SUNDAY GUEST. With his Dinopedia parks, Philippe Lopez has found the dinosaurs that lay golden eggs

In just four years, Philippe Lopez from Alès has created three parks, a restaurant and a magazine dedicated to the world of dinosaurs. Midi Libre – Michael Esdourrubailh

The Alésien is at the head of the Dinopedia theme parks, a concept that he aims to develop throughout France. A man of communication, passionate about entrepreneurship, he has imagined a whole universe for this.

Inexhaustible. In his office overlooking the Gardon d'Alès, Philippe Lopez almost forgets his next appointment, so much does the story of his week's vacation animate him. “Five days of total immersion in nature, in the south of Spain with my son, looking for the lynx. We didn't find it because it is difficult to approach, but we saw an ibex, a chamois, deer, eagles. Fabulous“. The secret garden of this pure-bred Cévenol, born in Alès 50 years ago, father of three children, is animal photography. He still remembers his encounter with a wolf on Mount Lozère: “he felt us, went around us, always walking with his eyes in mine. A real connection”.

“The living world has always fascinated me”, he adds. A paradox, since it is for a species that disappeared 65 million years ago that we came to see him. In the Gard, Philippe Lopez is indeed known for having created, in 2020, Dinopedia, 10 hectares above La Grand-Combe dedicated to reptiles from the Jurassic era. With over 140 specimens, most of them life-size and animated, it quickly established itself as the largest dinosaur park in France.

Google Best Seller

However, the Alésien does not present himself as the French Alan Grant, the fictional paleontologist – imagined by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg – who created Jurassic Park in the 90s, which sparked a wave of passion for dinosaurs that has never subsided since. He admits: “I'm not a scientist, I left school with a BTS in commercial action”.

This diploma allowed him to join the Spir communication group, which managed the classifieds newspaper Top Hebdo but also acted as an advertising agency for Google. “I was named best seller for France two years in a row. That earned me an invitation to San Francisco, a crazy experience” . But one day, the desire came “to dedicate all this energy to my own account” . “I also felt the wind change” , two years later, Spir closed its doors.

Conversely, his small communication agency, 010Com, is continuing on its merry way. Philippe Lopez even bought the last printing works in Alès, “modest, but it allowed us to work 360° and meet all needs“.

From the fossilized forest to the largest park in France

The change of era came in 2020 when the Alésien was offered the opportunity to acquire the Champclauson forest, “until then run by an association that offered a tour on a little train of petrified trees or fossilized trunks. A place without equivalent in France but which only had 5,000 visitors per year at €5 per ticket“, he recalls.

The Cévenol smells of potential. “It is an important geological site. But if the Carboniferous is good, it is not enough. So we kept the fossil forest and worked on the following period“. By thinking big right away – up to 30 metres for the animated dinosaurs – with paleontology workshops, play areas, treetop adventure courses and a mini-golf course. Success came very quickly, once the first few months of Covid hardship had passed. “It grew, we reached 40,000 – 50,000 visitors per year in the heart of the Cévennes, far from the big cities. There, I said to myself wow, I have something good”.

The creator of Dinopedia saw “very big” right away. DR

“Philippe, when he sees an opportunity, he manages to analyse it well and then develop a strategy that is different from the others. He likes to undertake, get out of his comfort zone, and take on new challenges. Getting involved in a theme park, when he came from communications, was a risky bet. But he embodies the Cévennes New Deal, he could only succeed”, says Christophe Meyruies, another Alès business leader who shares the presidency of Leader Alès with him.

His “not bad stuff”, Philippe Lopez then transforms it into a real Dinopedia universe. “I quickly understood that it is a simple, effective concept that can be duplicated. All you need is a natural setting”. And incidentally, an investment capacity, at least €1.2 million per new park. “But we have the banks' trust”.

A 450 million year journey

To learn, the Alésien first set up on the Causse de Mende, “a wonderful natural setting in which we have notably brought a 42-metre-long, 100-ton Argentinosaurus, the largest animated dinosaur in the world. We don't have big ambitions in terms of attendance, but it's a great showcase” . There was also another opportunity, the purchase of a cave in the Pyrénées-Orientales, in Villefranche-de-Conflent, which has become a unique underground theme park in France. “Visitors are allowed to go back in time by meeting homo-sapiens, prehistoric mammoths, Mesozoic dinosaurs, and giant Carboniferous insects. A journey spanning 450 million years“, which was difficult to set up, but which has already attracted 30,000 visitors in 2024.

