The story is quite a bit of fun. The fort was purchased by a dentist at an auction during the 60's. For the price of a very nice car: about 50,000 euros (adjusted for inflation).
When it got the interest of a very succesful TV producer, they had quite a genius move. They purchased it back from the dentist for 500,000 euros (adjusted for inflation) – nice markup mister dentist. It was then sold to the region Charente for 1 euro on the condition they finance the restauration (quite expensive, the fort was in poor shape) and agree to rent it exclusively to the production company.
Today, the fort is a symbol of one of the most succesful TV game ever created and is quite a staple of french television. This is also a good move on Charente part, even though this property is very expensive to maintain, it is a huge tourist attraction. Which is fun because before the 80's the existence of the fort was mostly unknown apart maybe from fishermen.
kouignamann_kingdom t1_ir4lhom wrote
Reply to TIL that the construction of Fort Boyard took so long that by the time of completion it was largely obsolete. Years later it found new purpose as a filming location for game shows. by SilasMarner77
There is a excellent – albeit in French – Youtube video about it: L'HISTOIRE DE FORT BOYARD P1 - Les années Laffont | Le Télévisator. Yes, that's almost 2 hours long, quality Youtube content right there.
The story is quite a bit of fun. The fort was purchased by a dentist at an auction during the 60's. For the price of a very nice car: about 50,000 euros (adjusted for inflation).
When it got the interest of a very succesful TV producer, they had quite a genius move. They purchased it back from the dentist for 500,000 euros (adjusted for inflation) – nice markup mister dentist. It was then sold to the region Charente for 1 euro on the condition they finance the restauration (quite expensive, the fort was in poor shape) and agree to rent it exclusively to the production company.
Today, the fort is a symbol of one of the most succesful TV game ever created and is quite a staple of french television. This is also a good move on Charente part, even though this property is very expensive to maintain, it is a huge tourist attraction. Which is fun because before the 80's the existence of the fort was mostly unknown apart maybe from fishermen.