Hi Peter
My wife and I, our kids are grown and flown, visited Puy du Fou last summer. We stayed at Camping a Les Epesses about 20 minutes drive from PdF.
We went on the last Saturday of August, the last cinescene performance of the season. We spent the whole day in the park and then returned to our 'van for tea before returning for the evening performance.
We were REALLY IMPRESSED with PdF. The historical enactments were spectacular. We particularly enjoyed the Roman Forum with gladiatorial "battles" including "wild" animals and the Viking one where a full-sized longship emerged and submerged from the waters of the lake. All of the "shows" were EXTREMELY well choreographed with spectacular effects.
We bought the headset which translated the enactment and Cinescene commentaries into English and was well worth having. We bought the money-saving option of one headset with 2 sets of headphones. You could possibly save even more if you took your own earphones, mini jack as used on CD players, etc, and bought the single headset option.
The park was clean and well organised. We took a picnic lunch. It was a long day but with careful planning we managed to see all of the main shows - the free show timetable, available in English, is a necessity to ensure that one sees all the "shows".
We booked by phone whilst we were in France a couple of weeks before we went - we were put onto an operator who spoke excellent English. We were trying to book for the last weekend of the season, at the end of August,and could only get seats at the evening Cinescene performance "sitting on the steps". This meant exactly that sitting on the concrete steps of the forum. We, and other "steppers" were held back until the other spectators were seated and then had to rush down to get seated on the steps. It was not the best view and the rather uncomfortable but we had gone prepared with cushions to sit on. I have heard people say that even the proper seats are improved with a cushion!! It was quite chilly too as it is an outdoor arena.
Despite our poor seating arrangements the evening Cinescene show was UNBELIEVABLY SPECTACULAR. A huge cast with incredible effects on an lavish scale. We used the translator for this performance too and it was a great help as the production is the local history narrated in a story style.
All in all I recommend Puy du Fou VERY HIGHLY. If we went again I would book earlier and probably go to the Park and Ciniscene on different days.
My advice go for it. You can read my review of the Campsite at Les Epesses and further comments about PdF here
http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/reviews.asp?revid=8186
Regards
Tim
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