"The beautiful island of Corsica is represented by a lump of mud in a pond." is such a powerful dig at the politics of geography displayed in the park.
You can see a reproduction of the Vatican at the similar "Italia in Miniatura" park, located in the suburbs of Rimini. After passing by its entrance hundreds of times (I live just a fey minutes away) I realize only now that it should really be called "Italia e San Marino e Vaticano in Miniatura" instead.
There's a mini-Indonesia inside Indonesia as well, but sadly without the scaled models. It's part of an educational park just like this one called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta. The park opened in April 1975 as a synopsis of Indonesian culture, with virtually all aspects of daily life in Indonesia's provinces encapsulated in separate pavilions with the pavilions designed in the different styles of the many ethnic groups (rumah adat), clothing, dances and traditions are all depicted impeccably. There is a mosque, Catholic church, Protestant church, a Aliran Kepercayaan temple (native religions), Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and a Confucian temple to represent the different religions of the country. At the time in April 1975, Indonesia had 26 provinces, so 26 big pavilions were constructed surrounding a lake with the mini-Indonesia in the middle. When Timor Leste was annexed in December 1975, they built a smaller pavilion for it (which is now just the Museum of East Timor after East Timor got its independence in 2002) and as other provinces were created (currently 34), other smaller pavilions were built.
And this is the location on Google Maps. Area Tmii Jl. Taman Mini Indonesia Indah No.7, Ceger, Kec. Cipayung, Kota Jakarta Timur, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 13820, Indonesië
Toronto has a museum called Little Canada, which started out as one man's ambition to create an authentic true to scale miniature replica of all of Toronto's neighborhoods & now incorporates other Canadian cities as well. I've never seen a park shaped like a country before though.
This parc opened when I was very young, and it's exactly where I learned about canal locks. I'm glad it's still there 30 years later, the miniatures are amazing and it's a delightful visit.
Can we all take a moment to enjoy Tim’s wonderful pronunciations as a none native French speaker and flipping back and forth to his regular way of pronouncing words. I’d end up saying the French words all English or start speaking English while maintaining a French accent if I tried!
You have to tell people what to think after watching a vid? lol I know... a "Can we all take a moment..." comment will get you a bunch of thumbs up. Congrats.
@@martinc.720 I want to tell Tim that I appreciate his work and his efforts yes? Isn’t that what the comments are for? Thats my way of letting Tim know that the effort he’s put in does not go un-noticed. I put massive detailed effort into some of my videos and no one notices and it’s deflating so want to spread positive energy when I notice the little things (although his command of many languages is far from little!)
That is one of the advantages of being fluent in multiple languages and one of the first things you do when learning another language, especially when visiting the country, is to learn to pronounce place names correctly in the local language.
Fort Boyard is actually really familiar to me as a Swede because they used to shoot a reality show called Fångarna På Fortet (captives in the fort) there!
Yes, I think several countries ran such shows at that location, but usually only one or two seasons, while in France they never get enough of it. Kind of "des Chiffres et des Lettres"...
Yes, that tune at the end is kraftily werked into the background....et aussi, it sounds like it's being played on an accordion by someone in a striped black and white t-shirt..
Fun fact, I lived the first 15 years of my life in Élancourt, just one kilometer away from France Miniature, and the road you showed on screen was the one I used countless times to go to school! It’s so nice to see someone covering this park on TH-cam, and talking about my good old town ❤ And you wanna know the craziest thing in all of this? I’ve been to France Miniature only once in my entire life. 😂😭
This is fantastic! As someone who has been involved with Bekonscot Model Village in England for 18 years I always love to see another Model Village. I'll definitely endeavour to visit this one. Love their Model Railway with The Cassandra Crossing viaduct!
Man, once you mentioned the landscaping with the mountains and rivers, that just seems really frickin cool and impressive! (and like something EVERY country could and absolutely should do!)
@@Unpseudopascommelesautres Apprends à écrire Brittany en anglais d'abord, et ensuite remballe tes clichés de parisien. En Bretagne, la pluie ne mouille que les cons, j'espère que t'as un sèche-linge...
I live in Versailles near Paris, and I have to say that it is actually really cool to be able to find nearly any kind of nature at maximum 8 hours of car in my own country ! France is really cool for that, and for the diversity given by our neighbor Germans, Brits, Spanish, Swedish and the Belgians, as soon as we get closer to one of these countries, it is felt in the local culture, which is why there is so much cultural and culinary diversity in France. But one of my biggest dream still is to visit USA i'd looove to go to Yosemite park. Anyway have a good day !
We used to go there with the "centre de loisirs" (which is kind of a summer activity centre, I guess)! If you want to see more stunning models while staying in Paris, you should try the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in the Hôtel des Invalides. They have a recreation of the Mont Saint Michel as well
Arc-et-Senans salt mines - one of the first modern factory towns in the world built in the 1700s. Learnt about this during my uni years. Such an interesting place.
