The book captures the history, as well as the meaning and the value of the on-going partnership between the French state and the Walt Disney Company, remembering that it involved from the start more than a tourism project. It examines how the combined aspirations of the French state and the American Company transformed Val d’Europe as the sole potential location in Europe for the Company’s theme parks while allowing the state to retain its egalitarian ideals. Most critics believed the French state had caved into every demand of the Company. No one ever mentioned profits of the state that it would then invest to support other projects. The first part of the book investigates the encounter between the partners and the reasons why a welfarist state encouraged penetration by a capitalist enterprise, alongside the Company’s reasoning. The second section reveals the continued cooperation between the two entities in the management of the urbanization of Val d’Europe from the opening of the first Park and the start of a new major tourism development, in spite of criticisms and fluctuating attendance in the parks. The third part highlights more recent actions of the partners to create a formidable urban tourism pole that will attract ever more visitors, while still critically examining their effectiveness and sustainability.
