Chapter 7: Les Herbiers, Clisson and the Vendée Wars
Chapter 7: Les Herbiers, Clisson and the Vendée Wars
Les Épesses
What to see and do
Le Puy du Fou: Le Grand Parc
[Updated 14/8/2018] p. 181:
Often voted as the world’s best theme park, it’s hard to believe that the Puy du Fou in the Vendée department is in need of further attractions to lure in more visitors.
But amid the stunning historical re-enactments, pageantry, costumed staff and spectacular displays of birds of prey, a slightly more mundane – though bizarre – curiosity is due to appear shortly.
Astonishingly, the park has trained six crows to pick up cigarette ends and rubbish and the birds will shortly be starting work at the Vendée’s biggest tourist site.
The Puy du Fou’s president, Nicolas de Villiers, is quoted as saying:
The goal is not just to clear up, because the visitors are generally careful to keep things clean” but also to show that “nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment.
And while many of the people participating in the park’s night-time show, the incredible Cinéscénie, are volunteers, the crows will not go unpaid: each time they collect some rubbish, they will be rewarded with a morsel of food.