Just wanted to quickly thank you for putting the wheelchair accessibility info ! Although I'm no longer in a wheelchair, I actually once went to France Miniature in a wheelchair because of an illness I had. Listening to the wheelchair info was pretty weird for me this time :P ! It has some rough mountainous slopes, and IIRC, there is a little section which is not accessible by wheelchair, but, otherwise it's a very cool park to go to by wheelchair !
4:00 "The beautiful island of Corsica is represented by a lump of mud in a pond": ouchies 😳😆😆 5:26 "Catch a #420 bus in the direction of well.........never mind" 😂😂😂😂
There is something similar near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Austria. It's called Minimundus. It's not a miniature version of Austria, because Austria is very small already, but is' models of sights from around the world, complete with minature boats and trains and at least 20 years ago, they even had mini Tourmaster buses going round.
Since 1959 there is a similar (but not Swiss-shaped) park in Switzerland, named Swissminiatur, located in the town of Melide at the lake of Lugano. But it's in 1/25 scale and it has even more trains (about 3.5 km in track length) and cable cars - well, it's Switzerland...
You've just reminded my of why I got so annoyed in Orléans, where I found the cathedral shut. On a Sunday morning! On asking why it wasn't open I was met with a shrug, and the reply, "Well it's a Sunday". I've never quite got to the bottom of that one. Otherwise brilliant!
Italia in Miniatura is just a few minutes away from where I live, I've been there many times as a child. It even has the same kind of model railways running across the "country", but with Frecciarossa trainsets. Besides the miniatures there are also other attractions, such as a larger scale recreation of Venice that you see from small guided boats and some roller coasters. And there's also a similar theme park in Switzerland, it's called Swissminiatur and it's located near Lugano.
strange! i'm french and i didn't know this park but i know other parks that Tim can be interested to visit (an early 1900's village in Dordogne named Le Bournat, a antique gallic village named Coriobonna, and a medieval castle still being buold nowadays called Guédelon and in all of these places people are dressed with time accurate clothes)
But does France Miniature have a mini-France Miniature inside as well? And does that mini-France Miniature have a mini-mini-France-Miniature? And does that mini-mini-France-Miniature have a micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature? And does that micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature have a nano-micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature?......
Fun Mathematics Fact: if you have a smaller map of a larger territory inside the territory (like France Miniature inside France), then under very reasonable assumptions you can mathematically guarantee that there's a point somewhere on the map that is identical to the point in the territory. A point in France Miniature that maps exactly to that same spot in France.
A couple years back when my son was 6 I took him to an actual lock on the Marne river to show him how locks work... well, it went exactly as you described X)
When my younger brother was about 10, and a huge football fan, we took him on a trip. We told him we were going to watch some ships pass through a lock. He was bored before we even left the house. His excitement only grew when he realised that we were entering the car park at the football stadium, and when he found out we had actually taken him to watch his favourite club's public training session.
In Finland we have a Finland shaped lake called Neitokainen at Kittilä, Lapland. The lake was the idea of a local travel business owner Esko Sääskilahti in 1991. Today the lake is popular for taking cool drone shots from above :)
@@piuthemagicman Ok but (most of) the other 1000 (or many more) lakes at least are natural? Or are you Finns like us Dutch, and shaping the entire country to your liking?
Speaking of giant train sets, all those trains move WAY too fast considering their scale. Very common mistake. Only Miniatur Wunderland do it exactly right IMO. Splendid vid, never knew this existed!
I was in Madurodam recently, for the first time in decades - just look it up - and wow, their trains are running at "proper" speeds, too. There's even a Thalys-service (Amsterdam-Paris IRL) and yes, those ARE fast. Everything running on functional catenary, as well. @@zsideswapper6718
Happened to be driving across France back from the Alps on Thursday when I got the notification for this video and figured if Tim's been then it's probably worth a look without even watching it! Had an excellent couple of hours wandering around learning about French geography, absolutely worth stopping in of you're nearby 👍
Hey, I remember visiting the Italian equivalent of this when I was a kid! No idea where it is or of it's still operating though Edit, it is, it's in Rimini! Apparently you can get on a small boat in mini-venice too
One thing (but definitely not the only thing) I love about your videos is the music! It always makes me smile after the 10 seconds or so it takes my brain to work out what it is.
One of the things I love about your piano Kraftwerk covers is how they highlight all the ways they used a deep understanding of harmony in their work. Not that that was unique for influential electronic musicians, but some people have a hard time "hearing past" the unique instrumentation to notice how much classical influence there really was on electronic music. While a piano cover does the job of "hearing past" the synthesisers, and highlights the compositional decisions even more starkly!
Thanks Tim, I wish I'd known about this place when I had family in Paris! I grew up close to Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, UK, which is home to Beckonscot Model Village, one of my favourite places in all of time and space. MiniEurope in Brussels is also pretty cool.
Fun Fact: in brussels just next to the atomium there is a park like this but for all of europe called: mini europe. Personally as a French i visited both France miniature and Mini Europe and it's really cool!
There's also a miniature Indonesia inside Indonesia called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (lit. "Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park"), but sadly the currently viewable aerial imagery on Google Maps is from when it was under renovation last year. It's not as elaborate as this, though.
