Europe 1 with AFP 10:59 a.m., April 30, 2022

Inaugurated in 1882, the Grévin museum succumbs to the fashion of the escape game with two original scenarios, one for children and the other reserved for those over eighteen during a dive into the Belle Era.

For 90 minutes, interspersed with twists and turns, visitors will try to discover the name of the culprit of a terrible murder.

For several years now, Grévin, one of the top tourist spots in Paris with more than 700,000 visitors each year, has already been offering an "interactive immersion" by moving "from a museum to see to a museum to experience", on the occasion of animations around its famous historical or contemporary wax figures.

In addition to the galleries, until July Grévin is offering role-playing games and an "escape game" created by Sculpteurs de rêves, the collective already behind the immersive game adaptation of the hit series "Le Bureau des legends".

A dive into the Belle Époque

"The Wardrobe of Dreams", one of the rare "escape games" accessible to unaccompanied children, thus offers an experience of spiritualism to meet the famous magician Houdini.

For adults, Grévin opens the doors of a secret bar in the evening, a beautiful reconstruction of a Belle Époque gambling den.

Led by eight actors embodying "the universe of organized crime in Paris at the start of the 1900s", the immersion begins right from the queue with a distribution of little papers assigning each player a new identity (blacksmith, cigarette butt collector, prostitute...), to meet the two most famous gangs of the Boulevard du crime: the "Loups de la Butte" and the "Tombeurs de la Goutte d'Or".

A Peaky Blinders vibe

Past the doors of the bar, participants can consume cold cuts and vintage drinks, while soaking up a "French-style + Peaky Blinders +" atmosphere where, bathed in a reddish smoke, the "Apaches" dance, sing, fall in love and fight on accordion background.

A murder occurs and it is up to visitors to discover the name of the culprit and his motives, for 90 minutes interspersed with twists, entertainment and puzzles that cement the context of the time.

Due to the themes covered and the possible consumption of alcohol, the experience is only accessible to adults and limited to sixty participants each evening.

"The goal is to offer participants the most total immersion, allowing them to completely disconnect from everyday life to go to another world," Thibault Paquin, one of the leaders of Sculpteurs de Rêves, told AFP.

For Yves Delhommeau, general manager of Grévin, "opening the wax museum to role-playing games offers an additional experience to visitors, while encouraging live entertainment".