This post comes courtesy of our Club President, Keith Done. Merry Christmas everyone!

The December meeting was another well-attended meeting. Despite the close proximity to Christmas, there were fifty-five people present at midday. Thanks to everyone who brought a plate of goodies to share and for Jason and Ado for organising the free pizzas.

Two of the club’s 2009 leagues wound up with Leanne Jones taking out “Puerto Rico” and David Kay winning the Magic: the Gathering Grand Melee. Congratulations to both champions! Look out for those leagues in 2010 and new leagues starting up (such as Viewpoint and Battletech).

At the December meeting I played Last Night on Earth and few games of Aquaretto. Other games I saw being played included Warhammer Fantasy, Memoir 44, Powergrid, Torres, Caylus, Puerto Rico. Magic: the Gathering, DnD Miniatures, Carcasonne, Talisman, Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan. The junior members were busy playing Jenga, Mouse Trap, Labyrinth and Chicken Cha-Cha.

2009 has been a pretty good year at LXG with many new faces joining the club, an excellent Winter Retreat and two great Legends weekends. I am sure we will continue to grow in 2010 and will see a lot more ongoing structured events as initiated by David Kay (Magic) and Terry Krause (Puerto Rico).

Merry Christmas to all LXG members and I hope Santa brings you lots of things containing dice, cards, figures and CD-ROMs.

Regards,

Keith

Never before have there been so many food programmes on television – and fewer people actually cooking. One surprise hit at the moment is Channel 4’s “Come Dine With Me”.

Diarmuid Gavin

Ireland’s most famous  landscape gardener, Diarmuid Gavin, is in the show’s special celebrity edition this week, starting tomorrow night.

The other cooks are Hannah Waterman (daughter of Dennis and formerly of EastEnders apparently), David Gest (“I’m a Celebrity” and Liza Minnelli’s ex), and Sherrie Hewson (Coronation Street/Loose Women).

While this week’s shows will probably be absolute chaos, the usual recipe for “Come Dine With Me” is deceptively simple:

• Take 4-5 complete strangers in the same town
• Each in turn hosts a dinner party for the rest
• At the end of each night i.e. each programme they vote secretly (usually in a taxi on the way home) on that night’s meal
• At the end of the 4-5 programmes the host with the highest score gets £1,000

So it’s about 4-5 people taking turns to do a meal. Yet a simple recipe can create very complex things…

1. In at least one episode the guests (and cameras) will poke around the house and through the host’s knicker drawers
2. One contestant has too much vino
3. Another takes umbrage about all the terrible double entendres that some English people love so much
4. Someone else “isn’t a fish person”
5. Another guest will find the musical entertainment (an optional extra) very boring
6. Another harbours a deep-seated grudge from the previous night
7. The very camp contestant and the ex-SAS Freemason are now Very Best Friends
8. But half the others vow that they never want to see anyone else ever again
9. Meanwhile the kitchen is on fire and tonight’s host also has to pop out to the neighbours for 12 fluid ounces of something or other

Chuck in some bitchy comments and a tongue-in-cheek voiceover that wouldn’t be out of place on “Eurotrash” and you have cheap ‘n’ cheerful daytime TV that’s far more compulsive than “Hell’s Kitchen” and other reality TV food shows

Like, um, “The Wire”, “Come Dine With Me” can’t be watched as isolated episodes. It builds up like a soap opera, as the dinner party dramas unfold episode by episode. That’s why it’s such a big success.

This is food show as soap opera, and when you watch it back-to-back on one of those E4 or More 4 or E More 4+1 stations, it all begins to make perfect sense.

If “Come Dine With Me” is food as soap, here are ten more types of UK and Irish food show organised by their TV genre…

1. Food as sexy middle-class lifestyle

Nigella Lawson

Examples: “The Naked Chef”, “Jamie at Home”, anything with “Nigella” in its title

See Jamie! See Jamie run! See Jamie slide down the banisters! See Jamie scoot off on his Vespa and gobble samples in his friendly deli and his local Sainsbury!

See Nigella! See Nigella in her silk dressing gown! With perfect make-up! See Nigella at the zoo with her kids! See Nigella “take the bus” to the shops and stuff her gob in her kitchen and the dinner party afterwards!

Yes, this is food with sex symbols, plenty of soft-focus gastroporn shots and more and more family rubbish.

Do we really need to have Jamie’s entire extended family in a Christmas kitchen bizarrely decorated with giant paper doilys to get a few decent cooking tips? No. Give us Mr Singleton himself, Nigel Slater, any day.

But to give Jamie his due, he has created several compulsive soap operas, involving trainee tearaway chefs or a school cook.

2. Food as a classroom

Examples: Delia Smith, Darina Allen, Rachel Allen, in fact anything with “Allen” in the title

No frills, cut to the chase, stick to the kitchen, often in a studio, piles of recipes, not so much fancy camerawork. These are domestic science’s answer to Ryanair. The direct descendants of Fanny Craddock but without the food colouring.

