Puy du Fou is a project which started in France in 1977, when Philippe de Villiers decided to create a show in the ruins of a Renaissance castle in Les Epesses, a village about an hour away from Nantes. Initially, the show, named Cinéscénie was not too successful, but it increased in popularity as spectacular elements with horse riding and sword fighting acrobatics were added. A theme park was built around the show in 1989, and the venture went on to become one of the most popular parks in France, after Disneyland and Parc Astérix. Between 2019 and 2021, the French project was exported to Spain and turned into Puy du Fou España, located in the central city of Toledo, one of Spain’s most historical towns. Toledo is close enough to Madrid that the park can be visited on a day trip from there, and the land around it were probably on the cheap side.

Regardless of the logistics, Puy du Fou España markets itself as a historical theme park. It does not have rides, and instead, it focuses on shows, restaurants and shops. There is a day-ticket and a night-show ticket and we combined both on the same day. We reached the parking lot about twenty or thirty minutes after the park opened and had to walk for about ten minutes until we reached the entrance. We had booked a “fast pass” called Pase Emoción, which guaranteed access to all the shows at specific times, and the walk-throughs without having to queue. We had also reserved lunch, though by the time we bought tickets, the lunch-show was already sold out – we knew we risked this, but the weather had been unpredictable, and we did not want to be caught in a bad storm so we waited until the previous week to decide. While we did have some drizzle during our visit, it mostly found us indoors, so aside from the hassle of putting the camera out and having to pull it out again (and again, and again), it was not a real problem.

Summary of bookings (times three; four tickets per person):

• Experience 1 day: Park + Night show: Parque + El Sueño de Toledo Ubicación Plata – Entrada 1 día Adulto, 68.00 € (non-weekend, non-high-season price) separated into:
  • Park ticket: Parque 1 día Adulto, 27.20 €.
  • Night show: Espectáculo Nocturno “El Sueño de Toledo” (best seating available), 40.80 €.
• Fast pass: Pase Emoción, 20.00 €.
• Lunch: Menú Hospedería de Santiago – Adulto (first course, second course, dessert and drink, saving a couple of bucks from the on-site price): 22.05 €. We decided to book lunch because we thought it would be harder to find a spot, and that for dinner we could grab a sandwich or something. In the end, we had a snack and a drink in the evening, which came up to around 11 € / person, bringing the total spent in the park to 121.05 € (no souvenirs, no extras).

We visited the park on a September Thursday, so we were not expecting many people. The first surprise was the number of buses in the parking lot – yes, there were quite a few people, though not “crowds” as no doubt they have during summer season. We were directed to the private-car parking lot, on the other side of the area and closer to the entrance, but we were “late” enough so that eight double-lines of cars had already been filled. We walked the kinda-long road to the park and picked up our fast passes, which were already prepared on a lanyard, and we were given times for four shows, along with the two others to do “whenever”, which turned out to be walk-throughs.

Thus, according to the bookings and the pass, we had the following schedule and in theory no queues:

• 12:45, show: A pluma y espada.
• 14:00, lunch at Hospedería de Santiago.
• 15:45, show:El Último Cantar.
• 16:30, show: Cetrería de Reyes.
• 17:30, show: El misterio de Sorbaces.

The park is organised to look like a Medieval village – castle included – with both Christian and Moor flavours (using the word “Moor” to refer to the different Muslim groups that populated Al-Andalus in the Middle Ages). the different shows are scattered throughout the park and there are small clusters of shops, restaurants or activities. The distances are long and though there is some protection, it would not protect from rain nor sun / heat. There were “watering points” but no fountains at them? I think that’s where people selling water bottles stand in summer. I probably should have done more research on the whole thing, but I was just tagging along someone who really was curious about it and I was happy to let them take over the organisation. Instead of wandering around a little, they decided to go inside the theatre that hosted the first show almost at the time doors opened to let people without the fast pass in. Thus, we waited for about half an hour until the show started.

A pluma y espada, “With quill and sword” is an adaptation of one of the French shows, about Musketeers. That makes more sense than the Spanish version – which follows 16th-century playwright Lope de Vega as he tries to foil a conspiracy to kill the king. The stage changes from an open theatre to a prison, to a ship, to the roofs of Toledo as scenes follow one another. After the happy ending, there is a pretty ballet / flamenco dance on the water, along horse riding, which was really cool.

