Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Troll2Jeux



This store is located on Rue Hector Malot.

They have board games, card games and many kinds of game figures.
There are some tables and people play games every weekday night in the shop.
You can check out the game schedule on the web site (www.troll2jeux.com).

See also LE REPAIRE DU DRAGON

22 Rue Hector Malot
75012 Paris
Tel: 01 43 40 90 46
Web site: www.troll2jeux.com (in French)
Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 : 30 p.m. (Mon, Wed and Sat) or to 11 : 00 p.m. (Tue, Thu and Fri), from 12:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Sun)
3 minute-walk from Gare de Lyon (RER A and D, Metro Ligne 1 and 14)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

LE JOKER DE PARIS



This store is located near Hôtel de Ville.

The store sells many kinds of games and toys. They have classical board games, board games, carrom boards, card games, tarot cards, puzzles, many wooden board games such as Abalone, Siam etc, books about chess, billiard supplies, poker supplies, post cards, etc. This may be a game store, but can be a gift shop, too.

Note that most of the game stores in Paris are closed on Sunday, but this shop is open on Sundays.

77 Rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris
Tel: 01 42 71 21 25
E-mail: 77@parisjoker.fr
Web site: www.parisjoker.fr (in French)
Open from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm daily
1-minute walk from Hôtel de Ville (Metro ligne 1 and 11)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Fapi



This store is located on Rue Miromesnil.

They have card games, board games, toys for kids on the first floor, and puzzles upstairs. They offer many kinds of games and toys for all ages. Everyone can find something that they will like. There are some tables to try out the games in the store.

110 Rue Miromesnil 75008 Paris
Tél: 01 45 61 13 16
Open from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday
Web site: www.fapijeux.com (in French)
3-minute walk from Villiers (Metro ligne 2 and 3)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Monday, December 1, 2008

Variants



This store is located on Rue Saint-André des Arts. It is close to St Michele. They have card games, classical board games, board games. They also offer board games from USA company such as Rio Grande Games. It is notable that the store sells numerous books about chess.

29 Rue Saint-André des Arts 75006 Paris
Tél : 01 43 26 01 01
Fax : 01 40 46 84 55
Web site: www.variantes.com (in French)
5-min walk from Saint-Michel Notre Dame (RER B and C)
Open from 10:30 am to 8:00 pm Monday through Saturday

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Friday, November 28, 2008

Le Damier de l'Opéra



This store is located near Galeries Lafayette.
They have classical board games, board games, card games and poker supplies.
Many chess sets are displayed in the store window. You can see more chess boards in the shop.

7 Rue Lafayette 75009 Paris
Tel: 01 48 74 33 21
Fax: 01 48 74 24 52
E-mail: contact@damieropera.com
Web site: www.damieropera.com (in French)
Open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from Monday through Saturday
2 minute-walk from Chaussée d'Antin Lafayette (Metro linge 7)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Starplayer


This store is located near station Moubert Mutualié. There is a flea market every weekend around there.

They offer board games and card games, but it is notable that they have loads of Warhammer products. Besides, they also have numerous books about games on a bookshelf. There are 2 tables to play board games in the shop.

16 Rue Lagrange, 75005 Paris.
Tel: 01.44.07.39.64
Open from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday
Web site: www.starplayer.fr (in French)
1 min-walk from Moubert Mutulié (Metro Ligne 10)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Friday, November 21, 2008

Games in Blue


This shop mainly offers classical board games.
There are chess sets, go, backgammon, mah-jong, Chinese chess, playing cards and carrom boards in the shop. Most of them are wooden and the owner surely loves wooden board games. When you enter the shop, you would be impressed by the numerous kinds of chess pieces. This store is worth visiting if you are interested in unique chess pieces.

24 Rue Monge 75005 Paris
Tel: 01 43 25 96 73
1 minute-walk from Cardinal Lemoine (Metro ligne 10)

See also The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Descartes Ecoles


This store is located at the corner of Rue les Ecole and Rue Saint-Jacques. It is in front of the Sorbonne.

The store was remodeled recently.
On the first floor, they have classical board games, card games, tarot cards, magic supplies. In the basement, they have puzzles, boardgames, war games, Warhammer products, books about games and some carrom boards. They have many expansions of Carcassonne.

52 rue des Ecoles 75005 Paris
Tel: 01 43 26 79 83
Fax: 01 43 26 98 61
E-mail: boutique.ecoles@wanadoo.fr
Web site: www.jeux-descartes.fr/ecoles (in French)
Open from 10:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
5-minute walk from Cluny-la Sorbonne (Metro Ligne 10)

See also The list of Board Game Stores in Paris

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The List of Board Game Stores in Paris

I found some board game stores in Paris.
I made a list of them here.
If I find new ones, I will add them to this list.


