By Ross Tieman, Evening Standard, London
Nov. 11--The world's first volcano theme park is nearing completion in France, writes Ross Tieman.
Vulcania, built on a former military training area, is the brainchild of former French president Val‚ry Giscard
d'Estaing.
Funded by a public-private partnership, the UKpound 50 million venture is short distance west of Clermont-Ferrand
amid the long-extinct volcanoes of the Auvergne.
But the attraction forecast to draw 800,000 visitors a year has found little favour with environmentalists.
Giscard, president of Auvergne regional council, has won a battle to make the centrepiece of Vulcania an artificial
volcano flanked by an amphitheatre and restaurant.
Galleries, lecture halls and other facilities are under ground, car parks are screened by trees, and when Vulcania
opens at Easter 2001, visitors will be encouraged to travel the last leg by shuttle bus.
Watchdogs insisted on vegetable oil being used on construction machinery because the rock strata from which Volvic
mineral water is drawn lie beneath the site.
And as every Briton now knows, no one cares about the purity of what he consumes at table like a Frenchman does.
-----
To see more of the Evening Standard, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thisislondon.co.uk
UKpound preceding a numeral refers to the United Kingdom's pound sterling.
(c) 1999, Evening Standard, London.