Chariot racing, gladiator shows and medieval sword fights await you – just off junction ten of the M40.
For the French team behind a history-themed amusement park is set to given the go-ahead to build a sprawling £600 million site in Oxfordshire.
Puy du Fou — a historical attraction in Pays de la Loire, western France — is planning to create a British outpost in Cherwell, less than 20 miles north of Oxford.
Subject to planning approval and conditions, the immersive site could be built in the Oxfordshire countryside by 2028.
Since opening in 1977, Puy du Fou has grown to become France’s second-most visited theme park after Disneyland Paris, with a record 2.8 million visitors last year and an annual turnover of €3 billion (£2.5 billion).
Visitors can watch a Roman duel in a replica amphitheatre one moment, before finding themselves in the trenches of the First World War the next.
It was named the world’s top theme park in 2022 by voters in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice.
After successfully launching a second outpost in Toledo, Spain, the Puy du Fou group — led by the de Villiers, a Catholic aristocratic family whose members include Right-wing politicians and businesspeople — are hoping to launch a third site near Bicester Village, the designer shopping outlet.
Olivier Strebelle, Puy du Fou’s chief executive, said the British park would look similar to Kew Gardens ‘with very beautiful trees, water, plants’.
‘We want our guests to be disconnected from the 21st century,’ he told The Times. ‘We have our guests travel through time… the best segue between them is nature because it’s always been there.’
Strebelle said Puy du Fou would assemble a group of British historians to decide what eras to focus on.
‘The British people love their history and love live shows as well,’ Strebelle added, although he stressed their venues are not ‘educational parks’.
The company has bought 370 acres of land north of Bicester and will submit formal planning application this summer.
It has also held public consultations and spoken to local theatre groups.
Strebelle claims the group have ‘very broad support’ from locals and councils, with the park employing up to 700 people once open.