3. Food as strange family sitcom

Example: “Food and Drink”
At one time on a distant planet long, long ago, “Food and Drink” was a BBC show with a surprisingly hard-hitting magazine format, with Chris Kelly and Michael Barry at the helm.

Then it went the pseudo-lifestyle route, with Anthony Worrall Thompson as the cuddly Uncle figure in a big riverside house, another Uncle figure (Oz Clarke) living in a shed at the bottom of the garden where he quaffed lots of wine, and a mumsy Auntie figure (whatsername) cooking stuff in the driveway in a mobile catering van.

This was food-as-sitcom, a genre that the Beeb finally seems to have abandoned and replaced with the decidedly un-Mumsy James Martin in “Saturday Kitchen”.

4. Food as travel show

Keith Floyd

Example: Keith Floyd

Look! We’re in a sunny place! I’m soaking up the local culture and sights and DOWN HERE CLIVE! There have been many devoted followers (Two Fat Ladies, Hairy Bikers, Anthony Bourdain etc etc), but the late great Keith Floyd was the punk who pioneered it all in his imitable (cue the comedian impersonators) way.

On Irish TV in recent years, we’ve had UTV’s Jenny Bristow flying off to the Languedoc, or at least with a few film inserts that give you brief snatches of Carcassonne and Béziers.

And RTÉ has tapped into our greatest export to France, the brilliant Trish Deseine, with two series in Paris and Provence (though, strictly speaking, most of the latter seemed to be the Languedoc).

Unfortunately RTÉ then repeats the same formula ad infinitum with lesser presenters, e.g. “Catherine’s Italian Kitchen”.

Rick Stein used to be a fitting heir to Floyd in the travelogue genre, but his latest show about what to do with Christmas leftovers was a terrible rip-off, just recycling his recent Asian series. Bah humbug!

5. Food as gameshow

Example: “Ready Steady Cook”

Who will you vote for? Red tomatoes or green peppers? “Ready Steady” pioneered this genre and launched a thousand TV chefs. Now it’s a boring parody of  “The Generation Game”.

With limited time and ingredients, it can never go into slow food territory, and too many chefs rely on the predictables (red onion marmalade souffle).

6. Food as X Factor

Example: “Masterchef”

“Masterchef” used to be deadly serious and posh, with highbrow music and serious tasting/judging sessions. Lorded over by Loyd Grossman, it was almost saying “Look! We’re ‘Mastermind’ with food!”

Then Greg Wallace and John Torode took over, and not just with ordinary people either but with Z-list TV celebs as the contestants. Gimme “Hell’s Kitchen” any day – not the superficial Ramsey version but the inspirational Marco Pierre White one.

7. Food as makeover programme

Example: “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares”

Your mission, if you accept it, is to take on the role of health inspector, cookery school, accountant, interior decorator, paintball team leader and lifestyle coach. Save that joint from bankruptcy, big boy!

8. Food as challenge

Examples: “The Rankin Challenge”, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “Take on the Takeaway”

I’m a celebrity chef me! You’re an ordinary viewer you! Or just a local takeaway. I’m going to beat you, despite all your specialist knowledge, because my knowledge is even better.

9. Food as Hugh Fearnley-Eats-It-All:

Hugh Fearnley-Whatsit

Example: Anything with “River” or “Cottage” in the title

Hugh really is his own genre. “A Cook on the Wild Side” was survival course cookery, not quite laddish.

It mutated into a “Green Acres”/”Good Life” pastiche, where Hugh had to live and barter in a quaint English cottage for a year with all his New Friends From The Village, and then a second year, and a third year. Now it has expanded into a gigantic River Cottage Enterprise Experiment, a big brand with a rather different momentum, but still enjoyable.

Similar “food-as-project” type shows include “Jimmy’s Farm” about a pig farmer mate of Jamie Oliver, and a cable TV show about a chef who converts a barge into a restaurant and sails it from England to Paris.

10. Food as “Top Gear”

Example: “The F Word”

What a studio/location food programme would look like if Jeremy Clarkson was a loud-mouthed, laddish, bullying celebrity chef.

Carcassonne es una pequeña ciudad al sur de Francia, a medio camino entre Toulouse y Narbonne. Está dividida en dos partes, la parte baja, más moderna, y luego “La Cité”, que es la ciudad medieval que visitamos. Parece un castillo pero es una ciudadela fortificada, con fosa, puente levadizo, doble anillo de murallas y 53 torres (casi todas diferentes). Es muy vistoso tanto por dentro como por fuera. Se puede recorrer todo en una tarde, está abierta siempre porque es una ciudad básicamente funcional, con pequeñas casas, pequeñas plazas, restaurantes y algunos negocios, y por supuesto la infaltable iglesia.

