Auvergne's a real blast

SAINT-OURS-LES-ROCHES, France - Tired of theme parks teeming with cartoon characters come to life? Strike off for the mountainous French region of the Auvergne where a massive, one-of-a-kind attraction is bubbling, steaming, and about to blow off your Mouseketeer cap.

Vulcania is like an educational Six Flags carved into the region's Chaîne des Puys range of extinct volcano craters. Visitors head into a hissing, rumbling artificial volcano cone to get to the park's "prehistoric" volcanic garden, 3-D movies and exhibits, and rides like Forces of Nature, Magma Explorer, and Grand Geyser.

Vulcania may be the perfect learning trip for kids since they are too busy being amazed, amused, tilted at angles, and shaken by the blasts of eruption simulators to realize that they are absorbing information.

As a bonus, the scenery is stunning. To take in some of the Auvergne, you can tour Vulcania aboard an all-glass bubble car; the park has some of the world's first to buzz around without a track or driver, guided instead by a Global Positioning System. Most of the park's signs are bilingual and there are free audioguides available in five languages.

Vulcania, Route de Mazayes, 63230 Saint-Ours-les-Roches, Clermont-Ferrand, 011-33-0820-827-828, www.vulcania.com/en.

PETER MANDEL