We went out and our designated guide got lost, getting us into the complete opposite direction from where he wanted to go. We finally turned around and found our way, though it started raining. We decided to try our luck in the restaurant to see if we could grab lunch early, and we were lucky enough to do so. Actually, we had to be in the restaurant 10 minutes before the reservation, but we had to queue because a bunch of groups before us had issues ordering and understanding how the restaurant worked – never mind that it was easy: flat rate with a choice each from three first courses, three second courses, three desserts, and one drink. Finally, we reached the front of the line and found our table, got our lunch, and sat down.

The food was okay, though value-for-money was a little on the low side (captive audience and all. Though you can take your own food into the park, it might just not a good idea to carry a heavy backpack considering distance and queueing). I had a goat-cheese salad with honey-mustard sauce, a vegetable parmentier – which had pepper instead of the announced mushrooms and upset my stomach for a while – and rice pudding.

In general, the park feels too big, probably with the idea of filling it up as the park generates revenue (though I’m sure that when it’s crowded during summer season it does not feel as empty). My impression that I had was that as long as you were lucky and everything ran smoothly, it would be okay, but anything going wrong could ruin your experience. Just a couple of weeks earlier, the park had to be evacuated due to torrential rains, and people complained about being denied refunds. We would have a little inconvenience later.

After lunch it had almost cleared, and we headed off to Allende la Mar Océana, “Beyond the Ocean Seas”, which is a walk-through. You “enter” a medieval palace to see Queen Isabel I of Castile (Isabella the Catholic) meeting with Christopher Columbus, as the latter convinces her to fund his expedition to the Indies. Then you get to see different stages of Columbus’ trip with a fictionalised voice diary, with the most important stages: setting sail, navigating near Tenerife, where one of the volcanos had erupted, losing hope in the Sargassum Seas, and finally reaching America – complete with Amerigo Vespucci crying “land ahoy” and walking out to a paradise beach with white sand and palm trees. Some of the areas have live actors interpreting scenes. Not too impressive, and too many people decided to get in the way of my pictures, However, the queen smiled at me.

We had time to check out the other walk-through De tal palo…. The Spanish expression de tal palo, tal astilla means “like parent like child” or “the apple does not fall far from the tree”, literally “from this stick, that splinter”. The idea is to stop to listen to different generations of the same family which have partaken in key episodes in the history of Spain: the resistance in Numancia against the Romans, Medieval clashes between Christians and Moors, and so on. It was probably the weakest show, but truth be told my companions were not really in the mood for it, and we ended up seeing only two complete tales, and two halves. The rain stopped around this time, too.

Afterwards, we backtracked to El Último Cantar “The last Song” or “The last Romance” which tells an extremely sanitised story of one of the warlords of Medieval Spain. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, was a 10th-century mercenary whose life was later composed into a book-long romance. He’s sort of the classical hero of Spain, with an extremely idealised view – imagine, this is the first compulsory book to read in school when you’re around 10. The show was even more romanticised. It was held inside, in a circular stage, and the stands turned to face the different scenes. It had work with horses, and even sort of a just. The problem was that this show finished past 16:15, and we had to be at the exact opposite side of the park before 16:30 (16:25, as they closed the doors). My companions told me to make a run for it, because they knew it was the show I’d be more keen on. I literally ran halfway through the park and made it just before doors closed – the person managing entrance was extremely rude, too.

This show was Cetrería de Reyes, “Kings’ falconry”. I did not follow the plot much, to be honest, I was focused on the birds. It is supposed to be an encounter between a Muslim king and a Christian knight during the Middle ages, and they decide to… measure each other up by showing off their birds of prey. There are barn owls, sparrowhawks, caracaras, falcons, eagles and griffin vultures trained to attack on command, fly to specific places, and “hunt” mid-air. More exotic species include a secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) and a marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) which were cool just for being there. At the end of the show, they let out a lot of the flying birds that flock all over the show. It was really cool.