Vista de la entrada principal

Parece ser que Carcassonne fue durante mucho tiempo un lugar estratégico, sobre todo se hizo famosa durante las cruzadas, pero antes y después pasó por romanos -constructores de la primera fortificación-, visigodos, sarracenos y reyes varios. Estuvo sitiada muchas veces y en el siglo XIX las murallas estaban en tal mal estado que el estado francés planeaba derrumbarlas. Por supuesto surgieron defensores de la historia y lograron que se financiara la reconstrucción.

Entre murallas y torres

Hoy La Cité es Patrimonio de la Humanidad (UNESCO), y ya casi no se nota que Carcasssonne sufrió muchos ataques, en algunos se entregó y en otros resistió.

Hay una leyenda que dice que el nombre viene de una tal Madame Carcas, que supuestamente logró que Carlomagno desistiera de asediar la ciudad mediante una estratagema de veracidad dudosa. Dice la leyenda que luego de cinco años de asedio, Mme Carcas usó el poco alimento que le quedaba para alimenar un cerdo y tirarlo fuera por la muralla, lo que se consideró un derroche en el momento en que el enemigo pensaba que la ciudad estaría por rendirse por falta de alimentos. El engaño funcionó y desde entonces Mme Carcas es la heroína de Carcassonne.

Mme Carcas

A mí me gustó mucho Carcassonne, y sobre todo pensar que aún vive gente ahí dentro de la ciudad medieval, aunque muy pocos, leí que algo así como 50 personas (que deben de ser los dueños de los negocios que hay ahí dentro, de souvenirs, de dulces y galletitas, de armaduras, restaurantes y creperies). Hay un par de “museos del horror”, donde se muestran los auténticos artefactos de tortura usados durante la Inquisición. Yo paso de ver todo eso… ni loca pago 5 euros para ver una silla llena de clavos o cosas por el estilo, hay que ser morbo… Así está el mundo amigos.

Calles angostas de piedra

Me imagino como será dormir ahí por la noche… Despertarse desvelado en mitad de la noche, y con vela en mano asomarse por la ventana y admirar un paisaje de película: sentirse resguardado por murallas y torres, y a la vez solo y encerrado. A lo lejos el río como de agua negra por la oscuridad, silencio… Abajo, al pie de la ventana, un gato negro atraviesa la sinuosa calle de piedra, desierta, apenas iluminada por la pálida luz de la luna. ¿Qué pasaría si se acercara una nube oscura que espantara esa luz, y se escucharan maullidos como quejidos, y una ráfaga de viento alcanzara la ventana y apagara la vela? … … Nervioso, tanteas la mesa de noche en busca del mechero para volver a encenderla, y cuando lo logras, diriges la luz hacia el interior del cuarto para que se te hiele la sangre al descubrir la misteriosa aparición de la silla de clavos contra la pared frente a tu cama!!! … …

Pero si sobrevives la noche, abres la ventana al cálido sol de la mañana, a la suave brisa, y escuchas el dulce cantar de los pájaros mientras te desperezas, el relajante gorgoteo del río. Observas a lo lejos el bello paisaje multicolor de los viñedos y sientes el delicioso aroma que llega desde la boulangerie.

Trop fort!

Carcassonne

]]> http://irishherault.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/snow-languedoc/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:53:50 +0000 irishherault http://irishherault.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/snow-languedoc/

“Météo: il fait froid en France!” It’s snowing in the Languedoc and a cold front is blasting through several other départements too.

At the moment the two of us are sitting back in Dublin, which is experiencing its own little cold snap, but it’s not half as bad (yet).

The local authorities in those départements have activated le plan grand froid – emergency measures for helping the homeless in these  sub-zero temperatures.
Normally the two of us are green with envy when we compare the weather forecasts, i.e. the series of “gadgets” on our Google Desktops that tell you at a glance that:

• Box #1 (Ireland) is about to get rain, rain and more rain, and freezing stuff

• Box #2 (south of France) is destined to have sun, sun, one really tiny wispy bit of fluffy cloud, more sun etc etc

That’s the norm, the general rule. Most of the time the weather in the Languedoc is approximately 10.6 times better than in Ireland.

The Canal du Midi covered in snow, 1956

In fact, there are times in December or January when you can eat out on the terrace, feeling the hot sun on the back of your neck while the texts from Dublin are telling you that it’s all rain, frost, wind and more rain. Heh-heh.

Narbonne weather

For the past few weeks now, Narbonne and Montpellier have been dry, sunny and around 17 or 18C in the early afternoon.

Meanwhile the Google weather gadgets would be telling us in their smarmy we-know-everything way that if you were thinking of eating outside in Ireland at the moment, simply subtract at least eight or nine degrees,  add four big dark cloud icons and just forget it.

Yesterday, though, all that changed and the snows arrived in various parts of France.

