A luxury round-France rail adventure conceived by the team behind the Puy du Fou historical theme park, will finally launch in 2025, a spokeswoman has confirmed.
Called Le Grand Tour, the six-day, five-night trip will have weekly departures from Gare de l'Est in Paris and take in some of the country’s most iconic destinations including Beaune, Carcassonne and Arcachon.
Its launch was initially planned for 2023, but postponed due to problems getting certification for the carriages, which have been custom-built in a Belle Epoque style and specially adapted for what the PR brief calls “the longest and most immersive of shows ever imagined in history”.
Passengers “will enter the mystery of a moving theatre where each meeting and event composes a scenario which unfolds from one stopover to the next, all the way to the final climax,” it continues.
Tours and Michelin-star meals
They will also have opportunities to step off the train to enjoy private tours, such as of the Château de Chenonceau (Indre-et-Loire), and enjoy meals created by a Michelin-starred chef.
Puy du Fou’s press officer, Clémence Germon, confirmed that the train will launch “in summer 2025”.
She added: “We are working on the final details so that we can offer our travellers an unforgettable experience and will announce the opening of bookings at a later date.”
Tickets prices start from €8,450 per person. The train has 21 cabins and suites, and can accommodate a maximum of 42 passengers on board.
Ms Germon said: “This number guarantees an optimum level of comfort and service for every passenger. The idea is to create an intimate and exclusive atmosphere, allowing passengers to enjoy a personalised, made-to-measure experience.”
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Puy du Fou, which is based in Vendée (Pays de la Loire), has already built a reputation in Europe for its jaw-dropping live shows and immersive experiences. There are no roller coasters or other rides, but it nevertheless attracted 2.6 million visitors in 2023.
Since 2021 it has had a Spanish counterpart, and in May 2024 it also opened a show in Shanghai, China.
A site near Bicester, Oxfordshire, which has been earmarked for a British iteration of Puy du Fou, could be open by the end of the decade.
While still in the planning and consultation phase, Puy du Fou’s international sales manager, Gaëtan Favreau, told The Connexion: “Our ambition is to develop two other theme parks by 2030, one of which would be in the UK.
“We needed five years to create the theme park in Spain, so we may need less time because it’s easier when you’ve already done it once.
“Having said that, we don’t just need to create a park, we need to bring the DNA of the concept and then train the people there to raise it by themselves. So it’s a long process.”
Targeting a UK audience
Rather than a ‘copy-and-paste’ of the French park, Mr Favreau insisted that the UK one will be specially tailored to the UK’s unique history, culture – and weather.
“We create new things and we adapt the concept to the place.”
However, he admitted that marketing a ‘no-rides’ theme park to a UK audience could prove tricky, especially given the original park’s relatively low profile there.
“In France, everyone knows about Puy du Fou, and it’s crazy that just across the Channel in the UK no one has heard of it.
“Having a theme park dedicated exclusively to shows just doesn’t exist elsewhere I believe, so it’s really complicated to understand the concept without living it. Even if you say that it’s ‘20 West End shows in the same place,’ for example.
Britons Bob and Ann Loomes, who visited Puy du Fou in France for the first time in 2023 and remain huge fans, agree.
“The French are used to different theme parks, such as Futuroscope and Terra Botanica,” Mr Loomes said.
“The advertising team will have to convince a UK audience that this will be fascinating, stimulating, surprising etc in a completely different way to roller coasters, which are basically an excuse for kids to scream their heads off. And it will need constant updates and new ideas to attract returning visitors.
“Having said that, it might be seen by schools as educationally useful.”
Puy du Fou already has some experience working on UK shows, having helped to develop Kynren in County Durham, a 90-minute outdoor show promising ‘an epic tale of England’.
