Paris
I am holiday in Paris at the moment. On the first day I headed out to the shops and had a look around. There are three good shops within five minutes of Notre Dame:
- Variantes , Rue St André des Arts, Métro Chatelet.
- Starplayer, Rue Dante, Métro Maubert.
- Descartes, Rue Meissonnier, Métro Wagram.
Apparently, there is another in the vicinity, but I have not been there:
- Fireball, Rue Mr Le Prince, Metro Odeon.
I was interested to see the other geeky shops in the area; the French seem to be more into models, comics and sci-fi than the British. Certainly, there seems to be more of that sort of thing in Paris than London.
We visited a small town called Chartres the other day and I was surprised to find a regular toyshop with an impressive selection of German games. I wish Britain was more exposed to this sort of quality.
Unsurprisingly, the contents of the shops mirror Bruno Faidutti’s site closely, both in terms of the games he designs and the games he recommends.
I had to buy Shazamm, even though I know it probably will not get much play in the long-term, but it’s lots of light fun and I would like to see how Ness reacts to it – if I can ever persuade her to play.
I also bought Nicht die Bohne. I do not really need any more lightweight card games, but this one sounds like a cut above the rest.