Reckless: No Nanny State at the Adventure Park

At the Adventure Parc in Chamonix, France, the kids bought tokens from a vending machine. They put the tokens in the trampoline machine, and watched a padded platform descend from under the trampoline, making the trampoline "jumpable".  When 8 minutes were up, the padded platform ascended, making the trampoline "unjumpable. Not a staff member was in sight as kids jumped, bounced, danced and flipped.

At the Nautic Jet, we once again put tokens in the machine. I opened a gate, and climbed into a boat. I latched a small bar across my body and then reached up and pulled a small string -- like turning on a light in an old closet. My little boat climbed backwards up a chute, 'tick-tick-ticking" like a rollercoaster. When I reached the top, the boat zoomed down the chute and launched off the jump. I splashed into the water with glee. Once again, not a staff member in sight.

Europeans tend to have the attitude that you are responsible for yourself. If you see a hole in the sidewalk, prudence says to walk around it. If there are buttons to push, knobs to pull, lines to cross -- don't push it, pull it, cross it. The only time I've had to sign a waiver was for parking at the hotel in Milan -- a Sheraton, owned by a US company.

So here we were at this little adventure park in this little Swiss town, jumping on trampolines, zooming into the water, without a care in the world!