{"id":200536,"date":"2026-08-24T20:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/200536\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T20:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:13:18","slug":"manga-inspired-theme-park-to-be-built-near-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/200536\/","title":{"rendered":"Manga-inspired theme park to be built near Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three theme parks will be built near Paris as part of a \u20ac6bn (\u00a35.13bn) deal agreed between France and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The new development is expected to include a manga-themed park, inspired by the popular Japanese franchise Dragon Ball Z.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the move as on a scale not seen “since Disneyland Paris”, and added “you know my interest for manga”.<\/p>\n

An opening date for the parks – which will be built near Cergy-Pontoise – has not set by the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace, but they will open in stages and construction is expected to take years.<\/p>\n

The project was given the green light during a two-day state visit to France by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

It stemmed from a previous discussion between Macron and bin Salman about their shared passion for Japanese comics, “in particular Dragon Ball Z,” advisers to the president told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in Paris as part of a two-day state visit [Getty Images]<\/p>\n

Macron is known to be a manga fan and earlier this year ended a press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi by doing a hand gesture from the Dragon Ball series.<\/p>\n

The project will be led by Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) – part of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – which previously revealed plans in 2024 to build a Dragon Ball theme park<\/a> near the country’s capital, Riyadh.<\/p>\n

According to local reports, the theme parks could be built on the site of the former Mirapolis park in Val-d’Oise, which closed 35 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

French media have suggested the parks could be built on the site of the former Mirapolis theme park [AFP via Getty Images]<\/p>\n

But the deal, which the \u00c9lys\u00e9e said would create about 2,000 jobs, also signals deeper ties between France and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The leaders are expected to sign several agreements on health, transport and energy during bin Salman’s visit, which will include talks on the US and Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

In a post on X on Sunday, Macron said bin Salman’s two-day state visit marked an “important milestone”.<\/p>\n

He added that in the face of challenges in the Middle East, “France and Saudi Arabia have always worked together to promote peace and stability”.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is aiming to diversify its economy away from its dependence on oil <\/a>revenues, including via investment in the leisure and entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Macron hosted bin Salman at the closing of the Esports World Cup<\/a>, which was due to be held in Riyadh but was moved to Paris due to safety concerns over the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three theme parks will be built near Paris as part of a \u20ac6bn (\u00a35.13bn) deal agreed between France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[125],"tags":[89666,14126,89667,53436,242,1550,247,3387,1613,2378,89665],"class_list":["post-200536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-emmanuel-macron","tag-bin-salman","tag-disneyland-paris","tag-dragon-ball-z","tag-elysee","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-getty-images","tag-macron","tag-paris","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-state-visit","tag-theme-parks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117152317840787585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}