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On a windy plain 20 miles east of Paris a new town rises. Cranes crowd the sky as more apartments and houses pop up. Not one leaf is out of place on the espaliered trees lining every perfect street. Everyone seems happy. On the horizon sits a gigantic pair of mouse ears. Welcome to Val d'Europe - the town that Mickey built.

When Disney decided to open outside Paris it resolved not to repeat its expensive mistakes - for example, at Anaheim, in California, where the failure to buy enough land hindered expansion. So Disney became a developer, optioning 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres), including chunks of the existing communes of Chessy, Coupvray, Bailly-Romainvilliers, Magny-le-Hongre and Serris. When Disneyland Paris opened in 1992 the local population was 5,000: now it is more than 20,000. Ten per cent are “cast”, or Disney employees. “There will be 90,000 residents in 2030,” says Bertrand Ousset, vice-director general of EPA, the government development agency that is partnered with Disney. “This is one of the last Paris suburbs to be developed. Technically it's Sector IV of Marne-la-Vallée, but that's not catchy so it became Val d'Europe.”

“It's green, spacious and safe,” says Feryen, a consultant who relocated from Paris with her husband and son in 2004. “I've been to Disney a few times, my son loves it. The tourists and employees make it feel international. I commute to Paris in 45 minutes on the RER train.” Her three-bedroom apartment, bought off-plan for €300,000 (£215,000), is now worth €450,000.

Streets such as Rue Dublin and Place de Toscane reflect the town's European aspirations. Feryen's apartment is in a handsome pseudo-stucco building seemingly straight from Regent's Park. “We did borrow from there,” admits Frank Hetherton, one of Disney's leading architects. “It's an authentic style.[] The dimensions of Place de Toscane match exactly the town square in Lucca, Tuscany,” he says. “We're creating a set where people can live their lives.” It's an architectural pastiche of Europe. “There's nothing wrong with copying if people like it,” says Hetherton, who lives in Magny-le-Hongre. “Our surveys show more than 90 per cent satisfaction.”

“It's great value and the schools are good,” says Audrey, a neighbour of Feryen. She rents a two-bedroom apartment for €350 a month. Outwardly, her home is indistinguishable from Feryen's. “A fifth of Val d'Europe is social housing,” says Ousset. “We wanted to create an exclusive community without excluding people.” Tourist taxes have paid for schools, a university campus and a library for every commune. The hospital opens soon. “We were sceptical about Disney,” admits Ousset. “But it's a partnership - it cannot buy land unless we approve the use.”

“We master-plan: issuing design directives, approving architects,” says Hetherton. The five communes are now indistinguishable, though the historic village centres are outside Disney's reach. “Disney is fun but you can't live in it,” says Ousset. “So we preserve the past and try to build a recognisably French future.”

So far nearly 9,000 housing units have been built, with 500 more each year. “Prices range from €3,000 a square metre for a standard apartment, to more than €4,500 for detached houses,” says Phan Nguyen, at Century 21, the agents. “We get a lot of young first-time buyers priced out of Paris.” The average age is 37 but this will rise: a key new development is a retirement home. “Older people feel safe here,” says Hetherton. “And the grandchildren will visit.”

“It's hugely successful,” says Karl Holz, chief executive of Euro Disney. “We get a 20 per cent return on our investment. But it's not about money. It's about stories.” The story started with fierce resistance to what the French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine famously called a “cultural Chernobyl”. Fifteen years later 40 per cent of the park's visitors are French.

Although it makes a loss, Disneyland Paris is Europe's biggest tourist destination. It has created more than 50,000 direct and indirect jobs and brought infrastructural improvements, including the TGV. La Vallée Village designer shops lure even Parisians. Less glamorous is the Val d'Europe mall with its Auchan hypermarket. Commercially, Val d'Europe is a success. Architecturally, it is a safe sugary mess. Culturally? “You don't move here if you don't like Disney,” says Hetherton. “My family loves it.”

“We've balanced resort and community,” says Holz. “It's not The Truman Show - this story has a happy ending.”

FACT FILE

By TGV, Val d'Europe is ten minutes from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, 2 hours from Brussels, and 2 hours 36 minutes from London.

Local prices have risen 20 per cent year-on-year for the past five years, according the local agents Century 21.

In Val d'Europe's city centre residential quarters, La Gare, Le Parc and Le Lac, no home is more than four storeys.

Val d'Europe Shopping Centre's 140 boutiques attracts 14 million visitors every year.

A new campus, affiliated with Marne-la- Vallée University, educates 1,000 students in the audiovisual and healthcare sectors.

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