BooMT
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Sucker for a B&M!
If you'd have told me I'd visit a Theme Park without any rides, everything would be in another language & it would rain Biblically the entire time, yet I'd still leave open-mouthed in awe, I'd never have believed you but... Puy du Fou exists!
We stayed for 2 nights on site within the Cité Nocturne at Le Camp du Drap d'Or, which is set out like a historic campsite - despite the cloth look, the tents are actually well-equipped hotel rooms inside... including four-poster beds! The hotels are spaced between 5/15 mins walk away from the access gate (separate entrance at the top of the park - main entrance is at the bottom) with the option of a free Land Train called La Colporteuse that stops at the access gate and various other stops throughout the park, multiple trains are travelling via a special route around the park perimeter every 20/30 minutes. This services prioritises those with accessibility requirements, has good capacity and space for wheelchairs - a Godsend with the weather being against us. This is exactly what I'd love to see at Alton Towers! We had been granted an access pass for our visit which was really easy to obtain. We phoned ahead, sent photos of disability documentation and the pass was presented upon check-in, dated for the duration of the visit so no need to collect each day. This allowed us to use accessible separate entrances for each show and accessible priority seating. An 'Emotion pass' is available for purchase which works like VIP and offers the user the same as an access pass plus extras I believe. Downloading the app ahead of the visit is a must, the features are incredibly useful, very similar to the Merlin parks apps but more detailed and offers live translation of shows either through audio or subtitles which worked very well! Another note on accessibility, their website has a 'virtual visit' feature so you can familiarise yourself with everything at ground level (Google Street View style) - particularly useful if you're visiting with anyone who doesn't cope well with unfamiliar settings!
The park itself is, like many others, is within vast woodland. All the paths are well-maintained, landscaped and very well routed... it's nearly impossible to get lost despite the size and complexity of the layout & the map is interactive on the app so acts very much like Google Maps. There are various themed areas, all fully immersive with operational shops & eateries that are in-keeping with the theme such as a forge, stone mason, winery, tavern, banquet etc & staff are also in costume which adds to the experience! Not quite as in your face as Disney but a good balance that is authentic to the time periods. We ate at our hotel restaurant which was a nod to King Francis I/Henry 8th providing a grilled meats centred buffet (plenty of choice, freshly cooked and I certainly didn't starve as a non-meat eater) and La Mijoterie du Roy Henry, a Renaissance banquet style all you can eat buffet. I'm not sure if it's the case with all of the restaurants but we had to pay upon advance booking for both buffets and paid drinks at the venue. Breakfast was continental buffet and included with the stay, no hot option other than boil your own eggs, there was still plenty to choose from however, the boys did miss their full English!
Lots of fast food options available around park (we indulged in some baguettes and filled turnovers from Le Garde Manger) - have to say, the quality and diversity of food throughout was well above other parks I've visited and reasonably priced too. I spent around £180 to feed 4 of us across the 2 days which includes the 2 all you can eat buffets (3 courses available) plus drinks and lunches (Hot drinks to go come in reusable cups that you put a deposit down for, you either keep these for cost of deposit or return - we kept ours!). Dinner for the four of us cost more than that at RCR last year & was lower quality
The shows were ridiculous. I don't want to say too much so as not to spoil it for anyone who plans to visit in the future, they must have open-ended budgets to achieve exactly what they dream up! Whilst having an actual colusseum is impressive as is the show it presents, it was the Viking show that absolutely blew everything else out of the water for us, closely followed by King Arthur which was a smaller scale but some of the key moments and effects were show stoppers. I can absolutely see why Puy du Fou is so highly regarded as having some of the best shows in the World! We also did the immersive walk throughs which are similar to things like The Dungeons, if they were on steroids. Live actors, detailed sets, scents & storytelling... without spoilers, Le Mystère de La Pérouse (following an explorers journey on a ship) was our favourite! The effects are stunning! Was slightly underwhelmed by Les Amoureux de Verdun, the WW1 experience (I'm historically interested in the wars!) but that was purely due to how exceptional the ship had been. If it had been our first walk through, I think I'd have enjoyed it even more. These attractions are constantly flowing so no static queues as such, the actors are roaming and interactive & sounds are on a loop so they eat up foot traffic - would like to see something similar come to a UK park - you could argue that Ghost Train is on a similar (albeit smaller/less detailed) vein and as mentioned previously, The Dungeons... although, it's not quite the same operationally. In my town, we did have something similar on a far lower budget that took you back through the history of the town and its role in the Black Death... always a pleasant experience it was really enjoyable to see what can be achieved without space/budget constraints & would be a great option for queue busting.
Whilst it isn't a typical Theme Park, I absolutely recommend Puy du Fou to anyone who hasn't visited. Always nice to tick off something new (Phantasialand & Europa are my next newbies in 2024!) We fully intend to return ourselves, especially for La Cinéscénie event in the Summer, which looks spectacular to say the least!
