Futuroscope- the future is virtual

The future is virtual here in France. And, while it’s pretty cool, I’m not sure I’m entirely in favour of it.

Futuroscope is one of France’s most visited attractions. It is the reason we decided to come to Poitiers in the first place; and there’s no question it’s an amazing place. But is lacks a certain something – at least as we experienced it.

The complex is immense and has some stunning architecture. But it is based around a huge series of movies – some are 2D, some are 3D and some are 4D (or as the more sensitive amongst us like to refer to it: ‘motion-sickness-D’). The shows are all great, really good. However, on a lovely sunny day in mid-France I honestly didn’t want to spend so much of it queuing up to sit in a movie theatre. The boys enjoyed the experience though, although even they were disappointed that so many of the external rides weren’t open yet.

Declan had a great time going on the Dancing with Robots ride. Huge robotic arms with two seats on their ends moved in violent time to  music hurling their passengers through the air.

I don’t want to give the wrong idea here. We did have a good time and we went in with our eyes open – all the reviews had said that this was largely a screen-based experience. It was; but on a beautiful spring day we could probably have done with a future that’s a little more real and a little less virtual.