Move over mickey: A visit to Futuroscope is a must for budding boffins and thrill-seekers alike

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 16:15

MY brain was telling me in no uncertain terms not to be so ridiculous, that the weird giant spider-crab-type beastie that had just jumped on my hand was not real. But I screamed anyway.

I'd never seen anything like it, and indeed, this kind of creature won't inhabit the Earth for millions of years. But thanks to the wonders of technology, you and your family can see it, and many other animals of the future, today.

If you say French theme park, most people will think of a certain giant mouse, but there is an alternative if you've done Disney to death, or are planning to spend more than a weekend on the Continent so have time for both.

Futuroscope, near Poitiers in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France, opened in June 1987 aiming to "harness the future". Since then, it's welcomed more than 35 million visitors, making it the second largest leisure park in France – no prizes for guessing who's number one.

Around 12 per cent of visitors come from outside France, including many from the UK. Like Disneyland Resort Paris though, it's all very French, a bit of a culture shock if you dozed at the back during language lessons at school, but then, it is in France after all.

Generally, the atmosphere is much more educational than Mickey's place, too. What's more, you can now fly direct to Poitiers from Edinburgh with Ryanair from April to the end of October. Or you can fly to Paris and take the TGV direct to the park, an 80-minute rail journey away. The park is open all year, except January.

So, what about the rides? Futuroscope offers around 25 high-tech, very imaginative virtual reality experiences looking into the future, or using state-of-the-art technology to look at the past.

Particularly popular then is The Future is Wild, a safari on the trail of weird and wonderful animals that could be living on Earth millions of years from now – that spider-crab thing called a squibbon among them, as well as "toratons", "spitfire birds" and "carakillers".

Eminent scientists from major academic institutions looked into the future to predict what kind of creatures might be roaming the Earth in millions of years and what kind of environments they'd be living in, and this is the result.

Visitors to the park put on special binoculars and sensor gloves and suddenly, thanks to the latest computer imaging technology, "see" these strange new animals move around.

The park continually updates its rides and introduces brand-new ones, too. New for 2009, there's Fly Me to the Moon, a 3D adventure with comic character flies on the Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

Cosmic Collisions is a thrilling space voyage – you witness some of the massive cosmic crashes that have shaped the universe in a kind of high-tech planetarium.

In EcoDingo, it's the year 2052 and you're taking part in a race on futuristic, eco-friendly vehicles, and the Blue Note Mystery is a 30-minute, after-dark, outdoor musical fairytale with special effects, lasers and jets of flame.

The very latest ride, due to be launched on 19 December, is Arthur, an adventure in 4D, inspired by the trilogy of novels, Arthur and the Minimoys, by Luc Besson, director of movies including The Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis and Nil by Mouth starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke.

For the new attraction an animated film is projected onto an Imax dome 900 square metres in area, accompanied by movements and multi-sensorial 4D special effects.

The ride is set in the miniature world of the Minimoys, and you sit in a giant ladybird as, surrounded by tall grass, giant flowers and huge insects, you race against the clock to escape.

Established favourites include Dinosaurs, an IMAX film shown on a massive hemispherical screen. You step back 100 million years to Patagonia to see how the greatest dinosaurs such as Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus lived before they died out 65 million years ago. An absolute must for dino-lovers!

And Dances with Robots is brilliant fun – strapped into the giant metal machines, you choose how scary you want the ride to be, then the robot's mechanical arms lift up, twist and turn to the music, from classical waltzes to up-tempo disco, shaking you around like a puppy with a ragdoll. You scream till it hurts, believe me.

The attraction I least wanted to do but enjoyed the most was Journey into the Dark. You get what it says on the tin – you're led through various pitch-black zones filled with obstacles, sounds and smells. You can't see a thing, and cling pathetically to the person in front of you, friend or stranger, as you conga your way from room to room. But your other senses are suddenly heightened to help you cope. Utterly fascinating.

There's an extra charge of a few euros for this but part of the profits are used to help the visually impaired.

I also liked Deep Sea 3D, a fabulous 3D IMAX film – you really feel like you're underwater with the colourful fish and scary sea creatures thanks to the great technology.

Even the food is futuristic at Futuroscope. As well as cafes serving the more usual fast-food fare – pizza, pasta, crepes – there's Le Cristal, which offers molecular cuisine. Dishes play on the unrecognised or forgotten natural chemical properties of food so that it smokes, foams, fizzes or comes in unfamiliar colours or textures in the mode of Heston Blumenthal.

So… dual-cooked beef tenderloin in syrah polyphenols with carrot kugelhopf with cumin, carrot crisps and preserved mini carrots, anyone?

After you've done Futuroscope, there are other great attractions in this part of France if you want to stay longer. Poitou-Charentes is a good family holiday destination with a wealth of well-run campsites, B&Bs, hotels and gtes.

Two-thousand-year-old Poitiers itself is a pretty town, with nice restaurants and shops and lots of parks and woods for the kids to run around, including the 4,000-hectare Mouliere Forest.

There's also a new Cartoon Museum in Angoulme, just over an hour's drive from Poitiers, celebrating everything from Asterix to Garfield, and Tintin to the Japanese Anime cartoons. As well as permanent exhibitions, the museum stages workshops and has a library, bookstore and caf. For further information, visit www.cmbdi.fr

There are 200-plus crocodiles at Crocodile Planet in Civaux, 300 snakes at Snake Island, La Trimouille, eagles and falcons galore at Giants of the Sky, Chauvigny and 350 primates at Monkey Valley, Romagne – and not a mouse in sight.

THE FACTS

A two-night Family Break (two adults and two children sharing a room) at the Hotel Plaza ([phone], www.hotel-plaza-futuroscope.com) costs from e177 per adult and children go free, with breakfast and two-day tickets to Futuroscope, including laser show. This three-star hotel is a ten-minute walk from the park. Travel to France not included.

Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Edinburgh to Poitiers, April-October, or fly to Paris and take the TGV (www.voyages-sncf.com) from Paris-Montparnasse to Futuroscope, approximately 80 minutes. The Park is shut in January. To book, and for info on other hotels, call 020 7499 8049 or visit www.futuroscope.com For more information visit www.visit-poitou-charentes.com

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