Saturday 11 May 2013

Grand Parc du Puy du Fou

Onwards and upwards again we journeyed to http://www.camping-domaine-eden.fr/accueilUK.htm on Mr H's birthday. Eight hours of driving and he still said he had a good day bless him. I had a numb arse but felt it inappropriate to complain.

As ever some of the access roads were sphincter twitchingly narrow, resulting in some oh-ohs and swear words from the cab, (I'm sure the woman in the sat-nav does it for a laugh) but we managed it just to spite her. We were greeted on our late arrival to the site by the owner who was very pleasant and gave us a guided tour while we selected our pitch. This rural site was very green and peaceful with large pitches although the facilities were very basic, multi cobwebbed and air-conditioned (open to the elements!).

A stocked pond on the site was the home of the local and very vocal, mating toads but as they were downwind to our pitch we only heard them when passing the pond thank goodness. The pond provided Mr H with his first fishing opportunity since leaving Marjal and he recovered from his Spanish exertions by landing a nice upper double!


One of the main reasons for travelling this way was to visit the Parc Puy Du Fou http://www.puydufou.com/en and we weren't disappointed. 


This theme park puts on many and varied shows throughout the day. Each tell a story performed by very skilled and fantastically costumed actors. The special effects were good enough to entertain young and old, a difficult task in our computerised age. We witnessed invading Vikings complete with burning ships that rose out of the water with men on the deck!  








We then sat in a full scale Roman amphitheatre along with a few thousand other visitors chanting, Mexican-waving, booing and cheering as appropriate. We championed our favourites and pretended we were not scared of the baddies (large and mean looking roman soldiers dressed in black ). Lions, tigers, amazing full throttle chariot racing and gladiator fights to the death (not really but still very fake-bloody and dramatic ).








A medieval knights production included enthusiastic jousting, trick riders, horses in embroidered costumes and a full scale castle wall and rotating tower rose out of the ground. Amazing. 





An indoor theatre show acted out many French historical events with a grand finale of flamenco dancing ladies and performing Lipizzaner horses upon a flooded stage.   


In between the shows we wandered around the vast park and found these giant chickens. They were very well cared for and obviously used to posing for the public


We even found talking statues, trees and plant pots!




The last show of our visit was just as impressive. Shifting rocks that released owls, a secretary bird killing a large snake (rubber) and hundreds of different birds of prey performing aerobatics just above our heads. Most of the large birds of prey were released from the surrounding walls of the set but others were released by remote controlled doors in a floating aviary in the sky high above us. Photographing them was difficult but we managed to get a few anyway.







A truly amazing place and we managed to cram it all into one day's visit!! Thank you Chris and Cris for recommending we visit, enjoyed it all.



No comments:

Post a Comment