Travel Review: Puy Du Fou, Vendee, France
It’s a theme park, but probably not as you would know it. It has no rides, no high-adrenaline horrors, no gawdy gimmickry.
In fact Puy du Fou, in the Vendee, in western France, is a whole different world. Well, it’s actually several different worlds, to be precise. And each one is truly wondrous.
The park is a magical mystery tour through the history of the nation, from the Roman conquest to Viking invasion; it straddles eras from the French Revolution to The First World War: it captures a vision of France encompassing times of the musketeers and Joan of Arc.
It is breathtaking in not only its scope but also in its incredible presentation.
This is no dry history lesson, this is an assault on the senses and it leaves you breathless.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is how relatively unknown Puy du Fou is on this side of the Channel.
It has regularly scooped prizes around the world – not least winning the accolade of Best Theme Park In The World. Not bad eh? An far from resting on its laurels, the park is constantly growing, adding new attractions. Testament to this is another gold award for the bulging cabinet: Best Show In The World for its new creation La Dernier Panache.
The show tells the story of a French naval officer who became a hero of the American War or Independence, returning to his native Vendee to pick up the fight on behalf of his kith and kin, in a small enclave of Catholic traditionalism resisting the French Revolution.
The précis doesn’t tell you the half of it though. It is the sheer ambition of the presentation that will stun you. A vast auditorium with seascapes, huge ships, horses, a cast of seemingly hundreds. And, get this, the whole theatre moves! It takes a little getting used to and for a while it’s hard to work out whether the stage is revolving around you, or you moving between numerous circular scenes.
That incredible sense of scale is recreated acoss the whole park.
The big two crowd-pullers are undoubtedly the Romans and Vikings – they are simply unmissable and, take my advice, spending a bit extra on the VIP fast pass tickets is well worth it.
You can bypass huge crowds and you are seated in prime position for these epic shows.
Imagine Ben-Hur brought to life in a vast, purpose-built Roman amphitheatre. Chariot racing, gladiators fighting to the (theatrical) death, a huge procession of exotic creatures from across the Roman Empire, leopards, elephants and more. But be prepared, as is the French way, very little is sanitised for public consumption – Christians are fed to lions (sort of) and there’s plenty of (fake) blood spilled in the arena.
The Vikings too are a sight to behold – the Nordic invaders marauding and pillaging their way through a peaceful Gallic village in a festival of fire and fury.
The scenes are all played out in front of an audience of hundreds in each world, each as captivated as the next. Headsets are provided so you can listen to commentary in English too. Speaking of the English, be prepared to be cast as the bad guys in a couple of shows – not least when the spirit of Joan of Arc is summoned in the medieval world of knights and castles as the agents of perfidious Albion are always looking to do their worst against la belle France. Still, a bit of villainy always adds to the fun.
New additions to the park include a voyage around the world, recreating the famous journey of the an 18th century ship La Perouse, which set sail from Brest in 1785.
The park has also added a walk-through imagining of the horrors of the Great War, complete with actors playing the role of soldiers, a century after the end of the ‘war to end all wars’. It would have been easy for this particular feature to fall into stereotypes and become an uncomfortable visit. However, quite the opposite is true. It is actually at times frightening, unsettling and ultimately a brilliantly poignant experience.
There’s so much to see here. We spent a full day but it would easily be possible to spend two or more days soaking up this magical place.
Indeed, one day is nowhere near enough to see everything on offer at Puy du Fou so you will need to plan your trip with military precision to make sure you pack in all the really big crowd pullers – because they really are worth seeing.
And another tip – on no account should you miss the bird show. We’ve now visited three times over the years as our children have grown and on the first occasion we decided to give les oiseaux a swerve in favour of a little downtime. Only when we visited in subsequentl years did we realise what we had missed. Hundreds of birds, not least huge eagles and vultures, swooping inches over your head in an orchestrated spectacular which builds to an amazing climax.
So really, don’t miss out. Puy du Fou is truly out of this world.
