Le Puy du Fou Re-Opens

An Irish Times article in late May carried the good news that the wonderful Puy du Fou theme park in western France, was to re-open sooner than expected from the lockdown – in early June.

However, that good news got submerged to some extent in the report by the paper’s Paris correspondent, Lara Marlowe, which presented the early re-opening as a questionable favour from President Macron to his friend, Philippe de Villiers, a former MEP and the founder of the park.

The journalist also applied several unflattering labels to M. de Villiers (“right-wing traditionalist Catholic and Europsceptical”, “virulently anti-EU and Islamophobic”) and suggested that he was an ally of the far-right.

Ms Marlowe is a respected correspondent and few would question her contention that the friendship between M. de Villiers and the French President has been helpful to Le Puy du Fou.

One might nevertheless regret a media tendency to label public figures, and particularly those of a conservative disposition, in a reductive way, and to suggest that the person thus classified can safely be disregarded as unappealing or unrepresentative.

The unrepresentativeness of de Villiers is a matter for debate. He campaigned in 1992 against the Maastricht Treaty, which was very   narrowly carried in France, and was also one of the leaders of the successful campaign advocating a “No” vote in the French referendum on the proposed European Constitution in 2005. These referenda would suggest that there are many supporters in France for his strong position on French national sovereignty.

While that position has not gained much favour among the French political elite since the days of de Gaulle, concerns about the EU and national sovereignty are not confined in France to an extremist fringe.

The left-wing writer Olivier Todd has recently reflected, for example, on the damaging impact of the euro on the French economy and on French politics. The influential philosopher Marcel Gauchet has argued that problems of inequality and social marginalisation can be better tackled at national rather than EU level because of a greater sense of community and identity at the national level. 

An international “Paris Statement” in 2017, which was signed by renowned philosophers such as Chantal Delsol and Rémi Brague, supported a “Europe of the Nations” rather than a European federal state and suggested that the Nation-State was a “hallmark” of Europe (www.thetrueeurope.eu).

While Christians can, and do, take contrasting positions in “national sovereignty versus EU solidarity” debates, no-one can credibly deny that such debates are taking place in France and elsewhere and are likely to grow more intense in the years ahead. 

In that context, M. de Villiers can be seen as a principled and courageous supporter of French sovereignty who played a prominent role in the two referenda mentioned above.

He is also someone who has succeeded, along with others, in re-awakening national interest in the suffering of the Catholic population of the western, Vendée region during the French Revolution – when its revolt against the Revolutionary Government was ruthlessly suppressed. When I was studied French history, with an excellent teacher, more than forty years ago, there was relatively little focus on the Vendée rebellion but things have changed in the years since, thanks to the efforts of pioneering researchers like Reynald Secher and of prominent politicians like de Villiers.

De Villiers also established a strong friendship with the towering Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitysn. He brought Solzhenitsyn to the Vendée in 1993, when the author of The Gulag Archipelago reflected in depth on the links, similarities and differences between the French and Russian Revolutions. De Villiers was also an honoured guest, and one of the very few French people present, at Solzhenitsyn’s funeral in Russia in 2008.

De Villiers went to the same prestigious national school of administration (ENA) as many leading French politicians and public servants but has questioned its way of operating and written amusingly about it.

For example, in his book, Le moment est venu de dire ce que j’ai vu, (Albin Michel, 2015), he recalled some idiosyncratic questions which were asked at ENA’s entrance interviews. Example: What is the depth of the Danube at Vienna? Good answer: Under which bridge, Sir? The question is absurd in that no-one in this setting could reasonably be expected to know the answer and the answer is equally absurd but demonstrates that the interviewee has the ability to think on his or her feet. However, is this type of questioning, de Villiers asked, of much value in selecting France’s future leaders?

His critique of French leaders can be linked to his views on Islamist radicalism. He thus argued in his 2015 memoir that the French political elite and media have not properly taken the measure of the threat posed to French traditions and freedoms by Islamist movements and campaigns. Such concerns cannot be ignored in a country which has had painful experiences of Islamist terrorism but Christians must also keep constantly in mind the beautiful vision of brotherhood between Christians and Muslims, which Pope Francis has often emphasised.

De Villiers is a combative and caustic commentator on French life, politics and media. If his success in politics, against the odds, was moderate, his major life achievement was arguably outside politics and is indeed the magnificent Puy du Fou theme park (www.puydufou.com). It is France’s second largest theme park and is definitely worth a visit, or even a major detour, when French visits become possible again for those from overseas.

As I can attest from my own visit there in 2017, Le Puy du Fou offers a great variety of spectacles, deploys an impressive army of volunteers and provides superb entertainment for people of all ages. It also offers a moving celebration of France’s history and Christian heritage.

During my all too short visit, I was nevertheless able to watch an impressive range of performances, from Roman chariot races to the Vikings in France, to Joan of Arc, to wonderful displays of medieval falconry and to presentations of the struggle of the Catholic Vendée in the 1790s. This theme park is an interesting model for those in other nations who wish to help their own citizens to re-connect with their past and has indeed established significant international partnerships with projects in countries such as Spain, England and the Netherlands.

As the Irish Times report acknowledged, Le Puy du Fou is now one of Frances’s most popular theme parks, with 2.3 million visitors in 2019. Its re-opening in June was indeed a cause for celebration!