending on the time of day. The journey takes from 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the departure point in Paris. By car, ‘Parc Disneyland’ is conspicuously signposted 32 km E of Paris on the A4 (Strasbourg-Paris) autoroute. There are also shuttles serving Disneyland Paris from Roissy/Charles de Gaulle and Orly Airports.

The European cousin of the Disney theme parks in California and Florida has not yet proved to be as popular as its New World counterparts. To some, the ‘magic’ of Disneyland will be not so much the atmosphere created by its attractions, but the fairytale quantities of money which have been poured into the site.

You pay around £180 (2019 price) to take in a family of two adults plus two children under 11 for one day. If you begin at say 10 am, you can’t do it all, but you can cover a satisfying selection of the main attractions and rides, provided the queues are not too bad. Whenever you go, expect to wait up to half-an-hour or more at the main entrance for tickets. Once inside, queues will depend on the time of year. At some periods, for instance in the penultimate week before Christmas, you can find it eerily empty. At others, you’ll have to wait in long lines for rides, which could quickly spoil your day, not to mention the magic.

What do you get for your money? Essentially, a fantasy world designed to appeal to both adults and children. It is like a giant outdoor stage, whose hub is Main Street U.S.A with its quaint turn-of-the-century shops and restaurants in which to spend real money, brass bands and barber shop quartets. This leads to Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, or Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (a pastiche of Ludwig ll’s Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, but nonetheless amazing), geographically the centrepiece of the park. Along this main artery, the floats and characters of the Disney World Parade bounce and roll each day at an appointed hour: for adults given to introspection, a curious and touching journey back into the 1950s and 60s.

As satellites to the main artery, you have the four ‘lands’ (the fifth being Main Street U.S.A): Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland and Discoveryland. What not to miss? An unfair question of course, but it does underline Disneyland’s main achievement: entertainment for each and everyone. A ten-year-old, asked which ride he’d choose if allowed back with time for only one, settled on Pirates of the Caribbean – a flat-bottomed boat ride through ‘scenes of pillage and plunder’ – “because of the stunts”. His six-year-old brother chose the Peter Pan ride because it zapped his imagination and “because of Captain Hook”. Their mother appreciated the Swiss Family Robinson Tree “because it was so beautifully done”. Their father’s favourite was the simulated space ride, Star Tours, for its mixture of wit (a delinquent robot takes you joy-riding through space) and its technical brilliance.

Some people’s view of Euro Disney is that it might be one of 20thC marketing man’s greatest miscalculations. Many French, particularly sophisticated Parisians, resent the presence of a U.S.-style theme park in their country.

Certainly, to visit after being in the centre of Paris, immersed in fine architecture and mellow stone, is a weird contrast.