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Philippe Lopez, at the opening of the Dinopedia park in Mende. Midi Libre – Louise Gal

Park, fast-food, magazine

These successes whet Philippe Lopez's appetites. Both literally and figuratively. He has since imagined a fast-food restaurant, The Big Rex, whose decor and menu would make Spielberg salivate. The first one opened in October in Alès. He has also created a magazine, Dinopedia Découverte, available by subscription and intended for young and old alike, to learn everything about these fascinating reptiles. “It's the same galaxy. The children's menu, at the restaurant, offers an entry to the park. Subscribers to the magazine receive an adventurer's passport that also opens the doors to the parks for them,” he describes. Everything is designed to feed an ambition, that of eventually opening “twenty parks, each with four restaurants around” , he says, showing a map of France on the wall where the various more or less advanced projects are positioned, notably those around Lyon, Aix-en-Provence or Gap, sites with otherwise promising catchment areas.

Crazy or brilliant ?

“The first time Philippe told me about his idea, I wondered if he was crazy or brilliant” , admits the president of Alès Agglomération Christophe Rivenq. “He embodies audacity, ingenuity and thus carries the values ​​of our territory. He is one of our ambassadors, moreover very committed locally, he makes us proud”, adds the elected official, who has supported him from the beginning.

“It's true, it's easier here where we all know each other than elsewhere”, admits the entrepreneur who encountered a first pitfall in 2024. His project near Lyon, in the former aquatic park of Trévoux (Ain), was the subject of appeals which stopped the construction site a few weeks before opening. “I had to lay off staff while Dinopedia was only the pretext for a political battle against the mayor. The worst thing is that they invoked the environmental argument, me who makes it one of the values ​​of our universe, with family and culture”, says Philippe Lopez. Who, however, does not give up. “I am moving forward with the authorities to obtain the necessary authorizations. It will happen. And at the same time, it feeds me for the future.”

Gold dino seeker

Because the man, like the entrepreneur, is eager to learn. On management for example, he who is now at the head of thirteen different structures that employ around fifty employees. And on dinosaurs ? “I do not define myself as an expert, but yes, in five years, I am starting to be very specialized on the subject”, he replies. To this end, he has multiplied his meetings with the scientific world and participated in an excavation site in Vienne, at the invitation of Xavier Valentin, a paleontologist at the University of Poitiers. “I have collaborated twice on his magazine. It is interesting to promote our professions, our important geological heritage, to explain the interest of scientific research”, appreciates the academic. Who even suggested an idea, “that these parks could generate patronage to finance research activities or help students”.

Philippe Lopez, on an excavation site, in Vienne. D.R.

Philippe Lopez showed interest, even going so far as to imagine a Dinopedia Experience park… on a real excavation site. “I don't know what meteorite will hit me tomorrow, but yes, I'm thinking about all the opportunities that can serve my ecosystem“, concludes the Cévenol, a true seeker of “golden dinos”.

His news in 3 news

1- Jurassic burgers

This is the latest creation of Philippe Lopez, a channel of "past-food",on the theme of dinosaurs. The first “The Big Rex” opened in October on the Alès ring road (formerly the Mons road), with burgers (including the Big Cévenol of course), fries, salads and desserts on the menu. The restaurant's special feature remains its immersive universe, at the table where the decor is Jurassic, as at the drive-through. Others should follow Nîmes, Montpellier or Avignon.

2- Leader Alès, Alès Mécénat

Since last October, Philippe Lopez has also been co-president of Leader Alès, a network whose mission is to unite business leaders in the Alès economic and industrial area. "I want to highlight “I use my passion for innovation and my experience in business management to support and promote our local entrepreneurs”,he said. He shares the presidency with Christophe Meyrueis, from the 7Tech engineering firm. Philippe Lopez is also president of Alès Mécenat, an endowment fund that redistributes donations from companies to local associations.

3- "Take 5 minutes"

&At 50, Philippe Lopez dares to embark on a new adventure: Youtubeur. On the social network dedicated to the video, the Alésien therefore created his channel “Take 5 minutes” (to be found under this name on YouTube), with the promise of regularly posting topics on entrepreneurship, his passions such as animal photography or beekeeping “and topics that affect us all” like the sixth mass extinction, a theme “as fascinating as it is urgent” of his first video.

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