In the middle of summer it’s almost impossible to imagine these cold snaps. The stones are cracking,  little geckos scurry about like Fianna Fail backbenchers,  you can hardly move for the heat,  it’s a roasting 40C in Toulouse, and the texts from Ireland say it has been pouring down non-stop, for over 10 weeks in a row now. Heh-heh again.

Most of the winter, too, it can be far milder in the Languedoc. Then, out of nowhere, the snows come.

La vague de froid est bien là. Après un automne doux, la France et notre région ont basculé brutalement dans l’hiver. Ainsi, le temps ce lundi sera encore un peu plus froid que la veille et le ciel toujours gris sur la plupart des régions. Il neigera en plaine dans l’intérieur sur le Languedoc-Roussillon, jusque dans le Midi-Pyrénées et sur le sud du Massif-central.

The cold wave is here. After a mild autumn, France and our region have swung sharply into winter. Thus, Monday’s weather will be a little cooler and it will snow in the plains in the interior of Languedoc-Roussillon, in the Midi-Pyrenees and the southern Massif Central.
- Yesterday morning’s Midi-Libre

Lads playing a game of cards (presumably la belote bridgée) on the ice at Toulouse, winter 1956

This latest cold spell is set to continue for the rest of the week, and while snow at this time of the year may be all very well and good in a sort of Charlie Dickensy Christmas Carolly  pantomimey kind of way and The Kids do love a good snow fight, please spare a thought for the homeless out there in the freezing conditions wherever you live.

Snow trends

But if you look at the historical trends, why would we be surprised about the latest snow? The  figures say that it’s a good deal more likely to snow in the Languedoc than on the east coast of Ireland.

Sometimes in a vide-grenier or flea market in Agde or Béziers you come across these musty old bunches of postcards or photos from half a century ago or more.

Stacks of cards in brown envelopes in shoeboxes, showing cold snaps – The Year When Our Canal du Midi Froze Over, the times when people skated on it or We Set Up A Table On It To Play Cards.

At the time, in weather terms, these images were about exceptional times. The headline pictures. That’s half the reason  why they ended up on a postcard or a magazine cover in the first place.

But in the age of global warming, it’s like we live in exceptional times all the time. It’s when this exceptional  “postcard weather” becomes increasingly unexceptional, if you know what I mean.

Related posts:

• Languedoc weather links
• Droughts in the Hérault

The Canal du Midi is ever so peaceful at this time of the year. The tourists in their boats are long gone home – families of ducks are the only traffic now. There are leaves in the still waters, which are almost clear compared with high summer, when the boats churn everything up into a muddy soup.

The canal basically closes down to traffic from the beginning of November until just before Easter, and they sometimes even drain off entire sections for maintenance work. This year the boats which normally tie up at Carcassonne have had to find alternative winter moorings because of the repair work.

During this period you can’t sail down the canal except  by prior arrangement with the Voies Navigables de France (VNF) – the inland waterways authority – but I guess it only gives permission in exceptional circumstances.

Boat owners have sometimes found themselves overwintering in one of the town or village ports, stranded, unable even to do any local cruising. But for the rest of us, walking, jogging or cycling along its banks, it’s sheer heaven.

November 2009: winter sunset on the Canal du Midi in "our back garden", with not a boat in sight

I thought I would do a post about the current games that I’m playing now. Today in the mail I just got two games from Play Asia. The first being “Modern Warfare 2″.

I payed it for a couple hours tonight, and so far it’s really fun. I also got “Lego Rock Band” to continue my addiction to all things Rock Band.

It’s a bit easier than normal Rock Band, but still fun.Of course I’m still hopelessly entrenched in “Rock Band 2″. Unable to escape the rock.

I’m so addicted to playing drums. I’m actually able to play on hard difficulty now. Which is incredible since I had previously believed that drumming would be impossible for me.

A couple weeks ago I also picked up the Japanese version of “Uncharted 2″. Like most PS3 games it has multiple languages, which makes it easy to pick up English games while living in Japan.

Some people have said that the Japanese cover is terrible, but I actually kind of like it. I like it more than the American version.

On the go I’ve been playing the video game version of German board game “Carcassonne” on DS.

It’s quite fun and is great to play in small bursts, like on a short train ride.

Finally I’m still playing the terrifying and extremely difficult “Demon Souls”.

Currently I’m working my way through the second world. Super hard, but still really fun.

I have been here, in Carcassonne, for 93 days – that doesn’t sound too long to me until I put it into context in that it’s been almost half of my year abroad. Wow!

It has taken a while but at the moment I feel an incredible sense of belonging here, I no longer feel like this is a place I HAVE to be, it’s a place I WANT to be – well for this week anyway!  I still, of course, miss my family, friends and English way of life, but  I am enjoying myself here.

