First steps in Auxerre

(français dans les jours à venir)
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First of all, allow me to tell you that I’m alive, safe and sound ! The beginning of my trip went pretty well. Hitchhiking from Paris to Auxerre was fairly easy, thanks to the great spot suggested in the very handy hitchwiki : the gas station of Lisses, in the southern surburb. Directly asking people if they were going to Auxerre was something new for me, as I’m mostly used to the basic thumbing technique – put yourself on the side of the road, raise your thumb and wait for somebody to stop. I discovered that asking people is more effective, often safer and actually more fun as you are proactive.

Reaching the station was almost more difficult...

The city of Auxerre is also nice. The center is full of big churches, including the gorgeous Saint Étienne cathedral and the Saint Germain abbaye, and is on the left side of the Yonne river, which is always a good thing for a city. Also, you can see a lot of planks on the front side of the house, giving the city a taste of good old fashion.

The fine Saint Nicolas plaza

But hey, I’m not travelling for tourism purposes, right ? The first workshop took place in the local board games shop, Cartes sur table. Apart from Nicolas, and Elise, the very friendly shopkeepers (and fellow players), 3 people were there, which was a good number as a group of 3 is better than 2 groups of 2 in my opinion.

The stage is ready

The workshop lasted 2h30. The mechanicards picked by the attendees were “Dice”, “Material positioning” and “Narration”. My epic hand crafted theme was “Potato”. In the end, the game prototype involved potato plantations with crops buying, potatoes selling and market flux (at least the idea of stocks was there !).

The plantation of a player

Potatoes factory and random events list

What now ?

I’m currently in Besançon to present the trip to local people before the incoming workshops ! I shall write something after those workshops, in something like 1 week. Meanwhile, if you want me to write about something specific about the trip, feel free to send me an email !

D-1 ! Where are the first workshops ?

(Français ci-dessous)

My backpack is ready, I’m cleaning my flat, working on some paper presentation of the project for easier hitchhiking… The departure approaches. To be honest, I still don’t realize I’m leaving tomorrow for 6 months of board games and adventure, tho it gets more real each hour passing.

Anyway, for you guys who wanna join the workshops, now’s a good time to tell you where they will take place. I’ll assume the attendees at those particular workshops are mostly French speakers, so I will switch to French. If you are interested in doing a workshop in English, I’ll be in Auxerre then Besançon, so feel free to contact me !

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Je vais donc supposer que si vous venez participer à ces ateliers, c’est très probablement parce que vous êtes francophone, et vous faire la présentation en Français !

3 Septembre : Auxerre, Cartes sur table

Le tout premier atelier aura lieu à Auxerre, à la boutique Cartes sur Table à partir de 15h. Une après-midi de création au programme !

6 September : Besançon, CRIJ

Retrouvez moi à partir de 13h30 au CRIJ de Besançon, 27 rue de la République, dans le cadre du lancement de la carte jeune. A cette occasion, pas d’atelier de conception de jeu de société, mais plutôt une animation autour des jeux Tête de Linotte, Wink et Skull & Roses, ainsi qu’une présentation du projet. Allez, venez, ça va être sympa.

9 -> 13th of September : Besançon, in various places

Et les choses sérieuses commencent maintenant, avec pas moins de 7 ateliers !

Mardi 9

Toute la journée (9h – 12h pour jouer, 14h -17h pour créer) à l’association Trivial’Compost. Venez !

En soirée à l’association de joueurs Doubs you play. 34 chemin de Vieilley. A partir de 20h. D’ailleurs, si vous êtes bisontin, venez jouer chez eux, ils sont cool.

Mercredi 10

Toute la journée avec le Comité de quartier Rosemont St-Ferjeux – Attention : complet !!

Jeudi 11

Toute la journée (9h – 12h pour jouer, 14h -17h pour créer) à la Maison de Velotte.

Vendredi 12

Toute la journée (9h – 12h pour jouer, 14h -17h pour créer) à la MJC Palente Orchamps. De plus, comme mardi soir, à l’association Doubs you play.

Samedi 13

Toute la journée (9h – 12h pour jouer, 14h -17h pour créer) à la maison de quartier Montrapon. C’est le samedi : aucune excuse !

 

N’hésitez pas à passer le mot ! 🙂

D-35 : what’s going on before the departure

It’s been a while since I didn’t post some news about the project so far, even if the departure day is getting closer and closer. A little bit more than 1 month before the first trip, I may have some things to settle down, but there has been a lot of exciting news.

Let’s do a little recap.

 

Workshop presentation

The workshops lacked a short and clear presentation (nobody likes Walls of text). Here it is.

Feel free to use and share it to any structure which could be interested by such workshops ! 🙂

 

Translated Mechanicards

Remember the Mechanicards, those little cards describing board games mechanisms, skills and material ? Well, they are finally translated in English, so people from all around the world will be able to use them.

Feel free to use them as they are on Creative Commons Attribution. You just have to somehow mention me at some point, at least by highlighting the link to my website on the bottom of the cards !

I will put them more clearly on my porfolio as soon as possible, but so far you can download the PDF here.

 

Schedule scramble

The two first months of the project are going to be everything but what I initially planned.

* I’m starting my trip the 2nd of September. My first destination is Auxerre, where a workshop will take place the 3rd.

* Instead of reaching Besançon the 1st of September, I’ll be there the 6th to launch the project at the CRIJ. Then workshops will take place several times during the following week in different places (more information later on the post).

* I will most likely spend some days in Lille after Besançon.

* My next stop is Brussels from the 22nd of September for 1 week. Yes, Brussels – which means I’ll actually travel to 10 countries now. I couldn’t find any structure in Mulhouse unfortunately.

* Then I’ll travel to Munich to be up and ready the 6th of October.

* Finally, I’m going to the Essen spiel festival from the 16th to the 19th of October.

 

Confused ? Maybe a couple of screenshots will help you then !

 

  

 

Besançon workshops

So far, 3 workshops will take place around Besançon. I’m still looking for more (with a huge help from my friend there, Evelyne, who pretty much contacted the whole city – which for I can’t thank her enough), but for now, here are the workshops :

* Tuesday & Friday evening with the board games association Doubs you play. They are usually playing games thoses evenings, but they kindly accepted that I animate workshops at the same time. They are located here.

* Saturday, I’m going to animate a full workshop (playing then creating) at the “Maison de quartier” Montrapon, a place for young people to come and do… fun things.

 

Lots of board games material

Toutpourlejeu, an awesome company selling board game material, kindly accepted to sponsor the project ! So a pack full of board games material is coming in a few days. I’ll keep you informed (these guys totally deserve a full article).

However, I also bought some extra material on Spielmaterial to be able to do some workshops as soon as possible.

Holidays

Ok, that’s not really related to the project, but I’m going in holidays for most of August ! So I’ll try my best to leave you some scheduled articles beforehand to keep you hyped 😉