Visit to Puy du Fou

This is a guest post by Anita, who has written up the trip on facebook:

We have wanted to go to the Puy du Fou theme park for several years. It's about a 2 hr drive south of us and very popular but not open all year and it is difficult for us to reserve in advance without a possible conflict with weekend gite rentals. But this year we managed to find a couple of days in late September when we could get an onsite hotel. I'm glad we went but came away with slightly mixed memories,because it was exceptionally cold and windy and rained a great deal both days we were there and I was suffering from a fever and mild gastroenteritis, thus not exactly on top form.

The place is HUGE (300ha) so each day I rented a mobility scooter, but even the walks from the hotel or car park to get to the rental place were long. There is a cute 'train' that goes from the hotel area at the north of the park to the other end of the park but generally it is very challenging place for anyone who does not walk easily.

The park now consists of a number of shows and immersive experiences (some outdoors, some indoors) plus some newly constructed or renovated buildings simulating a medieval village, French town square in 1900, etc. and 4 historically themed hotels.The name comes from the ruined Chateau called Puy du Fou, which was the focus of the earliest show in 1978. Over intervening 40+ years many things have been added or revised. A few shows and restaurants were closed when we went and also the famous lakeside evening show (Cinéscènie) had finished for the year. New shows are being added every year, with an emphasis on French history, particularly of the Vendée area where the park is located. 

I was afraid it would all feel very Disneyland-like and artificial, but with vast areas of woodland in between the attractions (some landscaped and accessible), the general feel was more like being lost in a forest with occasional time portals (and several thousand other people - not being a crowd person, I thought it was good that it was at perhaps 30-40% capacity). 

The shows don't run continuously (usually one or two times per day, so careful planning of your day is important and it is not possible to see them all in one day. The restaurants in the hotels were self-service with costumed staff according to the theme period of each hotel, but again rather regimented (you had to reserve a time slot) but that all follows from the need for extreme crowd control!

A significant feature of the park is the use of animals, with some truly impressive horsemanship on display. But they also managed to work in oxen, dogs, pigs, deer and geese! Water is also a big thing with fountains, lakes, and water used dramatically within some of the shows.  We saw the following main shows and I will post a few pictures of each in subsequent posts.

The Last Panache 

The Vikings

The Sign of Triumph

The Musketeers of Richelieu

The Mime and the Star

plus the Grand Waters (a fountain show on a small lake, which seemed a bit dull), the First Kingdom (an immersive show about the first Christian king of France, Clovis, which I found tacky), and the Mystery of the Pelouse (another walk-through immersive show set inside a French scientific expedition ship that was lost at sea) and we also went through an area recreating (rather unconvincingly) scenes from the famous fables of Jean Fontaine, the Automaton Musicians and the Grand Carillon, which was a sort of steampunk bell tower with music.

We stayed in the Ile de Clovis, a faux Merovingian villages of huts constructed on stilts with walkways over water (2 rooms per hut) . The were actually quite well done with all mod cons and rustic solid oak furnishings.