I’m not sure what has suddenly flicked a switch in my head to make me realise that this isn’t as bad as I initially though but I’m glad it has. Maybe it’s the fact that I know people here, I feel involed, for instance, I was in the pub last night with people from my foyer and saw the secretary from one of my schools who in turn saw me and there was a nice conversation before she wished me a “bonne soirée” and “à demain!” It felt like seeing a friend in a bar back at home… but, of course, it was in French. It’s the same with the people here in the foyer, we’re all becoming more familiar with each other and it’s easier to just drop round at the room of someone for a chat. Homely!

Tomorrow morning, 9:45am, I have an inspection from my responsable – she’s coming to see how I’m getting on, observe me teaching and give me any tips she thinks I need. J’ai peur. I’m scared. I know that I in theory I have nothing to worry about but the worry comes with the fact she’s observing me in my CM2 class – the oldest. The very CM2 class that asked me to explain the difference between “a bitch” and “a beach” the other day. What a cauchemar! O well, bonne chance à moi!

The remarkable Canal du Midi links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, its lower sections passing through historic centres such as Carcassonne and Narbonne.

From the Mediterranean..
We start in the historic town of Pezenas, famous for local dishes, such as petits pates, olives and honey, as well as fine regional wines. Riding along a network of quiet country roads we make our way south to the coast at Marseillan for a visit to the famous Noilly Prat cave where the renowned vermouth can be sampled. Next we head west through several small villages to reach the Canal du Midi at Vias, then along the canal to pass the nine locks of Fonseranes before arriving in Narbonne, one-time capital of the Visigoths.

Along the Canal du Midi..
A free day allows an opportunity to explore the town’s narrow streets and squares at leisure or to make an optional ride along the Canal de la Robine or perhaps to the lagoon at Bages and Peyriac where an abundance of wildlife can be found including, on occasion, flamingos. Next we take an attractive, mainly level route along the Canal de la Robine to rejoin the Canal du Midi and make our way to the market town of Lesignan Corbieres.

To Beautiful Carcassonne
This is wonderful rural France at its best! Towpaths lined with wild flowers make for easy access to less visited corners of the area, revealing the true nature of the region. Traditional villages pass by one after another as we wend our way gently to beautiful Carcassonne, replete with its battlements and witches-hat towers. En route you can pause to swim in the lake at Jouarres or make a detour to visit the old Cathar village of Minerve. A last, free day brings with it an opportunity to explore Carcassonne town or for rides along the canal to Bram and Villepinte or, for those who enjoy a challenge, a hilly option to visit the dramatically sited remains of the Cathar Chateau de Lastours.

Source: Nature & Kind Travel Collection

Wczoraj przyjaciele zaprosili nas z okazji 8 rocznicy ślubu. Wszystko było prawie tradycyjnie pyszne jedzenie, przednie trunki i błyskotliwa rozmowa. W końcu udało mi się namówić wszystkich na partyjkę Carassonne. Mieliśmy tylko wersję podstawową, ale i tak było zabawnie. Ponieważ była nas szóstka a gra jest od dwóch do pięciu graczy połączyliśmy rodzinne siły. Zabawna rozgrywka pełna nieoczekiwanych zwrotów akcji.

A teraz coś o grze…

Buduj zamki, drogi i klasztory i obsadzaj je swoja swita! Przenies sie w okolice Carcassonne – pieknego miasta w południowej Francji słynacego ze swej niezwykłej zabudowy zamkowej. Wznos zamki, buduj drogi, zakładaj klasztory i obsadzaj je swoimi ludzmi. Wszystko po to, aby zdobyc na tym rejonie jak najwiekszewpływy. Czy podołasz temu trudnemu zadaniu?

CEL GRY: To zdobycie moŻliwie najwiekszej liczby punktów poprzez ustawianie swoich pionków w zamkach, na drogach, w klasztorach i na łakach.
JAK SIE GRA? Gracz w swoim ruchu losuje z puli jeden Żeton terenu i dokłada go do innych leŻacych na stole. Na wylosowanym żetonie może postawic swój pionek, który (w zależnosci od miejsca ustawienia) bedzie pełnił role rycerza, rozbójnika, chłopa lub mnicha. Kiedy zamek, droga lub klasztor, na którym stoi pionek zostanie ukonczony gracz otrzymuje za niego punkty, które oznaczane sa na planszy do liczenia punktów. Po tym jak wszystkie żetony zostana ułożone na stole gracze podliczaja punkty za swoje łaki oraz za nieukonczone budowle. Wygrywa ten, kto na koniec gry ma najwiecej punktów.

