February 10, 2012 | By Adam Bisby, MSN Travel
Top 10 weirdest tourist meccas

1. Disneyland Paris

1. Disneyland Paris (© Timo Jaakonaho/Lehtikuva)
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  • 4. Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls, Ont. (© J.P. Moczulski/CP)
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  • 2. The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla. (© Chris O'Meara/AP Photo)
  • 1. Disneyland Paris (© Timo Jaakonaho/Lehtikuva)
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Disney's Imagineers were well aware of the irony at play when they were designing the centrepiece of Europe's first Disney amusement park. After all, the ornate châteaux of the Loire Valley, which had inspired every other Disney castle, were just down the autoroute from Disneyland Paris. Even so, the 19-square-kilometre park opened in 1992 with a European-style Sleeping Beauty Castle (pictured), fuelling French critics' accusations of cultural imperialism. One even went so far as to call the place a "cultural Chernobyl" — pretty far from the happiest place on earth. But after a slow start, partly attributed to the global recession of the early '90s, the park took off with Europeans. Today it receives more visitors each year than the Louvre and Eiffel Tower combined. Now that's irony.

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