What to see in France

Le Château des Aventuriers: Pirate Treasure

Château de la Guignardière
Château de la Guignardière

Next spring, the Château des Aventuriers, located near the Vendée coast in Avrillé - 30 minutes from Les Sables-d'Olonne and La Roche-sur-Yon - will be inaugurating a brand new version of the Pirate's Treasure, a revamped trail of 20 riddles based on the quest of the famous French pirate Olivier Levasseur, known as La Buse.

Château de la Guignardière is the heart of the Le Château des Aventuriers theme park. This historic 19th-century château is the focal point of an immersive experience that transports visitors into a world of adventure and exploration.

Themes

The park is centred on the theme of adventurers, pirates and explorers. It offers a recreational and educational experience, combining history, puzzles and entertainment.

Spanning more than 86 hectares, the Vendée leisure park offers a total of four major adventures combining fun experiences inside the castle or in the haunted house, as well as outside, with different routes through the gardens and forest and the discovery of numerous games and puzzles. The park offers the chance to meet dozens of dinosaurs... and just as many menhirs and remarkable trees.

Attractions and activities :

The Château des Aventuriers offers a variety of attractions and activities for all ages. These can include guided tours through the castle itself, enigma courses in the gardens, themed shows, interactive games and exhibitions on pirates and the great maritime explorations.

A completely revamped version of the Pirate's Treasure

riddle trail will be open to visitors when the season opens on 31 March.

Bateau de pirate
Bateau de pirate© Simon Bourcier

The theme park offers visitors three other great adventures to help them discover history in a fun way:

- On the trail of the dinos and the menhirs: a series of riddles to help a young triceratops, named Collerette, find his family in a vast forest where around twenty dinosaurs are hiding in semi-liberty, most of them life-size!

- The Investigation at the Castle: this human-sized Cluedo uses augmented reality to solve the riddles of a mysterious murder.

- The escape game in the Parc du Château's Haunted House can accommodate up to 350 people a day, who can try to lift the curse and avoid the traps set by the ghosts, all the while getting out of the house room by room in time.

 

Finally, in summer only, the park has an area called Western City, where a number of inflatables are available to visitors. It's a world of fun for families and friends in July and August.

Visit the Château de la Guignardière :

You can explore the interior of the castle itself, discovering its richly decorated rooms, period furniture and historic architecture. Guided tours can be arranged to provide further information about the history of the castle and its former inhabitants. If you wish, you can take the tour using a smartphone or tablet and solve the riddles and questions posed to you via the "castle secrets" app. In addition to the various trails and the château, visitors can also freely enjoy the gardens with their dozens of topiaries and the forest with its remarkable trees in this 86-hectare park, the largest in the Vendée open to the public. The English-style park, laid out in the 19th century, is home to a number of trees over a hundred years old, including Caucasian zelkowas, a sequoia, magnolia-grandifloras and a number of Virginia bald cypresses whose aerial roots emerge from the islands in the ponds.

 

Check opening times, prices and upcoming special events before you visit to make sure you don't miss out on the activities that interest you most.

Where should you stay?

Avrillé is the perfect place to spend a few days in the heart of one of France's most beautiful regions, and to discover the area's glorious past. Visitors love the sunshine, but also the local traditions and specialities. To help you organise your visit to Avrillé, there are three campsites to choose from:

 

-Les Mancellières campsite ****, set in a green setting bordered by forests, offers pitches for tents, caravans and motorhomes in an ideal environment for families and nature lovers, as well as mobile homes and unusual rentals.

-Les Forges campsite *****, built around a 16th-century manor house just 9 km from the beaches of the Vendée, boasts a superb water park with a thrilling waterslide, heated outdoor pools, an indoor pool with whirlpool bath and paddling pools for children.

-Der Campingplatz Beauchêne *** hat die Seele eines traditionellen und authentischen Campingplatzes bewahrt. Der Campingplatz empfängt Sie auf 2,8 Hektar mit 134 baumbestandenen Stellplätzen in einem natürlichen Rahmen mit einem 1500 m² großen Teich sowie 57 Mietunterkünften.

 

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