Gladiator shows, chariot races, medieval villages and litter-picking rooks: sounds kinda like something out of Shrek, right? But no, we’re not referring to the Kingdom of Far, Far Away. In fact, it’s all the stuff you’ll be able to find at a medieval theme park that could be opening near London very, very soon.
Puy du Fou, an award-winning French attraction, apparently has its sights set on the UK. It has enlisted the help of Savills to find the perfect piece of land to build a British version of the attraction – preferably a 300 to 400-acre site within a 40-mile radius of Oxford.
The firm already has two sites in Les Epesses in France and Toledo in Spain. The original site opened in 1977 and since then has become one of France’s most popular visitor attractions, welcoming more than two million people a year. In fact it is renowned worldwide and in June last year was named the world’s top theme park by voters in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice.
And before you argue that this country already has its fair share of rollercoasters, this will not be your average theme park. Rather than rides and the like, visitors to its European sites are immersed in ‘ultrarealistic and moving realms infused with local culture, history and legends’.
The French attraction has a total of 26 such spectacles showcasing history from Roman times through to the nineteenth century and each lasts around half an hour. These include ‘The Vikings’ which features a longboat emerging from underwater and ‘Dance of the Phantom Birds’ which involves more than 100 birds of prey gliding over the audience. At one point it also had specially trained rooks that piced up cigarette butts around the site.
What’s more, the park values local investment and promises to be a valuable addition to the economy of wherever it ends up. Its showcases are built by a mix of local businesses and non-profit organisations and it puts 100 percent of its own profits into further developments.
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