In "Le Puy du Faux" (Les Arènes editions), published at the end of March, Florian Besson, Pauline Ducret, Guillaume Lancereau and Mathilde Larrère claim that the amusement park founded by Philippe de Villiers "falsifies history" and uses "old historical clichés" to broadcast "very marked right-wing political messages".

Opposite, in a column published in Le Point entitled "Do we still have the right to have bad fun?", historian Thierry Lentz attacks the "class contempt" of a "brigade of ice coolers". 'enthusiasm' went to Puy du Fou to 'push open doors'.

At the beginning of April, the polemicist and journalist at Figaro Eugénie Bastié evoked on Twitter a "lunar" work on a "show" which "does not claim to be a master course in history".

Actors from the Puy du Fou show during a rehearsal of a historic scene, June 5, 2020 in Les Epesses (west) Loic VENANCE AFP

Throughout the pages, the four authors of "Puy du Faux" recount "falsifications" (Gauls with false airs of Asterix, conforming to the "canonical image") and anachronisms (Merovingian monks using a type of writing born "three centuries after them").

But the objective of the book is not to point out the presence of "inaccuracies", pointed out by other historians before them, explains to AFP Pauline Ducret.

According to the four authors, the Puy du Fou exalts in all of its shows the idea of ​​an "eternal France" where "the enemy is synonymous with foreigner" and where "we have the choice between Christianity and hell".

In addition to the Cinéscénie, a living fresco of 2,550 actors retracing the history of the Vendée, the Puy du Fou offers shows centered on different historical periods, from Antiquity to the First World War.

"Wokists"

"We see an immutable France, consistent from one period to another. The national novel as told on television sets by Eric Zemmour for example", judges Pauline Ducret.

The ex-candidate Reconquest!

in the presidential election had received the support of Philippe de Villiers in his race for the Elysée.

The four authors argue in their book that by welcoming school groups and publishing booklets for children, the park nevertheless gives itself an "educational vocation".

Asked by AFP, the Puy du Fou affirms by email that the park "has not and has never had the vocation of a historian".

"It is an artistic and poetic work, freely inspired by significant moments in the history of France."

On CNews, the conservative essayist Mathieu Bock-Côté denounced the "mediocrity" of a book filled with the "usual clichés of an academic ideological history".

The publication of the book has also triggered strong reactions on social networks, where Internet users call the four historians "wokists", even "anti-France".

One of the perpetrators filed a complaint after receiving a death threat by email.

"It is a book written with rigor, which is taxed free of + leftist cloth +", regrets Hélène de Virieu, editor of "Puy du Faux", for whom the controversy is "essentially political".

"Critical Tools"

According to Guillaume Lancereau, another part of the negative feedback on the book comes from Vendeans annoyed to see this local institution singled out.

In Les Epesses, cradle of Puy du Fou, the points raised by the four historians are quickly swept away.

"It's an amusement park, not a history museum," smiles Bernard Decocq, manager of the bistro Au coeur vendéen, which sits enthroned on a square with impeccable flowerbeds.

Sitting at the counter, Michel Morne, 63, "including 63 spent at Les Epesses", has not read the book but defends a park which has "brought a lot to the town".

"Without that, we might have plunged. But at home, the traders stayed."

"It is in no way a question of attacking amateurs or of having a moralizing discourse. As historians, we give critical tools to analyze what is presented", answers Guillaume Lancereau.

Puy du Fou, one of the most visited sites in France, welcomed 2.3 million visitors in 2019, before the health crisis.

A record in 45 years of existence.

© 2022 AFP