Musketeers, Romans,

Musketeers, Romans, Vikings, magicThere are several full scale shows at Puy duFou covering different eras of French historyfrom the Romans to the early 20th century. Istarted my first day with musketeers at theMousquetaire de Richelieu show whichtakes place inside a monumental theatre –where you’ll see the world’s largest stagecurtain. From the very start the audience aredrawn in with a warm up act that haseveryone cheering, there are sword fightsand flamenco dancing in this swashbucklingshow but the real stars for me are the purewhite dancing horses, so beautiful theybought tears to my eyes. And when theentire stage, 2,500m₂, fills with water andsprinkling fountains – you won’t believeyour eyes.Then it was on to meet the Romans. Iwalked down a dusty track to enter a fullsizedGallo-Roman coliseum which has an airof authenticity that I really didn’t expect. ARoman guard appeared, the crowd boo’d.When the gladiators appeared there werewild cheers. The show is about a Romanguard who falls in love with a slave girl andbecomes a gladiator. It involves herds ofostriches, geese, camels and even big cats. Inone scene, a wagon full of slaves is coveredwith tarpaulin and a tiger, yes a real one,enters the top of it followed by the sound ofscreaming. Don’t worry no humans areharmed!When the gladiators fight and stab eachother, there’s plenty of fake blood flowing.There are chariot races complete withcrashes. As I said, this isn’t Disney. It doesn’tpretend to be the real thing, it’s notpretentious, but it is marvellously realisticwhere it can be! The crowd loved it. Kidswere jumping up and down giving thethumbs up and thumbs down. Brilliant.The Viking show involved a burning boat andfabulous horse riding skills. There weretrained wolves, and an astonishing 20m longboat rising from the water.

The Secret of the Lance had a superbhorsemanship display and some cute trainedsheep! It also had some terrific illusions, Icouldn’t work out how one minute someonewas standing there, there was a puff ofsmoke and all that was left was a pile ofclothes – right in front of us, very clever. Andthere's an enormous castle that rises fromthe ground.I’m not going to tell you everything becauseyou really have to see it for yourself tobelieve it.Interactive shows, period villages anda remarkable bird showIn addition to the big shows, Puy du Fou hasa number of interactive shows and periodvillages. I assure you it’s impossible to bebored here! And you definitely need to wearcomfortable shoes for a lot of walking.I loved the Medieval city with its cobbledstreet, half-timbered houses, artisansworkshops and ye olde pubs.There are gardens, fountain displays, fields ofanimals and flower valleys that are perfect totake a break and chill. Nature is always at theheart of Puy du Fou and there are 45gardeners tending the park producing around500kg of vegetables for the onsiterestaurants.And there are interactive shows. The Loversof Verdun takes you through trenches,canons boom, the sound of men talking, theground shakes and sirens scream. But it’sChristmas so there’s a surprise ending…Actors draw you into the story and make itthat much more real.