Only France have such a parc that represent the country geography with precise topology too and others countries obviously don't have much to fill compared to France.@@urbanfile3861
I was stuck in Paris alone over a weekend for business about 15 years ago, a bit loney and a bored. I decided to grab a flyer from the hotel lobby and do something. And that thing was France Miniature. Getting there via public transport was an adventure in the pre-smartphone era, but it was such a goofy and delightful experience. I arrived on the last day of the season and at the time I think they were not well prepared for an English-speaking tourist, but they were friendly and dug up an english-language cassette tour thingee. Overall a totally great experience that made a lonely weekend a lot of fun! I've never been to Versailles, but I passed it on the train on my way to miniature Versailles...
Me, an American, realizing Miniature is obviously a French word and that in the first minute of a Tim Traveller I've learned something that Tim never intended me to feels great. Me learning I can take bus #420 to a miniature France in France is just a bonus.
If these kinds of Parcs are interesting for a video, you might want to check out Mini Europe in Brussels (right next to one of the most impressive monuments on the continent in my opinion, the Atomium). Although not geographically accurate, the models are all very impressive and it might close for good in a few years so now's the time to visit!
I live in Rambouillet and let me tell you that this park is one of my best childhood memories! There also is a small area when children can play so it was the perfect place for sunday afternoon fun.
There are a couple relief maps of Colombia, one in the Jaime Duque park in Briceño, and another one in Parque Nacional in Bogotá. It’s amazing to see the mountains in a size that’s easier to grasp even when you’re in the middle of them. Neither of them have any scale models of cities and places in them, but still you can argue they show all the best parts of the country.
I don't know why i'm here, but i'm very happy, i used to go there a bunch when i was a kid because my brother would do rugby near it, so i'd wait with my mom at that park during his practice. Thanks for the memories !!
That's very impressive. Instantly greatly multiplied the number of places in France I'd like to go to. Particularly Carcassonne. That's a real town? I'm from York in the UK and it makes York look like a walled beer garden (which it basically is). If that's a real place, I'm amazed I've never even heard of it. Definitely high on my list of places to visit.
Carcassonne is definitely a real town😂 Most of the time, they’re busy waging wars on Toulouse and Castelnaudary - and vice versa - about who invented cassoulet first. Hence the double-fortified wall😂
I'm amazed you've never heard of it if you're from York, because I'm from just down the road in Nottingham and it's one of THE destinations of note, after Paris. Although that might only be because there are direct flights from East Midlands Airport.
Thank you for sharing it! 😊 Although I'm French, I had never heard about France Miniature. It could be very interesting to visit it with children, to make them discover the richness of their country.
I live really close to Italia in Miniatura, so I've seen it many times, I really loved the model trains when I was a child! Besides the miniatures, unlike its French counterpart, it also has other attractions, such as a few roller coasters and a replica of Venice. It also used to have a nice monorail loop, but it has been recently dismantled.
This is a really nice big little park, so much nicer than Mini France, which I honestly don't know if still exist; we were last there in 1987. And not sure if that was the actual name in French, just remember we happened upon it in the guidebook one time we flipped through it during a lunch stop, but we were promptly disappointed once we went there - a few sad model buildings in bit of grass, and not much else (that I remember, anyway. I was 11 and couldn't care less back then). But might be something for Tim to investigate And while we're on model parks in parks: In Knuthenborg park in southern Denmark, they have a model of Lolland (the island they're on) and surrounding islands. Along with model steam trains you can ride, which are a totally different scale than the model island
Hey, I'm from Arc-et-Senans which is the village "I'd never heard of but I want to go there", and this is the "Saline Royale". So happy to see my little village in a vidéo
This reminds me of the Minimundus park in Klagenfurt, Austria. They have loads of miniatures of buildings from around the world, all in 1 to 25 scale. You should check it out if you are ever in the area!
Now that's a perfect paradise for train model lovers and enthusiasts. If i will ever visit France woth family again, I will make sure to visit that place. (Oh yes, the famous Fort Boyard with the show under the same name. I liked watching it.)
I remember going there with my class when I was in middle school. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the miniature trains running everywhere around the park, it was great
Most French things tend to overrepresent paris compared to other parts of France. Which admittedly, this is just outside Paris, but you'd think the Parisans would be more interested in seeing the things that aren't right nearby
This brings to mind the New Yorker cartoon depicting a map of exaggerated, imperial perspective on the rest of America. I don’t think the Parisians are terribly different.
Not really. Paris literally has much more monuments than the rest of France because of the history of France. Also the parc isn't for parisians per say, I went with school all the way from the south east. Also people who live in Elancourt don't really go to Versailles every weekend. 1h away from Paris is actually quite far in french terms.
Fun fact: the world’s oldest cycling race is Paris-Brest-Paris or PBP, started in 1891 with 206 French riders. In August 2023 the event will attract up to 8,000 enthusiasts, from 70 countries, including Australia. They’ll ride 1,200 kilometres, within 90 hours.