DO GRY SŁUŻA:
72 żetony
40 pionków w 5 kolorach
Plansza do liczenia punktów

źródło: maltes.pl

One of the few toys we brought with us for our ten months in France in our 400 pounds of luggage is a set of cardboard pieces called Klutz Building Cards: How to Build Castles. It’s an ingenious toy: simple, cute, a good way to talk to the kids about knights and princesses and medieval history. We spend several evenings in the first few weeks comparing our constructions to pictures in books and online, discussing ramparts and defenses, wars and raids, and what it must have been like to live in those times. We compare the printed pieces to our own château, which was a fortified home and granary. James and Izzy have one lonely little plastic knight figure, which they tumble into the towers and perch in precarious situations along the walls, mainly so that he can fall off, complete with the requisite screams: aaahhh—blam! His little sword is the only weapon we’ve ever officially allowed as parents, so it is, of course, central in much of the imaginary play. The cardboard pieces of the building set are printed with stone walls (some vine-covered), stained glass windows, wooden planks, ramparts, shuttered windows, open windows, hearths with huge kettles hung inside. All this cardboard construction and theoretical history lessoning becomes startingly real on the day we visit Carcassonne.

Carcassonne is east of Toulouse, toward the Mediterranean Sea, in the unfolding of hills between the Massif Central rising to the north and the Pyrénées to the south that was once the disputed border with Spain. The land here forms a natural corridor more easily traversed by Romans, Crusaders, invaders, traders and others. The earth is rich for farming. The temperatures are relatively mild. Most of the towns perch atop hills, and many (along with homes and keeps like the château in which we’re living) were fortified. Carcassonne, roughly halfway between Toulouse and the sea, was one such place, a walled city on a hill, a castle, a bastide, a fortification, a child’s toy castle come to life.

By the time we arrive in the lower (slightly newer) town of Carcassone, the children are restless. We had stopped at an Aire (a rest area) off the A61 for a picnic to stave off their hunger on the way, but an hour in the car plus twenty minutes to find our way to the Cité, which is the old upper town within the castle wall, has tried their patience. Despite the pictures we’ve seen online and in books, none of us are quite prepared for the sight of Carcassonne. We wind our way up the narrow roads, following the signs, round a bend, and there it is—curving stone walls, turrets, mammoth wooden gates, a drawbridge over a (now-dry) moat, wooden ramparts, the notched stone top all the way around where the knights would (really!) shoot arrows, drop boulders, and pour boiling oil onto their attackers. A real castle.

The region around Carcasonne, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997, has been inhabited for about 5000 years, and the Romans established a fortified outpost on top of the hill called Carsac at about 100 BC. Some of the lowest ramparts date from that era, but the present-day structure is a bit of lesson in European history, walls built higher, a second wall added to make a “curtain” of defense, the town closed in within the wall, towers erected to watch for the English invaders and crusaders from the west, the Visigoths and Franks from the north, and the infidels and barbarians from the south and west, over the course of more than a thousand years. The Romans gave the town to King Theodoric II of the Visigoths (from what is now eastern Germany) in 453; the Visigoths fought off King Clovis of the Franks (also a Germanic tribe, but more closely allied with the Romans) in 508 but lost the town to Muslims from Spain in 725; King Pepin the Short (another Frank, the father of Charlemagne) sent the Spaniards packing from the region in 760 but couldn’t break through the defenses of Carcassonne to take the castle. A succession of local counts (from which the English word “county”—the land ruled by a count—comes) controlled Carcassonne through the Middle Ages, most notably the Trencavel family beginning in 1067, who built the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire and their elaborate residence, the Château Comtal, within the fortifications of the city walls. Pope Urban II blessed the cathedral in 1096. During the Crusades, the fort and Trencavel family finally surrendered to the army of Simon de Monfort (a French nobleman and Christian convert who married into English nobility), who declared himself viscount and added more fortifications. In 1247, the city submitted to the rule of France and King Philip III built the outer walls. The Black Prince (of England), King Edward, couldn’t get through the defenses of the fortress in 1355, so (as was typical during these times) he destroyed the lower town. The fortress, after nearly 1000 years of additions and reinforcements, now protected by a double curtain wall and 53 towers, was deemed impregnable. What wars and armies couldn’t accomplish—the destruction of Carcassonne—however, peace almost did. In 1659, the region and city officially became part of France. No longer a military outpost, the fortifications fell into ruin, so much so that the government scheduled the whole thing for demolition in 1849. Enter Carcassonne’s truest knight in shining armor, an architect named Viollet-le-Duc, who made the restoration of Carcassonne his life’s work. Criticized for some historical inaccuracies and liberties in the restoration (some towers, for instance, have peaked roofs rather than the flat roofs more typical of this region), le’Duc’s legacy has resulted in a marvelous recreation that inspires the imagination and brings the distant past into sharp focus. This is no Disneyworld invention or cardboard construction; Carcassonne makes history—the castles, the wars, the people’s lives—three-dimensional and interactive, a stone fortress that makes that world a little more real.