Le Damier de l'Opéra
7 Rue Lafayette 75009 Paris

Descartes Ecoles

52 rue des Ecoles 75005 Paris

Descartes Meissonier
6 rue Meissonier 75017 Paris

Docteur Stratageme
42 rue de Maubeuge

DreamWej
125 boulevard Diderot, 75012 Paris

Fapi
110 Rue Miromesnil 75008 Paris

Games in Blue

24 Rue Monge 75005 Paris

LE JOKER DE PARIS
77 Rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris

L'Oeuf Cube
24 Rue Linné 75005 Paris

Oya Cafe
25 Rue de la Reine 75013 Paris

LE REPAIRE DU DRAGON

44 Boulevard Magenta 75010 Paris

STARPLAYER
16 Rue Lagrange 75005 Paris

Troll2Jeux
22 Rue Hector Malot 75012 Paris

VARIANTES
29 Rue Saint-André des Arts 75006 Paris

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Board Game Party in October 2008

I went to a board game party held by the same group last month.

Keltis: I played this game last month. Last time I kind of figured out how many points I can gain in the game. This time I only advanced three pawns out of five to avoid the negatives. I won the game this time, but I could have done better….I want to play this game again.

French skills: I listened to what the instructor said. I think I could understand more than last time.

Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde avec La Compagnie de Marlin
/Shadows over the Camelot with Marlin’s Company

This is a game about the King Author and the Knights of the Round Table. Each player plays as one of the Knights of the Round Table, helps each other and fights against the game itself. We won a couple of the Quest, but eventually we lost the game as we all lost the Life Points (Points de Brevoure). After the game, we discussed about the game and found that we did a lot of mistakes during the game. I should also mention this… Marlin is supposed to help us but this time he didn’t work so well.

French skills: It is quite difficult to understand the rules in French at the beginning of a game. But since 8 people played the game this time, I understood what to do by watching the others play. There is a character’s reference sheet in French explaining what to do in each turn. This also helped me a lot. One thing that is still hard to do is to read the card drawn from the pile when I play my turn. All cards are written in French, so it took me long to understand what it says. But the other players helped me. This is the first time that I played this game, but I had a fun time with it. The more I play the game, the more I enjoy it, I think.


Sushizock im Gockelwok: It looks similar to "Pickomino". Actually, the same person designed them. There are 2 kinds of number tiles, sushi in blue and bone in red. There are 5 dice with sushi in blue, bone in red, chopsticks in blue and red. Plays can take a tile from the center of the table depending on how many dice with fish or bone he rolled. . A player can also steal a tile from another player if he rolls 3 or more chopsticks. Collecting a fish tile gives you from 1 to 6 points and bone tiles gives you from -1 to -4 points. Collecting only fish tiles sounds better, but because if the number of the fish tiles are more than bone ones, the excess fish tiles are nullified. So it is better that the numbers of 2 kinds of tiles are the same. This rule is amazing. Because no one wants to take a tile worth negative points, but to win a game a player needs to take some bone tiles, otherwise he gets no point. So sometimes you need to steal a bone tile from other players.
I think there are more things we need to think than Pickomino. It takes only 15 min or so.

French skills: It is easy to grasp the rules. Chopsticks in French is des baguettes. A fishbone in French is une arête while an animal bone in French is un os.


Les Dragons du Mekong/Dragon Delta:The player who reaches the other side of the board at first wins. Players choose the actions by using the cards on their hand which allow; to place 1 or 2 stone on the delta, place 1 or 2 plank(s) between 2 stones, to take away the placed stone or plank, to move his pawn, or to cancel another player’s action, etc. It is notable that the pawn of any other player can go on a plank you placed. The game ended in 15 min. The player in front of me won the game. I think I helped him too much by placing my planks on the delta without thinking. Next time, I should place them more carefully not to help other players so much.

French skills: It is not so difficult to grasp the rules. I learned that a plank in French is "une planche".

Risk Express: Roll dice and conquer the world like Risk. Compared to Risk, it doesn’t take so long. There are 7 dice. Each dice are with 6 kinds of symbols, General, Cavalry, Cannon, 1, 2 or 3 Infantries. There are 14 round disks showing some countries, some symbols and the number of victory points. At the beginning of your turn, roll all 7 dice, and then decide which disk you attack. You need to fill the line shown on the disk you attack. When you can fill the line, place the dice on the line on the desk. To get one disk, you need to roll at least two or three times. If you can’t fill the line, you give up one die for the next roll. If you can’t fill the line any more, your turn is over. Next player chooses either to attack the disk the previous player attacked by rolling the rest of the dice or to start over by rolling 7 dice. A player who gains the most victory points wins when the last unconquered disk is taken to any player.
We played the game twice. I won the first game and lost the second one. It took only 15 min for each game.