In Italy there are two parks of this kind representing Italy on scale. One in Rimini, which is called Italia in Miniatura , and one between Milan and Bergamo, at Capriate, which once was called Minitalia but now has the name Leolandia, because it became a wider park with more actractions
If there isn’t a mini version of France Miniature within France Miniature then I will be very disappointed! 😂
I was thinking the same 😊
Unfortunately no, Versailles, which is at 10km of it, takes its spot.
@@adrien5568 *shakes miniature fist in rage*
Always remember the second rule of model railways!
you beat me to it. there needs to be modelception happening.
"The beautiful island of Corsica is represented by a lump of mud in a pond." is such a powerful dig at the politics of geography displayed in the park.
At least it's in mud. The entire city of Nice is missing!
@@CallieMasters5000Well, that’s not Nice
@@PineappleSkip *boom boom* as Basil Brush would say!!
*Angry Napoleon murmur noises.
They had something, but… It got disappeared.
There was a loud bang, and that’s it. Nothing suspicious. Go back to sleep.
I want to see a Vatican City version where the park is actually larger than the country.
You can see a reproduction of the Vatican at the similar "Italia in Miniatura" park, located in the suburbs of Rimini. After passing by its entrance hundreds of times (I live just a fey minutes away) I realize only now that it should really be called "Italia e San Marino e Vaticano in Miniatura" instead.
@@LucaPasini2 there is also MiniItalia near Bergamo. It was first opened in 1971, and now it is part of a amusement park called Leoandia
@@LucaPasini2 I "think" it was just a joke....
That's called Italy.
Yeah, with St.Peter in 30:1 scale such that the real St.Peter fits into the model.
There's a mini-Indonesia inside Indonesia as well, but sadly without the scaled models. It's part of an educational park just like this one called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta. The park opened in April 1975 as a synopsis of Indonesian culture, with virtually all aspects of daily life in Indonesia's provinces encapsulated in separate pavilions with the pavilions designed in the different styles of the many ethnic groups (rumah adat), clothing, dances and traditions are all depicted impeccably. There is a mosque, Catholic church, Protestant church, a Aliran Kepercayaan temple (native religions), Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and a Confucian temple to represent the different religions of the country.
At the time in April 1975, Indonesia had 26 provinces, so 26 big pavilions were constructed surrounding a lake with the mini-Indonesia in the middle. When Timor Leste was annexed in December 1975, they built a smaller pavilion for it (which is now just the Museum of East Timor after East Timor got its independence in 2002) and as other provinces were created (currently 34), other smaller pavilions were built.
And this is the location on Google Maps.
Area Tmii Jl. Taman Mini Indonesia Indah No.7, Ceger, Kec. Cipayung, Kota Jakarta Timur, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 13820, Indonesië
Toronto has a museum called Little Canada, which started out as one man's ambition to create an authentic true to scale miniature replica of all of Toronto's neighborhoods & now incorporates other Canadian cities as well.
I've never seen a park shaped like a country before though.
You should look up on Freedomland USA which is shaped like... The US...
is the one at the corner of dundas and yong? is it any good? Kind of just looked like a weird thing in the basement when I saw the sign.
@@sadmanh0 it's a very interesting exhibit
Ive always seen signs for this and have been meaning to go, is it any good?
In Luxembourg there's a miniature park that's actually bigger than the country itself.
This parc opened when I was very young, and it's exactly where I learned about canal locks. I'm glad it's still there 30 years later, the miniatures are amazing and it's a delightful visit.
So you had the patience. Tim doubted kids would have it
An amusement park made by geography nerds? The perfect place for Tim. I hope you make videos on all of the sites you haven't visited yet.
Tim never failing to put Kraftwerk's covers as musical puns , these make my days :)
I knew I knew that melody!
🤔
Those to be exact (The model and Tour de France are used in the video)
Is the use of Kraftwerk in the soundtrack hommage to historic German 'holidays' in France .. say in 1939?
So glad to see other Kraftwerk fans here!
Could have had some Trans Europe Express as well!
Can we all take a moment to enjoy Tim’s wonderful pronunciations as a none native French speaker and flipping back and forth to his regular way of pronouncing words. I’d end up saying the French words all English or start speaking English while maintaining a French accent if I tried!
You have to tell people what to think after watching a vid? lol
I know... a "Can we all take a moment..." comment will get you a bunch of thumbs up. Congrats.
@@martinc.720 I want to tell Tim that I appreciate his work and his efforts yes? Isn’t that what the comments are for? Thats my way of letting Tim know that the effort he’s put in does not go un-noticed. I put massive detailed effort into some of my videos and no one notices and it’s deflating so want to spread positive energy when I notice the little things (although his command of many languages is far from little!)
Gentlemen, you can't comment in here, this is the comment section!
That is one of the advantages of being fluent in multiple languages and one of the first things you do when learning another language, especially when visiting the country, is to learn to pronounce place names correctly in the local language.
@@automotivetales i think the hyphen is not necessary in un-noticed
Fort Boyard is actually really familiar to me as a Swede because they used to shoot a reality show called Fångarna På Fortet (captives in the fort) there!
Yes, I think several countries ran such shows at that location, but usually only one or two seasons, while in France they never get enough of it.
