New theme park to open in France with a James Bond feel

A tourist attraction to open in France will invite visitors to race a motorised gondola, crack a safe and save the world from destruction by defusing a nuclear bomb. Well, an imaginary one, at least - reports The Times (UK).

Welcome to Spyland, the world’s first espionage theme park. Didier Rancher, the project co-ordinator, says it was the idea of a former French spy known only as “Xavier” who wanted to pay homage to his profession.

“We had talked about a museum,” said Rancher. “Museums don’t make money, though, and we decided to be more ambitious.”

A feasibility study drew investors from Spain, Greece and Belgium, who glimpsed a potential goldmine in the interactive theme park. The site, 50 miles south of Lyons, is on the edge of one of France’s busiest motorways.

“We expect to attract about 1.7m visitors a year,” explained Rancher, “each paying up to ¤30 (£21).” That price would include a high-speed gondola ride intended to recreate a famous scene in the Bond film Moonraker.

Bond is also remembered in cars adapted to look like Aston Martins — complete with special gadgets — that visitors will be able to try out on a circular racetrack.

One aim is to trace the history of espionage from the days of ancient Greece — there will be a life-size model of the Trojan horse — to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

There are plans to divide the park into the geographical zones of Russia, Asia, Italy and Britain, whose exhibits, beyond highlighting Bond’s exploits, will include an account of intelligence during the second world war.

Visitors will be invited to join spy games involving coded messages and secret liaisons with other “agents” being played by professional actors.

One workshop manned by make-up artists will allow visitors to disguise themselves — “like in Mission Impossible”, says Rancher, referring to the film in which the characters usurp each other’s features by wearing masks of synthetic skin. “We might have to charge extra for wigs,” he added.

There will be further workshops on encryption and safe-cracking. The safes will not be real. “We don’t want to be accused of anything,” said Rancher. “It’s just for fun.”

One challenge to appeal to children is the “laser maze”, in which participants must find a path through a room crisscrossed with laser beams without setting off the alarm. It is based on a scene from Entrapment, starring Sean Connery as an art thief and Catherine Zeta-Jones as an insurance investigator.

If all goes well, the site will include a 300-bed hotel, restaurants and bars when it opens in spring 2007. There are also plans for an annual espionage film festival and, of course, several souvenir shops offering fridge magnets and keyrings. And wigs, no doubt.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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