Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant est la plus Belle de tous
Translated that means, roughly, Sleeping Beauty Castle is the fairest of them all. At least that’s what I hope it means. As I learned a couple of times in France, my French is not the best (the low-light of this “learning” was accidentally requesting that a waitress carry to our table a several-foot tall menu that was propped outside a restaurant…and she did).
Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty Castle truly is the fairest of them all. With the exception of the Enchanted Storybook Castle in Shanghai that is presently being built, I’ve now seen every version of Disney’s castles (Tokyo and Hong Kong feature substantial clones of the castles in Walt Disney World and Disneyland, respectively), so I feel fairly confident making this assessment. The other castles really don’t even come close to comparing to Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant in Disneyland Paris, either. Those discussions I’ve had with others about Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle versus Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle, with words like “quaint” and “charming” used to describe the former and “grandiose” and “majestic” used to describe the latter, now seem a bit silly. There are not enough castle-related superlatives to adequately describe the level of awesome found in Disneyland Paris’ Castle.
Much like Cinderella Castle, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is grandiose and majestic. It stands tall at the end of Main Street, beckoning guests towards it. Much like the original Sleeping Beauty Castle, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is quaint and charming, with lush landscaping and quirky details that give it a sense of childhood whimsy as if it’s something you’d actually find in a forest clearing if you stepped into a fairytale. When Imagineers designed it to contrast the “real life” castles found throughout Europe, they did an amazing job striking this balance between a real piece of architecture and a whimsical setting more appropriate to unicorns and leprechauns (I spotted neither, by the way). Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant doesn’t just offer the most interesting attractions of any of the Disney castles I’ve ever entered (photos of its dragon don’t even begin to do that sucker justice…we visited him every time we passed near the Castle), it also offers several walkways and paths through, under, and around it to explore.
Thanks to these various paths, there really are a myriad of interesting angles to photograph Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Unfortunately, at night many of these become inaccessible because of Disney Dreams, and during the days we visited, fog and overcast skies precluded most photography. The overcast skies cleared for about one hour of our trip–total. The second such time, we were over in the abysmal Walt Disney Studios Park, and immediately rushed over to Disneyland Paris to make use of what we knew would be limited time for photography. I took way too many photos in that window, including this one and a number of others around Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Later that afternoon, just as the sun was about to set (around 5 pm this time of year in France), the sky teased another clearing and what could have been a glorious sunset before quickly becoming overcast again. It’s probably a good thing the sky precluded good photography during most daylight hours, as I wouldn’t have had the hard drive or memory card space for full days of shooting! From that perspective, thinking optimistically, I guess we were…lucky?
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Technical details: shot with a Nikon D600 with a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 Lens. See our guide for more photography equipment recommendations.
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C’est du beau français! Nice French! Glad you enjoyed Paris and Disney. I love that castle and how you can walk inside!
In addition to the whimsical architecture itself, the landscaping does seem to help a great deal in adding to the fairy-tale milieu of the Paris castle, especially the fact that the castle appears to grow out of it organically. The Disneyland castle has some lovely landscaping nearby (Snow White’s Grotto and the Matterhorn when in view behind the castle from certain angles), but Cinderella’s Castle at WDW, for all it’s glory, has always seemed to be situated in a very well kept city park (when the Swan Boats plied the waters, it could have passed for Boston’s Public Garden). Apart from those observations, I’m sure I speak for many when I say I am enthusiastically anticipating reading of your adventures in (hopefully) upcoming Paris trip reports.
I definitely agree that it’s appearance is greatly enhanced when viewed from those angles where it appears to organically sprout from the ground. If you view Cinderella Castle from the path over by Sleepy Hollow, I think it has some of that forest-like charm, but it’s just not the same as what you’ll find in Disneyland or Disneyland Paris. I can’t wait to photograph the Hong Kong castle with the mountains in the background. Now I’ll bet that’s a spectacular sight!
There’s no doubt this is the best Disney castle.
I think there might be some doubt once Shanghai Disneyland opens. Have you seen the concept for that? WOW.