Kind of "des Chiffres et des Lettres"...
Yes a lot of countries shot their TV show here.
@@LostouilleSuch a unique location, nowhere there is something comparable.
I wouldn't say "used to", since the swedish version is currently airing it's 24th season. lol
The Fort Boyard TV game was created in 1990 or 1991 in France and it's still running. Very popular to watch and challenging for people who do it.
Can’t get enough of the background songs and how they tie to the content of the video.😊
Yes, that tune at the end is kraftily werked into the background....et aussi, it sounds like it's being played on an accordion by someone in a striped black and white t-shirt..
Fun fact, I lived the first 15 years of my life in Élancourt, just one kilometer away from France Miniature, and the road you showed on screen was the one I used countless times to go to school!
It’s so nice to see someone covering this park on TH-cam, and talking about my good old town ❤
And you wanna know the craziest thing in all of this? I’ve been to France Miniature only once in my entire life. 😂😭
This is fantastic! As someone who has been involved with Bekonscot Model Village in England for 18 years I always love to see another Model Village. I'll definitely endeavour to visit this one. Love their Model Railway with The Cassandra Crossing viaduct!
Man, once you mentioned the landscaping with the mountains and rivers, that just seems really frickin cool and impressive! (and like something EVERY country could and absolutely should do!)
I demand you visit the Dutch miniature called Madurodam. While not an exact copy of The Netherlands it’s a very cool attraction.
I love how the French went 2 steps further.
I was reminded of the many times we visited Madurodam growing up in the Hague in the 80s.
There's also miniworld Rotterdam
and while you're at it, you might as well pay a visit to miniatur wunderland in hamburg
@@Aelsenaer The French based this off Madurodam actually, Madurodam opened in 1952. It is the oldest miniature of a country in the world.
Tim, once again, you've been very clever. "Das Model" is both a personal favorite and such an appropriate musical accompaniment. Well done!
France really is a particulary diverse and beautiful place. Thanks for the video! Now I want to go again 🙂
So true. Diverse landscape from the south to north ! Heavy rain in Britanny and sunshine in the south !
@@Unpseudopascommelesautres Apprends à écrire Brittany en anglais d'abord, et ensuite remballe tes clichés de parisien. En Bretagne, la pluie ne mouille que les cons, j'espère que t'as un sèche-linge...
It is one of the only country I know where people in north cook with butter and south with olive oil and both are masters
I live in Versailles near Paris, and I have to say that it is actually really cool to be able to find nearly any kind of nature at maximum 8 hours of car in my own country ! France is really cool for that, and for the diversity given by our neighbor Germans, Brits, Spanish, Swedish and the Belgians, as soon as we get closer to one of these countries, it is felt in the local culture, which is why there is so much cultural and culinary diversity in France. But one of my biggest dream still is to visit USA i'd looove to go to Yosemite park.
Anyway have a good day !
We used to go there with the "centre de loisirs" (which is kind of a summer activity centre, I guess)! If you want to see more stunning models while staying in Paris, you should try the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in the Hôtel des Invalides. They have a recreation of the Mont Saint Michel as well
Oui, les Plans Reliefs, ça vaut véritablement le voyage !!! j'y suis allé il y a quelques mois, c'est le "Google Earth" en réalité ... réelle !
Arc-et-Senans salt mines - one of the first modern factory towns in the world built in the 1700s. Learnt about this during my uni years. Such an interesting place.
It's a gorgeous place.
At 1:20 in case you don't know it.
Just wanted to quickly thank you for putting the wheelchair accessibility info ! Although I'm no longer in a wheelchair, I actually once went to France Miniature in a wheelchair because of an illness I had. Listening to the wheelchair info was pretty weird for me this time :P ! It has some rough mountainous slopes, and IIRC, there is a little section which is not accessible by wheelchair, but, otherwise it's a very cool park to go to by wheelchair !
One of the things I love about this channel, definitely
"although im no longer in a wheelchair"
bro is Johnny Joestar 💀
4:00 "The beautiful island of Corsica is represented by a lump of mud in a pond": ouchies 😳😆😆
5:26 "Catch a #420 bus in the direction of well.........never mind" 😂😂😂😂
There is something similar near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Austria. It's called Minimundus. It's not a miniature version of Austria, because Austria is very small already, but is' models of sights from around the world, complete with minature boats and trains and at least 20 years ago, they even had mini Tourmaster buses going round.
Yup, been there.... probably also around 20 years ago 😅
something like that exists in the city of lichtenstein in saxony as well
Since 1959 there is a similar (but not Swiss-shaped) park in Switzerland, named Swissminiatur, located in the town of Melide at the lake of Lugano.
But it's in 1/25 scale and it has even more trains (about 3.5 km in track length) and cable cars - well, it's Switzerland...
Finally, a place on this channel I visited! I grew up a few kilometres from there, I visited this place a couple of times as a child.
You've just reminded my of why I got so annoyed in Orléans, where I found the cathedral shut. On a Sunday morning! On asking why it wasn't open I was met with a shrug, and the reply, "Well it's a Sunday". I've never quite got to the bottom of that one.
