Puy du Fou

Puy du Fou was one of the main excursions our French immersion class from Angers participated in. Puy du Fou is a theme park in the Vendée Department of western France. There are historical shows in the evening and by day you can visit three separate areas: a medieval city, 18th century village and a 1900s town square.



The show that we saw is called a Cinéscénie and takes place behind the ruins of the castle near the village of Les Epesses.The first show was in 1978 and the theme park was added in 1989.

Since we were only going to the evening show, we arrived at 10pm. The Grand Park Puy du Fou has an enormous arena spread over 23 hectares with a lake in the center of the arena. This was the most spectacular show I have ever seen.

The show at Puy du Fou is produced by the locals, 1200 of them, with the intent to keep the history of the area alive. It is pretty unbelievable!

A new section of the park opened this year (2012). Puy du Fou has now added the garden of Jean de la Fontaine where children can interact with all of the animal characters that appear in Fontaine’s fables such as The Grasshopper and the Ant and The Crow and the Fox.