Disney Plans: Dotting the I’s and Crossing the Ouis

Walt Disney Co. brass appear to have sat through too many screenings of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” They were spreading the French as thick as foie gras last week as the company unveiled plans for Disney’s California Adventure and explained Disney’s role in financing public improvements around the new Anaheim park.

Turns out Disney is contributing zero toward the $550 million needed to expand the Anaheim Convention Center and improve streets, parking and utilities. However, the company has agreed to guarantee about half of the nearly $400 million in bonds that Anaheim must issue to fund the lion’s share of the improvements. The Disney Francophones are calling it a tranche of debt, which means a slab or a slice.

On to the charrette. That’s le Disney-speak for a brainstorming session that hatched the idea for a California-themed park. For the uninitiated, charrette literally means a handcart or wheelbarrow. It came to symbolize a frenetic creative push back in the 19th century, when students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris would rush to toss their final projects onto a charrette used by the school to collect work for grading.

As part of the expansion, Disney plans to build an esplanade, which is really just another way to say promenade. The giant, tree-lined public space will be constructed between California Adventure and Disneyland. Patrons will be able to purchase tickets or stroll to any number of shops and restaurants planned along the corridor.

Quasimodo and friends should feel right at home.

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Marla Dickerson covers tourism for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at marla.dickerson@latimes.com