Otherwise brilliant!
Haha! That sounds like a perfectly Gallic explanation.
OMG! How did I not know of the existence of that.
I love how you switched to a piano theme of Fort Boyard during that section 😁
Now I know why there are always giants around monuments when I travel in France and visit places. I live inside the miniature France!
Your Kraftwerk's cover of "Das Model" is genious, Tim. Love these little (hehe) details in your videos
Very pretty! There is also an "Italia in Miniatura" near Rimini and Madurodam, a mini-Holland near The Hague.
Yup, the latter being the inspiration for all the others.
@@apveeningMadurodam was inspired on Beconscot 😊, including the charity objectives.
There is a Suisse Miniature near Lugano.
Italia in Miniatura is just a few minutes away from where I live, I've been there many times as a child. It even has the same kind of model railways running across the "country", but with Frecciarossa trainsets. Besides the miniatures there are also other attractions, such as a larger scale recreation of Venice that you see from small guided boats and some roller coasters.
And there's also a similar theme park in Switzerland, it's called Swissminiatur and it's located near Lugano.
No freaking way!
If only someone had told us this before in the comments!
strange! i'm french and i didn't know this park but i know other parks that Tim can be interested to visit (an early 1900's village in Dordogne named Le Bournat, a antique gallic village named Coriobonna, and a medieval castle still being buold nowadays called Guédelon and in all of these places people are dressed with time accurate clothes)
But does France Miniature have a mini-France Miniature inside as well? And does that mini-France Miniature have a mini-mini-France-Miniature? And does that mini-mini-France-Miniature have a micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature? And does that micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature have a nano-micro-mini-mini-France-Miniature?......
Droste effect France, it must be done!
Fun Mathematics Fact: if you have a smaller map of a larger territory inside the territory (like France Miniature inside France), then under very reasonable assumptions you can mathematically guarantee that there's a point somewhere on the map that is identical to the point in the territory. A point in France Miniature that maps exactly to that same spot in France.
Unfortunately no, Versailles, which is at 10km of it, takes its spot.
"You're very clever, young man, but it's Frances all the way down."
Fractal France FTW
A couple years back when my son was 6 I took him to an actual lock on the Marne river to show him how locks work... well, it went exactly as you described X)
When my younger brother was about 10, and a huge football fan, we took him on a trip. We told him we were going to watch some ships pass through a lock. He was bored before we even left the house.
His excitement only grew when he realised that we were entering the car park at the football stadium, and when he found out we had actually taken him to watch his favourite club's public training session.
My money is on building a giant train set! But a lovely mini tour of France Miniature
Hats off to Tim for the soundtrack choice! Kraftwerk's Das Model and Tour de France put a smile on my face every time I hear them.
In Finland we have a Finland shaped lake called Neitokainen at Kittilä, Lapland. The lake was the idea of a local travel business owner Esko Sääskilahti in 1991. Today the lake is popular for taking cool drone shots from above :)
So that lake is not natural but it was dug by humans?
Are we on something, what about the other 1000 lakes?
@@Rob2 It's man made, we didn't have a natural miniature lake Finland ☹️
@@piuthemagicman Ok but (most of) the other 1000 (or many more) lakes at least are natural?
Or are you Finns like us Dutch, and shaping the entire country to your liking?
@@Rob2 Out of the around 168 000 lakes in Finland, some 50 are manmade.
That Finland shaped lake was supposed to become a huge tourist attraction and make money. The tourists and money part didn't happen.
Speaking of giant train sets, all those trains move WAY too fast considering their scale. Very common mistake. Only Miniatur Wunderland do it exactly right IMO. Splendid vid, never knew this existed!
The monuments are purposedly too big in the first place.
And the TGV ones maybe aren't "too fast" 🤭
I was in Madurodam recently, for the first time in decades - just look it up - and wow, their trains are running at "proper" speeds, too. There's even a Thalys-service (Amsterdam-Paris IRL) and yes, those ARE fast. Everything running on functional catenary, as well. @@zsideswapper6718
The French trains are the fastest commercial trains in the world (TGV) with a max speed record of 574.8 km/h (~360mph)
@@irov5884 574.8 km/m was only during a test run. The actual commercial speed is up to 320 km/h, with an average of 270 km/h
I grew up in the suburb of Elancourt, nice to see you talk about our small amusement park France Miniature !
Happened to be driving across France back from the Alps on Thursday when I got the notification for this video and figured if Tim's been then it's probably worth a look without even watching it! Had an excellent couple of hours wandering around learning about French geography, absolutely worth stopping in of you're nearby 👍
Hey, I remember visiting the Italian equivalent of this when I was a kid! No idea where it is or of it's still operating though
Edit, it is, it's in Rimini! Apparently you can get on a small boat in mini-venice too
There is even another near Bergamo
The use Kraftwerk covers The Model and Tour de France as background music are SO satisfying. This does not go unnoticed!
I am French and I never heard about this. I LOVE IT.
One thing (but definitely not the only thing) I love about your videos is the music! It always makes me smile after the 10 seconds or so it takes my brain to work out what it is.