We enter Carcassonne from a car park at the Narbonne gate on a clear and warm October day. We cross a bridge over what would have been a moat filled with water and dodge other tourists to enter the forty-foot wooden gates. At tourist information, just to the right inside, we collect a map and look down into a dry well, dark and cool, and out the slot windows in the stone walls. Narrow medieval cobblestoned streets that slope into caniveaux (gutters) down the middle curve past candy shops and cafes and places to buy Styrofoam shields and swords and princess crowns and homes with wooden shutters stacked one atop another. More than 200 people still live within the walls of the upper town, the Cité, but these are not characters dressed in period costume. These are shop owners and waiters and soccer fans—modern descendants, perhaps, of those people who sheltered in the fortress when the lower town was attacked or those who set up shop where customers already congregated. One of the successes of the modern Cité de Carcassonne, for me, is that it does not have to try hard to lure the tourists, at least not during this shoulder season of fall. This is no medieval fair, staged for entertainment, but a city that thrives on a tourist economy. The historic and educational landmark of the fortress draws the crowds, and the residents provide the food, gee-gaws, postcards, and services on which those people will spend their Euros.

In late October the town is crowded but not claustrophobic; it is easy to imagine the chaos of a hot day at the height of the summer tourist season when thousands of people per day visit. Indeed, the first two weeks of August are dedicated to a medieval fair called the Spectacle Médiéval with period costumes and theatrical enactments including live jousting tournaments. The fact that Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, was filmed in Carcassonne attests to its charmed quality of history-come-to-life. And perhaps the costumes and jousting lend a more performative aspect to the experience, but something about the simple reality of the ancient stones beneath our feet and in the walls makes this day’s visit nearly perfect.

We thread our way through the streets and emerge into a wide square. Directly across is a second set of walls, the interior castle or château, complete with wooden ramparts or walkways along the tops of the walls. We purchase tickets (€8 for adults; children free), cross a second drawbridge, pass through more huge gates and into a vast courtyard with an ancient sycamore tree at the center. Upstairs, in a wide banquet room, a video in wide format recounts the history of Carcassonne (in French), and then we wander. There is room after room of artifacts dating from the Roman era through the restoration: statues, gargoyles, mosaics, tools, weapons, and coins. We walk the ramparts, reading the information plaques at every interval, learning about the methods of defense, discovering the slots for archers, looking down between the stone squares of the battlements to the walls, the cathedral, the town, and the countryside spreading into the blue distance. It is as if we have stepped through history into that cardboard castle on the living room floor at home, now stone and timbers and cobbles and very real. It’s also fun. Each tower is different. Each turn of the battlements reveals a new view. It’s easy to imagine being on watch atop the wall, huddling by the human-sized fireplace in winter, hauling water and food and armaments up and down the tower steps. And I am completely aware that this Carcassonne romanticizes the reality. This Carcassonne is immaculate, the restrooms are clean, the people are bathed and shaved, no one is hungry or diseased or smells, no stones are being hurled at the walls from catapults manned by slaves. No one is dead or bleeding, except the kid who scrapes his knee while playing under the sycamore in the courtyard.

Back in the village streets, we stop in at the Basilica Saint-Nazaire to admire the stained glass windows, the vault, the combination of Romance and Gothic architectures, and the gargoyles leaning out over the square. We find a restaurant with tables in the sun behind a wall for a late lunch. There is not much else to do in Carcassonne. A museum of chivalry, arms and archery will entertain older children, and at the Musée d’École one can see what a French school was like in the 19^th century. One can stay in one of the fine hotels within the castle walls, dine at any of the dozens of restaurants or simply have a cup of coffee or (a favorite with James and Izzy) lait chaud (warm milk with sugar) at a café. A walk between the two sets of walls in the lices, the grassy space the moat would have filled, probably scummy and dank with offal back then, is a pleasant circuit of about 3km. We end our visit with a ride on the gorgeous carousel outside the Narbonne gate. Watching the children bob up and down in that never-ending circle, the walls and towers of Carcassonne behind them, darkening against an orange sunset, it’s easy to believe in a kind of magic that brings history closer, sanitized or idealized perhaps, but not cardboard or miniaturized.

I notice in the children’s play the next day that the little knight spends less time falling off the wall of our living room castle-construction and more time tending to everyday business. He gets cold and is wrapped in a blanket. He gets hungry and has to cook over the fire. He feels lonely and afraid when he is on watch in the tower outpost. Thanks to Carcassonne, that imaginary world has become a little more real.

Tunnel-Plättchen

Die aktuelle Spielbox 2009/6 enthält eine neue Mini-Erweiterung für Carcassonne die auch problemlos mit den anderen Erweiterungen kombinierbar ist.

“Der Tunnel“, wie die Mini-Erweiterung heißt, bringt 4 neue Plättchen mit Tunnelsymbolen, die von den Spielern über beigegebene Marker zusammengefügt werden und dadurch Straßenverläufe abgrenzen oder verbinden können, was somit eine zusätzliche taktische Möglichkeit zur Punkteerlangung mit sich bringt.

Die aktuellen Spielregeln die bei spielbox-online verfügbar sind entsprechen jenen, die auch auf der Hans im Glück Homepage zu finden sind.

