Le Puy du Fou () is a theme park in Les Epesses, in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. It receives more than 2 million visitors every year, making it one of the most popular theme parks in France. In 2024, it was the third most visited theme park in France, behind Disneyland Paris and Parc Astérix, with 2.8 million annual visitors.
The idea of Puy du Fou originated in 1977, when Philippe de Villiers, a 27-year-old student, decided to create an original show named "Cinéscénie".
On 13 June 1977, Villiers discovered the ruins of an old Renaissance castle in the village of Les Epesses, near Cholet, and wrote a story about a (fictitious) local family named Maupillier (the real name of a soldier of Vendée at the time of the conflict between Vendée and the French Republic during the French Revolution), detailing the family's history from that period until World War II.
Philippe de Villiers organized an association of 600 members (3,650 today) named "l'Association du Puy du Fou", whose current president is his son, Nicolas de Villiers. When Cinéscénie first started in June 1978, the show did not have great success. But during the first season, it flourished and continued to grow from there. It has since spawned its own micro-industry of actors, prop-makers, and trainers for horse riding and sword fighting, which both feature in the show. Since 1988, the "Académies Junior" have organized yearly showings of Cinéscénie, such as at the Paris Paname in the "Halle Renaissance" of the Grand Parc in March 2008.
In August 1980, the President of the French Republic, Valéry Giscard dâÂÂEstaing, visited Puy du Fou and attended the Cinéscénie show.
In June 1987, the Prime Minister at the time â and future President of France â Jacques Chirac was hosted by Philippe de Villiers at Puy du Fou. He attended the Cinéscénie show alongside former Prime Minister Raymond Barre and the leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The Grand Parc of the Puy du Fou was opened near the Cinéscénie in 1989, and is today one of the most popular theme parks in France. In 2011, the Grand Parc hosted the team presentations before the Tour de France, which was set to begin in the Vendée.
In August 2016, then French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron visited Puy du Fou alongside Philippe de Villiers. Despite their ideological differences, the two men are said to have a close relationship. In 2020, when Emmanuel Macron was President of the French Republic, he granted preferential treatment to Puy du Fou, pressuring his Prime Minister to authorize the park's reopening and allowing larger crowds (9,000 people) than the usual limit imposed by COVID restriction rules (5,000 people).
On 13 August 2018, the Grand Parc launched a program where specially trained rooks fly around the park to pick up cigarette butts and other small pieces of litter. Christophe Gaborit, the park's Head of Falconry, originally trained the birds to participate in the park's falconry show, but later was inspired to teach them how to pick up rubbish left by the park's visitors. By using a specially created box, inspired by a magician's prop, he taught six of his birdsâÂÂBoubou, Bamboo, Bill, Black, Bricole, and BacoâÂÂto deliver bits of trash to the box and exchange them for food. The goal of the project is both to teach the park's visitors about the birds and to discourage littering.
In 2019, the project expanded abroad with the night show ("The Dream of Toledo") about the history of Spain in Toledo, Spain. It is the first stage of Puy du Fou España. In 2021, it expanded into an entire theme park with five shows and four villages.
In 2024, plans were unveiled for a similar park (called Puy du Fou UK) north of Bucknell, near Bicester, from junction 10 of the M40 in Oxfordshire. The plan currently consists of 4 period villages, 6 outdoor shows and 7 indoor shows. The current timeline projects an opening date in 2029.
Puy du Fou is split into 26 main shows, each running for approximately 30âÂÂ40 minutes:
The above shows are presented in French, but electronic translators are available. Immersive shows, especially those relying on live actors, are only available in French. These include:
Other smaller shows are also available only in French:
The main show takes place in the evening on an outdoor stage. It tells the story of 700 years of history in the area. The Cinéscénie is the largest stage in the world, having 1,200 actors, hundreds of horses, and about 800 fireworks per performance. All of the dialogue is in French, but translation headsets are available in five different languages. All of the actors and actresses, including the children, are volunteers from the local villages. The Cinéscénie is only performed during peak season. It is bookable separately and has a separate entrance.
In 2007, the park opened its first hotel to encourage guests to stay on property for longer periods of time. Over the years, the hotels have grown in number, and now form a resort southeast of the park named La Cité Nocturne (The Nocturnal City). There are six themed hotels, each allowing guests to choose a century to sleep in.
According to communist newspaper L'Humanité, the Cinéscénie (1978) and the park (1989) have faced criticism from some historians about its political propaganda and pseudo-historical views.
Many historians have criticized the Cinescénie's perceived one-sided treatment of the Vendée War. For instance, Michel Vovelle, a professor of French Revolution history at Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a communist activist, describes the Puy du Fou as a âÂÂspectacular revision of the French RevolutionâÂÂ, offering a âÂÂbackward-looking vision of the world and a memory that is far from innocentâÂÂ. He concludes: âÂÂ[...] for French people who have too often lost their historical bearings, in search of a memory of any kind, enemies of violence they are right, of change they fear, in search of roots, the identitarian affirmation of the Vendée as a memory-region, reviewed and corrected by Mr. Philippe de Villiers, provides a convenient landmark, and all in all, one that is considered satisfactory, whether we rejoice in it or deplore itâÂÂ.
According to French Revolution historian Guillaume Mazeau, âÂÂbehind its good-natured atmosphere, the amusement park does not hesitate to exploit French history for political endsâ with âÂÂa precise project: that of their designer, a certain Philippe de VilliersâÂÂ. The message is that "the Vendéens are a people whom the partisans of the Reign of Terror tried to exterminate between 1793 and 1794. âÂÂFortunately, under the Revolution as always, this martyred people has always been able to resist foreign aggression and invasion, preserving its particular genius as well as its eternal identity.âÂÂ
Mazeau has also stated: "Le Puy du Fou, which [De Villiers] launched in 1977, is a war machine that feeds the entire historical imagination of European nationalism. And these lies are given an inordinate amount of visibility, because that is what they are. It is a real problem". As early as the 1980s, historians such as Claude Langlois and Jean-Clément Martin had warned of âÂÂthe danger of such a representation of historyâ in which âÂÂthe French Republic was born of a desire for extermination, even genocideâÂÂ, as described by historian Reynald Secher, who is linked to the âÂÂPuy du Fou networkâÂÂ. In their view, âÂÂthe âÂÂVendéensâ were not a people, but individuals of diverse origins, living in 1793 in a region much larger than the present-day départementâÂÂ, and divided by the revolution, with the townsfolk in particular supporting the revolution. Without denying the massacres of civilians during the Vendée War, they dispute the use of the term "genocide", as the say the massacres were not political and were not aimed at eliminating a people, as in the UN's 1948 definition of genocide. It was the âÂÂsubsequent minimization of the massacres, which were too embarrassing for the national narrativeâ that "nurtured a process of identity-building, transforming the history of the Vendée into a weapon of war against the Republic. The Puy du Fou is its most successful product".
Ghislain de Montalembert wrote that Le Puy du Fou was the "greatest attraction park in the world" in Le Figaro.