I got to see the whole show since I sprinted. The other two people were lead in later, as most of the fast pass holders did not make it. They were admitted in small groups around one third into the show. It felt like really bad organisation, to sell something that is almost impossible for most of the pass holders. Furthermore, at the end, we were ushered out through different gates, and could not meet up amidst the crowd. We reunited at the final show.

El misterio de Sorbaces, “Mystery in Sorbaces”, tells a fictionalised tale of how the king Recaredo I, the first Visigothic King in Hispania who converted into Roman Christianity in 587. His brother marries a Roman girl in a Christian ceremony, and the festivities include a lot of horse riding acrobatics. Then the goths come to destroy the village, but they are stopped by the “miracle” of a chalice turning a pond into fire. Recaredo converts and the whole stage is turned into a monastery. Besides the horse riding, the background moving and changing, and the fire special effects are the more impressive thing of this show.

We just hung around the park a bit longer for a while after that. The shops were pretty expensive, and though the eagle plushies were adorable, they cost too much money. So were the handwritten scrolls, even though they were fantastic. We grabbed supper in one of the fast food restaurants – a toast and a drink, a bit on the unremarkable side. Finally, we set off towards the outdoor theatre for the night show El Sueño de Toledo, “Toledo Dream”. It was getting cold so people were waiting in the corridors of the theatre, then the staff kicked us out to line, and they created a bit of chaos – despite assigned seating. They wanted guests to be there with an hour’s time, and in the end we had to wait around 50 minutes until the show started, in front of a backdrop of the city of Toledo. We had paid extra for “silver” tickets, and I was very surprised how they were spaces that I found much better, but were not considered “silver”.

As the sun sets, the story starts with an old water bearer coming in – he represents the memory of Toledo as a metaphor of the history of Spain. He comes and talks to a young lady at the gate of the walled town, and together they reminisce about the key episodes of Spanish and Toledo’s history. The first stage is the Moors leaving town to battle the Christians in Al-Andalus (though Toledo probably existed before as a Roman encampment, it was the Umayyad civilisation who made it great). The Christians attack the town and conquer it, then lose it again. When they once more enter the town, one of the churches has kept a candle burning in front of a walled-off crucifix (famous Toledo legend). The show is presented with lots of light, acrobatics, horse riding, and dancing, even on the shallow water that forms the stage. The sultan’s glass palace comes out of the water, and the cathedral is created with water spurts and light effects.

Time passes. The Catholic monarchs receive Columbus back from America and his ship also emerges from the water. The revolt of the Comuneros comes and goes. Toledo loses its importance and becomes a town of farmers. Then the Napoleonic armies ride in on white horses – the men walk into war and are killed, and the women take over from them. Peace comes, prosperity: the 20th century, the train, the Roaring Twenties – and then the Civil War in the 1930s. The singing girl cries out that her brothers killed each other in battle. In a final dance of hope and healing women dressed with the traditional attire of the different autonomous communities come and dance with her (a bit… dismissive… considering recent events and tensions). Then instead of ending in a happy note, everything goes downhill as the water bearer claims that he is a dream and he’s fading away and the children won’t hear of him and the stories he has to tell, as the whole cast comes to wave goodbye – and it’s about 200 of them, not counting horses, sheep, goats, oxen…

When it was over, we walked back to the parking lot and drove off. It was a bit chaotic and we ended up going in the opposite direction we wanted to – because there was nowhere to turn around until we reached the motorway. We drove to the hotel and crashed in the rooms. If we had been just one floor or two higher, I would have had awesome views of Toledo, but most of it was hidden behind trees.

All in all, the experience was okay – for one time. The price was steep, not even counting petrol and accommodation. I have read online that people go back four or five times, I don’t get the need to do so, even if I know that we missed most of the street shows. We were pretty lucky with the weather, because the park is not prepared for either heat nor heavy rain – and Castille is known for its scorching summers and its temperamental thunderstorms.

The next morning, we had breakfast – hotel was good, but the breakfast there was quite expensive, so I had brought some canned coffee and pastries. We drove back without much traffic, making this a 24-hour-ish adventure. Maybe it would have been cool to try the spa at the hotel, but driving back later would have meant running into the heavy traffic around Madrid at the start of the weekend, and we preferred not to do so.