There’s always been a question of authenticity attached to Disneyland Resort Paris (DRP) – a suspicion that American and French culture weren’t obvious bedfellows.
Still, for their part, it seems the former top brass at the resort – then Euro Disney - really did live and breathe life in the Enchanted Kingdom and were happy to lead by example.
Back when Sir Francis Mackay, now at Graysons, was chief executive of Compass Group, the firm landed the staff feeding deal at the Paris resort.
Mackay was invited over to France to officially sign the deal behind closed doors with the then DRP boss Gilles Pélisson, now head of hotel company Accor.
After a dinner at American diner Walt’s, the executives retired to sign the papers. At this point, none other than Mickey Mouse himself appeared and kept proffering the document to a taken aback Mackay.
Puzzlement became stunned disbelief as the French execs present happily chatted to the six-foot mouse as if he was indeed Mickey and this was a completely ordinary day-to-day occurrence.
However Mackay was not to be fooled, confiding that he became suspicious of Mickey’s authenticity as he refused to speak a single high-pitched word throughout the meeting.
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