Très bonne idée d'activité avec les enfants. Merci, Tim !
Tiens un français !
Au moins je suis pas le seul...
@@psirvent8 Une Française, oui 😊 J'adore les vidéos de Tim. Elles sont toujours intéressantes.
One of the things I love about your piano Kraftwerk covers is how they highlight all the ways they used a deep understanding of harmony in their work.
Not that that was unique for influential electronic musicians, but some people have a hard time "hearing past" the unique instrumentation to notice how much classical influence there really was on electronic music. While a piano cover does the job of "hearing past" the synthesisers, and highlights the compositional decisions even more starkly!
Yes, they are really in the line of the European "classical" composers! Beautiful melodies and harmonies.
Thanks Tim, I wish I'd known about this place when I had family in Paris! I grew up close to Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, UK, which is home to Beckonscot Model Village, one of my favourite places in all of time and space. MiniEurope in Brussels is also pretty cool.
Fun Fact:
in brussels just next to the atomium there is a park like this but for all of europe called: mini europe.
Personally as a French i visited both France miniature and Mini Europe and it's really cool!
There's also a miniature Indonesia inside Indonesia called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (lit. "Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park"), but sadly the currently viewable aerial imagery on Google Maps is from when it was under renovation last year. It's not as elaborate as this, though.
And there is a Mini Siam in Thailand.
At least that park has a "Children's Castle" that would make any Disney Park blush due to its size...
Mais mdrrr. C'est génial ! Je n'étais même pas au courant d'une telle chose c'est merveilleux.
Vive notre France ! 🇫🇷
I think every country ought to have one of those!
That's really cool!
Many countries have it, actually
Only France have such a parc that represent the country geography with precise topology too and others countries obviously don't have much to fill compared to France.@@urbanfile3861
I was stuck in Paris alone over a weekend for business about 15 years ago, a bit loney and a bored. I decided to grab a flyer from the hotel lobby and do something. And that thing was France Miniature. Getting there via public transport was an adventure in the pre-smartphone era, but it was such a goofy and delightful experience. I arrived on the last day of the season and at the time I think they were not well prepared for an English-speaking tourist, but they were friendly and dug up an english-language cassette tour thingee. Overall a totally great experience that made a lonely weekend a lot of fun!
I've never been to Versailles, but I passed it on the train on my way to miniature Versailles...
Hope you enjoyed your trip in our beautiful country, Tim!
Pretty sure he lives there anyway (France, that is, not the miniature version of it).
@@nzd3742It'd be kind of amazing if he lived in the miniature version of it.
Me, an American, realizing Miniature is obviously a French word and that in the first minute of a Tim Traveller I've learned something that Tim never intended me to feels great. Me learning I can take bus #420 to a miniature France in France is just a bonus.
I am French 🇫🇷 and I am really happy to see that you love our culture🥖, monuments 🏰 ...
The fact rose and jim starts to play when tim opens the lock is precisely why i keep coming back
If these kinds of Parcs are interesting for a video, you might want to check out Mini Europe in Brussels (right next to one of the most impressive monuments on the continent in my opinion, the Atomium). Although not geographically accurate, the models are all very impressive and it might close for good in a few years so now's the time to visit!
I live in Rambouillet and let me tell you that this park is one of my best childhood memories! There also is a small area when children can play so it was the perfect place for sunday afternoon fun.
There are a couple relief maps of Colombia, one in the Jaime Duque park in Briceño, and another one in Parque Nacional in Bogotá. It’s amazing to see the mountains in a size that’s easier to grasp even when you’re in the middle of them. Neither of them have any scale models of cities and places in them, but still you can argue they show all the best parts of the country.
I don't know why i'm here, but i'm very happy, i used to go there a bunch when i was a kid because my brother would do rugby near it, so i'd wait with my mom at that park during his practice.
Thanks for the memories !!
That's very impressive. Instantly greatly multiplied the number of places in France I'd like to go to. Particularly Carcassonne. That's a real town? I'm from York in the UK and it makes York look like a walled beer garden (which it basically is). If that's a real place, I'm amazed I've never even heard of it. Definitely high on my list of places to visit.
Carcassonne is way cool Well worth a visit.
Carcassonne from above really looks like a fantasy town.
Carcassonne is definitely a real town😂 Most of the time, they’re busy waging wars on Toulouse and Castelnaudary - and vice versa - about who invented cassoulet first. Hence the double-fortified wall😂
I'm amazed you've never heard of it if you're from York, because I'm from just down the road in Nottingham and it's one of THE destinations of note, after Paris. Although that might only be because there are direct flights from East Midlands Airport.
It's beautiful. Go.
That TGV in the outro was one of the few trains shown that carried any kind of realistic speed. ..
Thank you for sharing it! 😊 Although I'm French, I had never heard about France Miniature. It could be very interesting to visit it with children, to make them discover the richness of their country.
I've been there, also been in Madurodam (The Hague, The Netherlands) and Italia in Miniatura (Rimini, Italy). Madurodam was the best in my opinion.
Yay!!
