May update
Sorry, sorry, sorry – a Samual Pepys I’ll never be, so much for writing my memoirs one day. Time just flies by and it’s October already so I’ll just write about the highlights – the ones I remember that is.
We finally managed to go to the Puy du Fou in May, they were doing a 30th birthday promotion and I got the tickets at half price. What a wonderful place, so much to see you need to get there early. Unfortunately we got there around 11am so missed the performace of the 3 muskateers and in seeing the others, also missed the Donjon spectacle but what we did manage to see was fantastic. The colloseum was great fun with an ‘evil emperor’ wanting to put Christians to death and duly booed by the delighted crowds. The stone age village attacked by Vikings was saved by the re-appearance of a dead bishop, there was a definate theme here, a christian country and proud of it with no thought for political correctness to be seen. The villages had amazing attention to detail, we were told that they were all made with reclaimed stone from ruins of authentic villages and we couldn’t see the joins. The gardens were magnificent, not a piece of litter anywhere, totally delightful to stroll through and come upon unexpected treats like controlling fountains to music in the middle of a lake.
Our own personal favourite however was the bird show, I’d never seen anything like it with vultures swooping inches over the spectators heads as well as other birds of prey. Fantastic. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the night show as it was too early in the year but apparently it’s well worth the effort and all the men, women & children taking part are recruited from the local area and Puy du Fou pay them back by providing facilities for learning dance, riding, arts for the children. All in all a place well worth visiting, visit their website to see for yourselves: http://www.puydufou.com/ . That night I’d booked a Chambre d’hote in Tiffauges, a town about 15 km away. We managed to get lost so it took a while to find it and even when we arrived in Tiffauges I had to phone the owner to find the house. Turned out their website photo was taken from the garden (www.linternaute.com/hotel/chambre-d-hote/tiffauges/6782/le-petit-chateau.html) and it looked nothing like that from the street. However, there was nothing disappointing about the place, the hosts were truly charming and showed us around their home. They’d bought the Maison d’maitre a year ago and only just opened for business after a lot of work, apparently it was the local Gendarmarie until then. After a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking Blue beard’s castle that evening, we slept well and the following morning after a substantial breakfast were given a tour of the extenisive gardens which contains an old tunnel to the Castle but which unfortunately has now collapsed. They also showed us the cells used by the gendarmes and I wouldn’t have liked a night in those. Useful for guests that don’t pay their bill though. Definitely a place I’d recommend for a lovely stop-over or holiday. Blue beards castle was a delight with workshops for children, a shadow puppet show, a cavern occupied by a mad scientist whose assistant looked (and acted) remarkably like Mr Bean while trying to turn base metal to gold and a great demonstration of various weapons of war as well as foot soldiers and knights in armour on h
orseback. All in all a great place to visit. http://www.chateau-barbe-bleue.vendee.fr/
We finally managed to go to the Puy du Fou in May, they were doing a 30th birthday promotion and I got the tickets at half price. What a wonderful place, so much to see you need to get there early. Unfortunately we got there around 11am so missed the performace of the 3 muskateers and in seeing the others, also missed the Donjon spectacle but what we did manage to see was fantastic. The colloseum was great fun with an ‘evil emperor’ wanting to put Christians to death and duly booed by the delighted crowds. The stone age village attacked by Vikings was saved by the re-appearance of a dead bishop, there was a definate theme here, a christian country and proud of it with no thought for political correctness to be seen. The villages had amazing attention to detail, we were told that they were all made with reclaimed stone from ruins of authentic villages and we couldn’t see the joins. The gardens were magnificent, not a piece of litter anywhere, totally delightful to stroll through and come upon unexpected treats like controlling fountains to music in the middle of a lake.
Our own personal favourite however was the bird show, I’d never seen anything like it with vultures swooping inches over the spectators heads as well as other birds of prey. Fantastic. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the night show as it was too early in the year but apparently it’s well worth the effort and all the men, women & children taking part are recruited from the local area and Puy du Fou pay them back by providing facilities for learning dance, riding, arts for the children. All in all a place well worth visiting, visit their website to see for yourselves: http://www.puydufou.com/ . That night I’d booked a Chambre d’hote in Tiffauges, a town about 15 km away. We managed to get lost so it took a while to find it and even when we arrived in Tiffauges I had to phone the owner to find the house. Turned out their website photo was taken from the garden (www.linternaute.com/hotel/chambre-d-hote/tiffauges/6782/le-petit-chateau.html) and it looked nothing like that from the street. However, there was nothing disappointing about the place, the hosts were truly charming and showed us around their home. They’d bought the Maison d’maitre a year ago and only just opened for business after a lot of work, apparently it was the local Gendarmarie until then. After a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking Blue beard’s castle that evening, we slept well and the following morning after a substantial breakfast were given a tour of the extenisive gardens which contains an old tunnel to the Castle but which unfortunately has now collapsed. They also showed us the cells used by the gendarmes and I wouldn’t have liked a night in those. Useful for guests that don’t pay their bill though. Definitely a place I’d recommend for a lovely stop-over or holiday. Blue beards castle was a delight with workshops for children, a shadow puppet show, a cavern occupied by a mad scientist whose assistant looked (and acted) remarkably like Mr Bean while trying to turn base metal to gold and a great demonstration of various weapons of war as well as foot soldiers and knights in armour on h
orseback. All in all a great place to visit. http://www.chateau-barbe-bleue.vendee.fr/
posted by Teresa at 5:18 pm
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