Puy du Fou Historical Theme Park

Before we went to France I had seen some Instagram photos of Puy du Fou historical theme park. So we booked some advance tickets to go for a day. It was an hour and a half drive from our campsite so an early start but it was definitely worth it!

On arrival we had to pass through a bag check and security scanner but it gave us time to check on the day's timetable. We only managed to acquire a Spanish version (and later discovered we could have installed an app!) but it was enough to realise that the Dance of the Phantom Birds was the first thing to go see. It was raining as we crossed the park, typical it was on the furthest point, and joined the huge crowd in the arena. I could understand enough of the French to get the gist of the show, not sure what my son understood! But we could all appreciate being close up to such an amazing variety of birds:

Next up it was the Knights of the Round Table. This was when we first discovered how the sets for the big pieces could actually move so much. Again the words went over my son's head but there was enough action with sword fighting etc for him to enjoy the show:

We then had to queue for a while to get into the Vikings show. It was worth it to be right at the front. This show had a bit of everything from fighting, longships and trained animals:

We could really feel the heat from the flames and loved being so close to the stunt people:

The biggest spectacular we saw was the Sign of Triumph which took place in a replica Roman Stadium:

This only took place once whilst we were there so we had to join a big queue to get in. We sat as near to the front as we could whilst staying dry! The show started with a replica triumphal parade:

Then there was a storyline of a Roman centurion converted to Christianity thanks to love! Of course this got him in trouble so he had to fight gladiators:

This was followed by a chariot race:

The show also included big cats such as a tiger, lions and a hyena, not too sure about the use of such animals for entertainment:

We weren't too impressed by Odyssey of Puy du Fou but this was made up for by the silent movie style show performed by children at the Ballets des Pompiers:

The Musketeers show was indoors in a theatre but still had horse action which was incredible (no photos allowed in there!).  We finished off the day way with the Secrets of the Lance which included Joan of Arc, horse stunts and siege engines:

This show had the most amazing moving sets which have to be seen to be believed! I had an external drive disaster but have put together the bits of video that are on my laptop to give you a taste of our day: