Lucy Pitts ventures into

Lucy Pitts ventures into the weird and wonderful world of Futuroscope A fantastically bizarre day out Futuroscope is brilliant although I was nearly sick on the first ride. To be fair though, I’m 47, hadn’t had any breakfast and it probably wasn’t designed for me. But my kids aged 6, 9 and 11 loved it. If you haven’t heard of Futuroscope, what exactly is it? Well put at its simplest, it’s a theme park just outside Poitiers based on multimedia, cinematography and audiovisual techniques, with 3D and 4D attractions, some of which are unique in the world. But that doesn’t really do justice to this insanely bizarre and utterly French experience. We started with the Vienne Dynamique, one of the top attractions and the one that made me feel sick. If you can imagine being strapped into a seat in a simulator and then taken on a journey which involved a magical spitting tree (yes we got wet), a bride groom late for his wedding and a full throttle journey journey that had

us jumping off a train, flying through the sky over the Vienne, driving a racing car through the back streets of a tiny village and firing down a river in a very small boat at top speed, you might begin to understand when I say it’s quirky. Despite feeling sick, I loved every second. My guts took a further pounding with another 4D simulator experience Arthur and the world of the Minimoys. If you don’t know what that’s all about (and I didn’t), imagine climbing into the driving seat of a bug the size of a ladybird and having to take the controls at high speed. I think we went down a drain, definitely nearly got sucked up by a frog’s tongue and ran into a swarm of angry looking black insects who appeared to be out to destroy us. Brilliant if slightly bizarre. But it’s not all about making mothers feel sick, and France’s first ever IMAX 4K laser cinema is genuinely fantastic. With Stephen Fry doing the commentary, you’re taken deep into the tiny world of a chipmunk and mouse. Imagine being smaller than a snake as it throws its mouth wide open and prepares for the kill, or seeing the hairy legs of a giant mouse eating spider reach out to grab you and gobble you up! Other favourite attractions for my kids included the Futur l’Expo where they got to try out technology including magic mirrors, robots and eating food of the future that made them blow smoke out of their noses! And who doesn’t want to do that? And of course Dancing with Robots was a massive hit. Thankfully the man on the door warned us to view it before we tried it as it was nothing like what I’d expected or seen in the trailers. You’re strapped into a chair at the end of a giant robotic arm and basically thrown around in the air! You can imagine the children loved it but my stomach and I preferred to stay on the ground. Pictures: top left Vienne Dynamique; left IMAX 4K laser cinema; above Dancing with Robots