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Les Epesses is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.
It is best known for the Puy du Fou historical theme park. Puy du Fou is a historical theme park in Les Epesses. It receives more than 2 million visitors every year, making it one of the most popular theme parks in France.
The idea of Puy du Fou comes out (whithout theme park) in 1977, when Philippe de Villiers, a twenty-seven-year-old student (now a politician), decided to create an original show named "Cinéscénie".
On 13 June 1977, he discovered the ruins of an old renaissance castle in the village of Les Epesses near Cholet, and wrote a scenario about a local family named Maupillier (the real name of a soldier of Vendée at the time of the conflict between Vendée and the French Republic during the French Revolution), spanning from the fourteenth century until World War II.
Phillippe de Villiers organized an association of 600 members (3650 today) named "l'Association du Puy du Fou" which has as president today Phillippe de Villiers' son, Nicolas de Villiers.
When the first representation of the Cinéscénie began in June 1978, the show didn't have great success, but that quickly changed by the end of the first season, and with that success, the show grew into a huge spectacular. It has since spawned its own micro-industry of actors, prop-makers and trainers for the featured horse riding and sword fighting, which, since 1998, has been due to the efforts of the "Académies Junior" who organized shows every year outside the Cinéscénie, such as the Paris Paname in the "Halle Renaissance" of the Grand Park, in March 2008.
The Grand Park of the Puy du Fou was opened in 1989, and is today one of the most popular theme parks in France.
In 2011, the Grand Parc of Puy du Fou hosted the team presentations prior to the Tour de France, which was set to begin in the Vendée.
On 13 August 2018, the Grand Parc launched a program where specially trained rooks fly around the park to pick up cigarette butts and other small pieces of litter. Christophe Gaborit, the park's Head of Falconry, originally trained the birds to participate in the park's falconry show, but later was inspired to teach them how to pick up rubbish left by the park's visitors. By using a specially-created box, which was inspired by a magician's prop, he taught six of his birds - Boubou, Bamboo, Bill, Black, Bricole, and Baco - to deliver bits of trash to the box and exchange them for food. The goal of the project is to both teach the park's visitors about the birds and to discourage littering.
In 2019, the project expanded abroad with the night show El sueño de Toledo ("The dream of Toledo") about the history of Spain in Toledo, Spain. It is the first stage of Puy du Fou España. In 2021, it expanded into a park with five shows and four villages.