French skills: There are not so many rules in this game. So it is easy to grasp it in French.

Summary: Now they notice that I don’t speak French well. Some people spoke to me in English at lunch. I am glad that I found some people speak English. But I keep studying French. They didn’t tell me, but I am sure they prefer me to speak French.

Monday, September 8, 2008

The board game party in September 2008

Last weekend, I went to a board game party which was held at a restaurant in Paris. I was a little bit afraid that I could understand the rules of the games in French in this party. When I got into the restaurant, one of the organizers explained in French what to do during the party.
They brought a lot of board games.
Each time we chose a new board game, an instructor explained how to play the game in French.




The first game I played there is "Keltis". This game is said to be "Lost Cities" for 3 or 4 players", but it looks a little bit different to me. Playing Lost Cities, you can guess what cards your opponent may have, but when I played Keltis, it was hard. I played this game like playing Lost Cities and I lost. There are many things which make the game different from Lost Cities. The number tiles which give some points to the player, the wishing stones which give the points at the end of the game, the clover leaves which allow a player to advance any one of his pieces by one. I should play this game more to get a better strategy.

French skills: If you know some French words used in card games, such as "piocher" which means "take a card from the pile", it is not so difficult to grasp the rules of the game.

The next game we played is "Big Points". I played the game with 4 French people. This is a short game and the rules seem simple. But looks like we all misunderstood the rules... Each player can move any colored pawn, but everyone chose a pawn in one color and moved the same one. I need to play it again to review...
French skills: It is not supposed to be difficult to grasp the rules, but as I wrote above, we (including 4 French players!) all misunderstood the rules. Why???????




The third game we played is "Jamaica". This is a game of the pirates. The captain rolls two dices and each player chooses the actions at the same time. The players need to think what they want; move the ship, food, gunpowders or doubloons? The pirating in the game is not an easy job. There are lots of things to do. A race, a treasure hunting, battles and paying doubloons to the banks in the islands.
French skills: The spelling of some French words used in this game are the same as English, but they sound different, like a "pirate". There are many rules in the game, so a little difficult to understand. Playing this game a couple of times may help, I think.

Tribune: Actually, I couldn't understand the rules of the game at all.......
French skills: This was so complicated game for us. There are many rules and so many French words related to the Roman Empire which I don't know so much. I just copied what other players did and still didn't know what I should do. Even 4 other French players sometimes got confused by the complicated rules. This game was the most difficult one we played that day, but I want to play this again and hope I will see what to do next time.

Sagaland:
This game is so fun. The rule is simple and the theme of the game is quite good. There are 13 trees in the forest. A treasure is hidden under each tree. Each player rolls two dice and move his pawn from the village to find out the treasure which is shown on the top card of the deck in the castle. When a player finds which tree the treasure is hidden under, he goes to the castle to tell the king where the treasure is. If it is correct, the player can take the card from the deck. When a player roll a double, he can use a magic; move his pawn next to to a tree to peek at, move his pawn to the gate of the castle or change the card of the pile. If a player's pawn lands on another pawn, the landed pawn is transported to the village. The combination of those rules makes this game so funny. When a player rushes into a castle and rolls a double, he then moves his pawn to the gate of the castle. But then another player rolls a double and his pawn is kick out from the castle to the village. And another player rolls a double again!! It is said this is a good game for kids, but I really enjoyed as so many things happen during the game.
French skills: It is easy to grasp the rule in French, but don't miss how many cards you need to win a game. (A. 3 trois)

The last game we played is "Igloo Pop". The players shake the igloos and guess how many beads are inside. Each player places the igloo with a chip on a card showing different numbers. If the number of the beads inside the igloo is same as the number shown on the card, the player takes the card the igloo is placed on. If it is incorrect, the player loses the chip he bet. The game ends when one of the players lose all of his chips. We needed only 5 to 10 minutes to play this game. Actually, we played it three times, and it was always me that lost all of the chips first.
French skills:I don't remember how the instructor said the "beads" in French, but I easily understood what to do.


Summary: I talked to some people and they all speak French, but I might have found someone who speaks English because there were about 40 ~ 50 people joining in the party. . I didn't feel alone when I was playing games, but during the lunch time there, I wished I could speak more French to the people.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The café or restaurant where you can play goard games in Paris.

When I googled, I found some cafés or restaurants where they play board games once a month. When I visit there, I found some have been closed, apparently they have changed the restaurant though. So, for now I could visit just a couple of restaurants. I should visit more cafés or restaurants to review them. There are tons of people who review the restaurants in Paris about DISHES, but is there anybody who has reviewed them about playing board games???