Treasure hunt at Puy du Fou: in search of ever more reactionary propaganda

While the longest treasure hunt in France, the Golden Owl, ended a few months ago, with its share of controversy , the Puy du Fou park announced on Thursday, May 22, the launch of its own quest: "Exkalibur​". The Vendée park founded by the traditionalist Catholic Philippe de Villiers invites you to find the legendary sword of King Arthur, made of gold and adorned with precious stones, estimated at 250,000 euros and hidden in Western Europe. While treasure hunters and the media are delighted with this new adventure, it is above all a new strategy of Puy du Fou to extend its rewriting of history to make it a tool of reactionary propaganda .

The park, founded by the de Villiers clan, welcomes millions of visitors every year (2.34 in 2023, 2.5 in 2024 and 2.8 in 2024), already spreading its vision of history to many (too many) people. The park's management is constantly trying to extend its influence on the national narrative, particularly internationally. Creation of parks and shows inspired by Puy du Fou in Russia, Spain, Tunisia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Japan, China, soon in the United Kingdom and Brazil... the globalization of Puy du Fou and its vision of history continues to progress.

This announcement of a large-scale treasure hunt involving Arthurian legends therefore appears to be nothing more than a new propaganda tool. As a reminder, Philippe de Villiers, founder of the park and whose son Nicolas de Villiers is the current president of the park, is a traditionalist Catholic, monarchist and supporter of Éric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential election. In the book Le Puy du Faux, investigation into a park that distorts history , four historians demonstrated the numerous errors and anachronisms of a park that nevertheless seeks plausibility as soon as it addresses a real event.

Historical approximations of popular culture objects are not the prerogative of the Vendée park. The real problem with Puy du Fou is that these "errors" knowingly serve a reactionary political project. For medievalist Florian Besson , ancient Rome specialist Pauline Ducret, French Revolution historian Guillaume Lancereau and 19th-century expert Mathilde Larrère , the park tends to show that France is constantly in need of saving, through a fantasized national novel and "a counter-revolutionary and anti-modern reading" that promotes "the grandeur of French royalty" , the "superiority of Catholicism" and "continuously hammers home anti-universalist values ".

These historians are far from the only ones to criticize the park and the political ambitions of its leaders. Michel Vovelle, professor of the history of the French Revolution at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University and communist activist, describes Puy du Fou as a "spectacular revision of the French Revolution" offering a "backward-looking vision of the world and a memory that is far from innocent." "Behind its good-natured atmosphere, the leisure park does not hesitate to exploit French history for political ends" with "a specific project: that of their designer, a certain Philippe de Villiers," believes French Revolution specialist Guillaume Mazeau.

Patrick Boucheron, Jean-Clément Martin, Valérie Sottocasa, Jean-Clément Martin, Charles Suaud… Specialists in ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary history are very critical of the park and the vision of history it conveys. In 2022, Philippe de Villiers himself said he was leading a "cultural battle" and claimed to have "put more ideas across through Le Puy" than by being a presidential candidate.