I live really close to Italia in Miniatura, so I've seen it many times, I really loved the model trains when I was a child! Besides the miniatures, unlike its French counterpart, it also has other attractions, such as a few roller coasters and a replica of Venice. It also used to have a nice monorail loop, but it has been recently dismantled.
2:58 - As a Swede, I recognise Fort Boyard too. It is television history.
Fort Boyard tv show music while showing the miniature of the fort was sooo cute! (at 2:58)
Loved the video! :)
Oh, nice, there is also a miniature park in Amboise showing the Loire or the Minimundus in Klagenfurt. I love the parks. Thanks for the tip!
I went there a few times as a kid, fun seeing it there!
This is a mini Bulgaria in Tornova. It’s pretty fun to walk through.
The Model at the end was so nice, thanks Tim!
Astonishing kraftwerk references throughout. Especially your piano rendition of the final track
This is a really nice big little park, so much nicer than Mini France, which I honestly don't know if still exist; we were last there in 1987. And not sure if that was the actual name in French, just remember we happened upon it in the guidebook one time we flipped through it during a lunch stop, but we were promptly disappointed once we went there - a few sad model buildings in bit of grass, and not much else (that I remember, anyway. I was 11 and couldn't care less back then). But might be something for Tim to investigate
And while we're on model parks in parks: In Knuthenborg park in southern Denmark, they have a model of Lolland (the island they're on) and surrounding islands. Along with model steam trains you can ride, which are a totally different scale than the model island
I think it's the same one. Went there around 1990/91. It's just that it evolved with time!
3:00 Thanks for adding the Ford Boyard piano cover. C'est sympa.
2:59 I love the piano version of the Fort Boyard intro.
Hey, I'm from Arc-et-Senans which is the village "I'd never heard of but I want to go there", and this is the "Saline Royale". So happy to see my little village in a vidéo
“And take a bus in direction of.. well, never mind!” 😂
In Austria, there is such a miniature park with national and international miniatures (and trains) called „Minimundus“!
The Kraftwerk soundtrack is just amazing!! Spot on with tour de France and The Model!!
This reminds me of the Minimundus park in Klagenfurt, Austria. They have loads of miniatures of buildings from around the world, all in 1 to 25 scale. You should check it out if you are ever in the area!
The music at the end, absolute new romantic classic
Never thought I'd see a video on this channel about this small park in my hometown.
Thx a lot for the Fort Boyard Music, it was perfect ^^
PS : Your care to correctly pronunce the names is greatly appreciated too !!!!
Now that's a perfect paradise for train model lovers and enthusiasts. If i will ever visit France woth family again, I will make sure to visit that place.
(Oh yes, the famous Fort Boyard with the show under the same name. I liked watching it.)
I remember going there with my class when I was in middle school. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the miniature trains running everywhere around the park, it was great
Utterly magnificent. A must-visit!
As a french, I can't believe I have never heard of that in almost 3 decades and a foreigner on TH-cam had to taught me ! Thank you ^^
Most French things tend to overrepresent paris compared to other parts of France. Which admittedly, this is just outside Paris, but you'd think the Parisans would be more interested in seeing the things that aren't right nearby
This brings to mind the New Yorker cartoon depicting a map of exaggerated, imperial perspective on the rest of America. I don’t think the Parisians are terribly different.
@@vlad2838 NYC never overthrew the national government and isn't the center of the national metro system
Not really. Paris literally has much more monuments than the rest of France because of the history of France. Also the parc isn't for parisians per say, I went with school all the way from the south east. Also people who live in Elancourt don't really go to Versailles every weekend. 1h away from Paris is actually quite far in french terms.
Rosie and Jim theme during the canal bit! 👌🏻
Fun fact: the world’s oldest cycling race is Paris-Brest-Paris or PBP, started in 1891 with 206 French riders. In August 2023 the event will attract up to 8,000 enthusiasts, from 70 countries, including Australia. They’ll ride 1,200 kilometres, within 90 hours.
1:57 "the little rivers": *puts as an example the biggest french river, la Loire*
You must see MADURODAM in De Hague, Netherlands. Very similar but with considerably more trains, airports, and boats!
Good work on providing accessibility notes in your excellent video ✅
Italy has two parks like this:
One is Italia in Miniatura in Rimini.
The other one is Minitalia near Bergamo and it's part of a bigger amusement park
It's so wonderfully charming. I smiled throughout
1:02 _L'Attaque des Titans!_
In Italy there are two parks of this kind representing Italy on scale.
One in Rimini, which is called Italia in Miniatura , and one between Milan and Bergamo, at Capriate, which once was called Minitalia but now has the name Leolandia, because it became a wider park with more actractions
I absolutely love this! Adding this on my ever growing list of places to visit lol
1:55 "even the little rivers"
While showing the Loire, the biggest river in France. 😂
Gosh my country is the best ❤️🇫🇷❤️ thank you for the video, I want to go visit this place now!
I loved you description Corsica and the barge interactive model. I must be a closet geography nerd because I think this is so cool
This is actually pretty cool. This is something that I would do/visit if or when I visit France.
Absolutely adore the Kraftwerk themes in the background