Marais Breton | Guide to the Marais Breton, Vendee

Today a big adventure park, the chateau de Puy du fou was discovered by a French student driving through the vendee countryside in a renault 4! This dreamy student was looking for a castle as mysterious as the one in Alain Fourniers book, Le grand Meaulnes and chose puy-du-fou having come across the name in a newspaper article.
The curious name p-d-f comes from the latin Podium and fagus, meaning beach tree hill. For Phillippe de villiers, who wanted to create a big show celebrating the vendee, this easy to remember name evoked the hint of craziness in every one of us (fou means crazy in french ) When he finally found his castle, philippe fell under its charm. It was partly in ruins and had already lived through one of great chapters in Vendeen history- it had been left untouched since the passing of the infernal columns in 1794.
The show script was written in the month that followed and the Cinescenie concept- a show based on motion - took shape. The hardest part was convincing the thousand people needed to bring such a project to life but this problem was solved following a practice show held on one cold December evening. The association des Puyfolais was created and it relies entirely on volunteers. The show is not subsadised and its founder receives no royalties.
The first show was held on 16th june 1978 just a year after the overgrown castle was discovered,and it was an instant success. By the end of the first season, the cinescenie had won the hearts of 84,000 people and it now welcomes 1.2 million visiters each year. The Assoc des Puyfolias has 3000 members and 1000 are on stage at any one time. Just before each show, the backstage bubles over with excitement. In p-d-f it is called the village and it is easy to understand why. You'll come acroos lively children in costums between the camps, Vendeen peasants with wide brimmed hats and forks, knights in armour and brides in lace gowns. They all take to the stage every night to perform in this cinescenie show that celebrates the vendee and its history. What a great show.

The grand parc and academie junior.

Ten years after the first show ,a theme park devoted to french history was created on the same site. Over the years, different shows and mock towns and villages have been created - 18th cent rural village, medieval town a year1000 fortress ransaked by viking, a besieged keep a gallo-roman stadium,etc. The grand Parc is a kind of maze featuring different worlds separated by a curtain of trees. Wander the streets of the medieval village and mingle with the pigs, craftsmen, stone restores and jugglers while watching someone in an old fashioned flying machine trying to keep up with the geese. This theme park is not based on visual effects but rather real flesh and stone. It focuses on historical reality - even if the vikings never actually wore horn helmets.
Of course one of the aims of this adventure is to pass the history of the vendee down through the generations and since 1998, when the acedemie junoir was create, twenty schools have been set up. There aim is to train new payfolais members - knights jugglers horse breakers actors technicians - to take part in this crazy adventure for the delight of visitors.

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