A team of French puppeteers will be travelling all the way to Bishnupur on Friday, along with tourists, mostly European. This is the first time that the Alliance Francaise du Bengale (AFB) is promoting a tourist spot in the state, with active participation from the state tourism department.

'We do not want to restrict our shows to Calcutta. Last year, we had held a show in Darjeeling. This time, we are taking the puppet show to Bishnupur and tourists are coming as well for an overnight trip,' said AFB director Stephane Amalir, who recently visited Bishnupur and was struck by the beauty of the terracotta temples. 'This trip will give tourists a taste of both the local culture and heritage.'

The tourism department is offering transport and accommodation for the tourists and logistic support for the show. 'Last year, we had taken a group of Italians to Bishnupur. It helped our cause as they returned home and wrote about the place in the local press,' said director of tourism Umapada Chatterjee.

The show, titled Pacotille, has a clown interacting with five puppets. 'They are characters from news articles,' said Aude Marechal, the director of Crea Spectacles. She acts as the life-size puppets, which appear one at a time to meet Georges, a tramp who finds a magic box in a park. Didier is the technician in the three-member group.

Sharing the stage with the puppeteers will be chhou and jhapan (an endangered art involving snake-charmers) artistes of Bankura.

Freed (Force for Rural Empowerment and Economic Development),an NGO that works with local under-privileged communities which had taken the Italians to Bishnupur, is organising this tour as well. 'We had spread the word in hotels and cafes of Free School Street and Sudder Street and got a good response,' said secretary Somnath Pyne.

Bookings, he said, would be accepted till Thursday noon. 'Foreigners feel safe when Alliance Francaise and the government are involved.'

'If the consulates approach us with proposals we will be happy to take foreigners on such trips,' Chatterjee said.