"On paper, Philippe de Villiers is an unlikely populist. A strict Catholic and father of seven, he is president of the regional council of the Vendée, the heartland of French royalism. Yet, more than anyone else, he knows how to sell a conservative message in a modern way.
His first passion is the extraordinary theme park that he has created in a village called Puy-du-Fou. It tells the story of the Vendée, dwelling on the agony of the Revolutionary repressions, when priests were hunted down and villages razed.
It is, without being too blatant, a hymn to an older, seemlier France. And it is staggeringly popular, attracting some 20,000 visitors a day in the summer. Incredibly, it is staffed by volunteers, its profits going to local charities.
Puy-du-Fou is thus a standing affront to France's cultural establishment: it is politically conservative, popular and, worst of all, it does not take a penny in subsidy."
His first passion is the extraordinary theme park that he has created in a village called Puy-du-Fou. It tells the story of the Vendée, dwelling on the agony of the Revolutionary repressions, when priests were hunted down and villages razed.
It is, without being too blatant, a hymn to an older, seemlier France. And it is staggeringly popular, attracting some 20,000 visitors a day in the summer. Incredibly, it is staffed by volunteers, its profits going to local charities.
Puy-du-Fou is thus a standing affront to France's cultural establishment: it is politically conservative, popular and, worst of all, it does not take a penny in subsidy."
Daniel Hanman, in Telegraph.co.uk
La Cinéscénie
2006 show: "Mousquetaire de Richelieu"
Visit the website: http://www.puydufou.com/uk
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