Here's a mini Vlog of the very limited footage I was able to get due to the weather (& being in family mode!) plus a couple of photos (the train is Puy du Fous own photo - just wanted to show how cute it was!). There are a couple of small spoilers regarding shows in the Vlog so please don't watch if you'd like to avoid
Puy du Fou Vlog
We stayed for 2 nights on site within the Cité Nocturne at Le Camp du Drap d'Or, which is set out like a historic campsite - despite the cloth look, the tents are actually well-equipped hotel rooms inside... including four-poster beds! The hotels are spaced between 5/15 mins walk away from the access gate (separate entrance at the top of the park - main entrance is at the bottom) with the option of a free Land Train called La Colporteuse that stops at the access gate and various other stops throughout the park, multiple trains are travelling via a special route around the park perimeter every 20/30 minutes. This services prioritises those with accessibility requirements, has good capacity and space for wheelchairs - a Godsend with the weather being against us. This is exactly what I'd love to see at Alton Towers! We had been granted an access pass for our visit which was really easy to obtain. We phoned ahead, sent photos of disability documentation and the pass was presented upon check-in, dated for the duration of the visit so no need to collect each day. This allowed us to use accessible separate entrances for each show and accessible priority seating. An 'Emotion pass' is available for purchase which works like VIP and offers the user the same as an access pass plus extras I believe. Downloading the app ahead of the visit is a must, the features are incredibly useful, very similar to the Merlin parks apps but more detailed and offers live translation of shows either through audio or subtitles which worked very well! Another note on accessibility, their website has a 'virtual visit' feature so you can familiarise yourself with everything at ground level (Google Street View style) - particularly useful if you're visiting with anyone who doesn't cope well with unfamiliar settings!
The park itself is, like many others, is within vast woodland. All the paths are well-maintained, landscaped and very well routed... it's nearly impossible to get lost despite the size and complexity of the layout & the map is interactive on the app so acts very much like Google Maps. There are various themed areas, all fully immersive with operational shops & eateries that are in-keeping with the theme such as a forge, stone mason, winery, tavern, banquet etc & staff are also in costume which adds to the experience! Not quite as in your face as Disney but a good balance that is authentic to the time periods. We ate at our hotel restaurant which was a nod to King Francis I/Henry 8th providing a grilled meats centred buffet (plenty of choice, freshly cooked and I certainly didn't starve as a non-meat eater) and La Mijoterie du Roy Henry, a Renaissance banquet style all you can eat buffet. I'm not sure if it's the case with all of the restaurants but we had to pay upon advance booking for both buffets and paid drinks at the venue. Breakfast was continental buffet and included with the stay, no hot option other than boil your own eggs, there was still plenty to choose from however, the boys did miss their full English!
Lots of fast food options available around park (we indulged in some baguettes and filled turnovers from Le Garde Manger) - have to say, the quality and diversity of food throughout was well above other parks I've visited and reasonably priced too. I spent around £180 to feed 4 of us across the 2 days which includes the 2 all you can eat buffets (3 courses available) plus drinks and lunches (Hot drinks to go come in reusable cups that you put a deposit down for, you either keep these for cost of deposit or return - we kept ours!). Dinner for the four of us cost more than that at RCR last year & was lower quality The shows were ridiculous. I don't want to say too much so as not to spoil it for anyone who plans to visit in the future, they must have open-ended budgets to achieve exactly what they dream up! Whilst having an actual colusseum is impressive as is the show it presents, it was the Viking show that absolutely blew everything else out of the water for us, closely followed by King Arthur which was a smaller scale but some of the key moments and effects were show stoppers. I can absolutely see why Puy du Fou is so highly regarded as having some of the best shows in the World! We also did the immersive walk throughs which are similar to things like The Dungeons, if they were on steroids. Live actors, detailed sets, scents & storytelling... without spoilers, Le Mystère de La Pérouse (following an explorers journey on a ship) was our favourite! The effects are stunning! Was slightly underwhelmed by Les Amoureux de Verdun, the WW1 experience (I'm historically interested in the wars!) but that was purely due to how exceptional the ship had been. If it had been our first walk through, I think I'd have enjoyed it even more. These attractions are constantly flowing so no static queues as such, the actors are roaming and interactive & sounds are on a loop so they eat up foot traffic - would like to see something similar come to a UK park - you could argue that Ghost Train is on a similar (albeit smaller/less detailed) vein and as mentioned previously, The Dungeons... although, it's not quite the same operationally. In my town, we did have something similar on a far lower budget that took you back through the history of the town and its role in the Black Death... always a pleasant experience
it was really enjoyable to see what can be achieved without space/budget constraints & would be a great option for queue busting.Whilst it isn't a typical Theme Park, I absolutely recommend Puy du Fou to anyone who hasn't visited. Always nice to tick off something new (Phantasialand & Europa are my next newbies in 2024!) We fully intend to return ourselves, especially for La Cinéscénie event in the Summer, which looks spectacular to say the least!
Here's a mini Vlog of the very limited footage I was able to get due to the weather (& being in family mode!) plus a couple of photos (the train is Puy du Fous own photo - just wanted to show how cute it was!). There are a couple of small spoilers regarding shows in the Vlog so please don't watch if you'd like to avoid
Puy du Fou Vlog
Warwick castle is the most similar overall experience in the UK, some of the shows aren't a World away from each other either, PDF seems to have made bigger investment in sfx & cast numbers though. 
