We weren’t a happy family, bombing down the A10 from Paris with nothing to look forward to except the grim prospect of a day of educational films. My teenage sons glowered. Their mother, ever stoical, hummed a funereal “Je ne regrette rien”.

I tried telling them about our destination: Le Parc Europeen de L’image, less than 10 miles north of Poitiers, was created at enormous expense a decade ago with the specific purpose of catapulting the sleepy Vienne countryside into the 21st century. It is home to a theme park that attracts more than two million visitors a year.

Like my kids, I couldn’t really imagine what drew them all there. That is, until we saw the place through the windscreen, looming out of the early morning mist: huge, alien shapes transforming a 1,000-acre site into the set of a sci-fi movie. Children, notoriously, don’t notice architecture, but mine were riveted by this bold assortment of neo-Futuristic extravagances: a sphere with a diameter of 17 metres; a gargantuan lotus flower; a glass-walled rock crystal lunging out of the ground at 60* ; a vast cube sunk in the earth like a meteorite. Just the sort of buildings, I realised, that my children would design for themselves if only they were given the chance. All talk of abandoning the visit forgotten, they rushed to the turnstiles.

Futuroscope - to give the Parc its alternative and quaintly dated name - seems, at first sight, like any other amusement park. It has fast-food outlets, three uncompromisingly traditional restaurants, ice-cream parlours and enough activities (most of them free) to keep children amused. The children won’t notice, but the activities on offer all have a distinctly educational feel.

My children alleged they were too old to enter the giant tomato that housed a swimming pool of plastic balls. But they couldn’t resist an enchanting musical house where every surface is some sort of percussion instrument; or leave the magical hopscotch where each square produces a different ethereal note - hop, skip, jump and compose. Even the adults cannot resist an aquatic maze where one false move will spray you with a jet of water. There are pedallos, suspension bridges, trick mirrors, and a meandering boat trip through the rural landscapes of Europe.

But all these are mere sideshows; what makes Futuroscope unique is the cinemas. A film on photosynthesis wasn’t like any film we’d ever seen before. It was projected on to an 800m2 screen - and we watched it through liquid crystal glasses which create amazing effects. Look ahead, to the side or above, and you are assailed by spectacular 3-D images that you can’t resist reaching out to touch. It’s as if you’re not simply seeing a plant cell but are being transported deep inside it.

Each of the other cinemas demonstrates a different aspect of leading-edge cinemagraphic wizardry. My favourite was Kinemax which boasts two 800m2 screens - but one of them is beneath your feet. So in a breathtaking flight across the Americas, if you look down you have a bird’s eye view of the world teeming below you. In Le 360 Degres, you stand entirely surrounded by screens on which you can watch nine perfectly synchronised films. So you can watch a string of wild horses gallop menacingly towards you, pass by you on your right, and - if you turn around - watch them canter safely into the distance.

The children’s favourites were Simulator, and Le Cinema Dynamique which apparently are brilliant but I must confess I had my eyes shut most of the time. To “enjoy” this experience you are first strapped into your seat which is then controlled by a sophisticated hydraulic system perfectly co-ordinated with the thrills and spills on the 300m2 screen. You sway, lurch, bump and shudder, as you are sent hurtling down roller coasters on mad chases, a bone-shaking ride on le train fou and - most terrifying of all - headlong down an Olympic toboggan run.

Was the day educational? I must admit I can’t remember much about photosynthesis or any of the other scientific, geographical and historical topics earnestly covered. But more important than any one of these, especially for young people, is Futuroscope’s hidden curriculum - its brash and eager insistence that learning and having fun needn’t be mutually exclusive. It leaves you hungry, not to see more films, but more of the planet they depict in all its spectacular diversity. You can’t spend a day seeing images of Chartres Cathedral, the Antarctic wastes, a field of ripening wheat, a joyous peasant wedding in a remote corner of the Andes and scores of other places without feeling a compelling urge to know everything and go everywhere. Except, possibly, down an Olympic toboggan run.

Naturally, Futuroscope attracts thousands of French school parties, but it prides itself on its comprehensive and international educational service.

* Futurescope can provide educational groups with 40-page (English) workbooks, and visitors are issued with soundtracks in a choice of languages. Admission: Adults, 135FF, children 100FF. Parties can be accommodated on site at the Hotel Futuroscope for 60 FF per person per night. The park is open from February to October, and over the Christmas week. Details from British offices at 3075 Upper Richmond Road West, London SW14 7NX. Visits can be organised through Rank Educational Service, See Europe, STS and Travel Bound.