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I Am A Polar Bear

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Tag: Parc Asterix (2025)

Why doesn't anyone go to Parc Asterix? | iamapolarbear.com

Why doesn’t anyone go to Parc Asterix?

January 5, 2026

And after the usual end of year/beginning of year blogs, I’m back on the last trip of last year, my weekend at Parc Asterix. If I didn’t mention it in my post about their Gallic Christmas event, part – most – of the reason I went was that I saw one too many people on … More Why doesn’t anyone go to Parc Asterix?

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Gallic Christmas at Parc Asterix | iamapolarbear.com

Gallic Christmas at Parc Asterix

December 25, 2025

Welcome to the least festive of festive blogs ever posted on Christmas Eve! This is the tale of my trip last weekend to Parc Asterix for their Noël Gaulois, Gallic Christmas, event. If you’re not familiar with Parc Asterix, it’s a theme park north of Paris dedicated to beloved long-running French comic album character Asterix … More Gallic Christmas at Parc Asterix

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Who am I?
I'm Julie, a travel, adventure and wellness blogger. I love Iceland, I love jumping into hot water and I do love a bit of snow.

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Did you know Iceland has a geothermal beach? The golden sand is unnatural - most Icelandic sand is black, having started out as lava - but the seawater flowing in at high tide is straight from the fjord and the hot water in both the beach hot pot and the beach club hot trough are natural too, although the borehole it comes up from is probably closer to the Hengill power plant than the city. Come along with me to Iceland’s newest lagoon, Laugarás Lagoon - it was supposed to open a week after I left last summer but didn’t actually open until October, so I needed to go back to try it out, and find out what exactly a two-storey lagoon actually is. The second-most ridiculous thing I did on this trip: I hiked three kilometres across the Icelandic mountains to a hollow volcano and then rode down into it in a window washing basket. It was quite Bond-villainesque up to that point. Possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done in Iceland - dressed up as a Viking for a photoshoot! (Possibly more ridiculous that I nitpicked on the bow; Vikings don’t use recurves but the longbow was far too heavy for me). Forty minutes draped in capes and beads and runes and fur and waving an assortment of weapons around while a man with a camera attempted to bring out my inner Viking. I think Julía Skullsplitter did better than I would ever have expected - what do you think? Sunday in Scarborough was spent climbing a hill to visit a castle - well, the remains of one. This bit of cliff has been a stronghold since the Bronze Age and although it’s interesting to walk the walls and climb the keep, it’s also a very nice spot for sea views and sitting in the grass enjoying a picnic. The reason I was in Scarborough was for the Trefoil Guild annual meeting. The Trefoil Guild is Guiding for adults and in some ways it’s better than Girlguiding: no responsibility for children, because it’s adults only, and open to everyone, regardless of gender or Guiding experience. In practice, it’s almost entirely female, heavily leans towards retired leaders and is having a membership crisis because the average age is somewhere in the 60s or 70s and new members aren’t joining at quite the pace that older members are leaving. Having been a member for ten years now, I don’t stand out among them quite as much as I did when I was a mere child of 30. I really liked Scarborough! It’s got a spectacular beach with cliffs at all ends, it’s got the oldest cliff lift in the country, I had an ice cream, I walked in the shallows until I had my feet scratched to bits by sand and salt under my sandal straps and the water was an incredible colour. Not pictured: a cheese toastie from a beach kiosk, four sticks of traditional Scarborough rock and 27km walked mostly back & forth across the beach in under 48 hours. I’ve done a few train adventures in my time but this was one I was… dubious about. Southampton to Scarborough by CrossCountry (well, Southampton to York, then a quick hop by TransPennine Express to Scarborough), so basically the entire length of England. So much potential for it to all go wrong, to the point that I’d taken to saying I was “hopefully” going to Scarborough this weekend. The UK rail network doesn’t have much of a reputation for reliability and CrossCountry tends to send shorter trains than the route requires, so half the passengers end up standing, packed in shoulder to shoulder. After a slightly intimidating UK train adventure this weekend, I’m off to Iceland for some geothermal and volcanic adventures next week, so I thought I’d go back to this volcano where I inadvertently became part of a Channel 4 documentary three years ago (see link in bio and skip to 32:27!)

About Julie

I'm a blogger, adventurer, lover of hot water, amateur paddler and polar bear who wilts in hot weather. Time (by day, I'm a researcher) and funds keep me within Europe and I make regular trips up to the north, especially to Iceland. I like the occasional adventure across Europe by train and I'm starting to make use of my weekends for 48-hour adventures. This isn't my only creative outlet - I've written two travelogues (one on a winter adventure across the Arctic Circle and one on exploring volcanoes during a warm summer road trip around Iceland) plus a little book of Icelandic pools and I have a fourth book in progress right now.

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