“Dude, it’s your turn.” Rick is staring at me from across the table.

Huh? My brain freezes. Where are we? I was munching on a cookie and thinking about whether or not I had remembered to close the garage door after leaving the house earlier in the evening. Oh…right. Power Grid. I run my hands across my face, blink a few times, and glance at the power plant market. It takes a few seconds before I can fully re-focus on the game and concentrate on playing. These moments happen to the best of gamers–fatigue, stress, or distractions can pull our minds away from the game in front of us. But sometimes the blame for the momentary lapse in concentration lies not with us, but the game we’re playing. I call them low-interaction games.

Power Grid is perhaps the worst offender in my collection. An average game runs 90-180 minutes without much direct interaction between players with the exception of power plant auctions. There’s also a lot of mental math, which kills table talk as each player tries to figure out how he or she can spend money in the wisest fashion. There are many things I like about the game, but if I want to interact with people, it’s strictly through off-topic conversation, which lengthens the playing time. I sometimes find myself glancing at the board and thinking, Are we still playing this? Shouldn’t it be over by now?

Another low-interaction game is Ticket to Ride, which is not so much a communal  game as several solitaire games. I’m trying to fill in my tickets, you’re filling in yours on another end of the map, and there’s  terrible excitement if a player (heaven forbid!) snatches up a key section of a route before someone else. However, this game plays more quickly than Power Grid, so it’s not as bad.

A third game that comes to mind is Carcassonne, which I’ve been playing a lot recently. Gameplay is very intuitive, though there’s not much direct interaction. People are usually only directly competing if they are trying to out-do each other with farmers, or trying to connect up two cities. However, the “beer and pretzels” nature of the game is such that we can hold a conversation while playing. The game is so simple it can take a backseat while we talk about anything under the sun. And the 30-45 minute playing time means I’m never staring at the table wondering, When is this going to be over?

Since really getting into board games two years ago, I’ve learned that low-interaction games aren’t exciting for me unless they are simple and short. Conquest of Paradise is an example of a game that, while interesting in its theme, drove me up a wall. The game ends just as you are ready to interact with othe1r players (i.e., raid their villages, burn down their huts, and take their freaking yams–mwahaha!). I prefer to be playing games where the auctioning/trading/fighting is fast and furious, and people are engaged most or all of the time in what’s going on in the game (or if they’re not, they can carry on a conversation because the simplicity of the game allows for it).

This realization makes me wish Board Game Geek would include an “interaction rating” in each game profile. We’re in a recession, every dollar is precious, and I don’t want to waste my hard-earned cash purchasing games that don’t have lots of player to player wheeling and dealing or pillaging and looting. If I wanted a low-interaction game, I’d fire up FreeCell on my computer.

Are there games that you love/hate because of the low or high level of interaction? Leave a comment; I’d love to hear about them.

The Ten Greatest Board Games

10. Trivial Pursuit (1981)

In 1981, two Canadian magazine editors decided to design their own game and ended up creating a champion medium for all sorts of useless facts and knowledge. The gameplay is decent enough, simple in concept, but the trivia challenge is what made this game a huge success. Trivial Pursuit’s popularity continues today, spawning all sorts of updates and specialized versions.

9. Diplomacy (1959)

In 1957, a little game called Risk was published, setting off the popularity of wargames. However two years later, a new war game called Diplomacy was released, with a concept unique to Risk. The players must write down their moves and reveal them at the same time, cutting down on down-time spent between other players’ turns and giving a fresh unpredictability to the gameplay. Diplomacy is most famous for have negotiations, alliances, and double-crossing as an integral part of the game providing lots of room for player interaction.
Diplomacy became very popular and even JFK and Kissinger have declared it to be their favorite game. Diplomacy even grew to include postal games, where players would play from across the country through the mail. A unique and special game, one of the most interactive and involving war games there is.

8. Carcassonne (2000)

Board games seem to currently be in a Renaissance period over the last decade, mostly with the advent of German-style ‘Eurogames’. One of the most popular and unique games to come out of this era is Carcassonne, where rather than beginning with a board, the players create the board as the game goes on, each taking turns placing a new landscape tile and matching features. They then play their board pieces or ‘meeples’ on different areas of the board to perform differing roles which score points in different ways.
Carcassonne is a definitely a different expierence than regular board games, introducing the concept of tile and worker plaecment to many. There are a number of explanations, each of which addd a little something extra to the game without taking away its essence.

7. Tigris and Euphrates (1997)

Reiner Knizia is one of the biggest names in modern board games, and Tigris and Euphrates is often considered his masterpiece. Chances are you haven’t heard of it. It is not a game for the casual board gamer, but is instead a ‘gamer’s game’, full of complexity and skill, a mix of theme and abstract. One of the more complex games out there, wonderfully crafted and beautifully made.

6. Scrabble (1948)

The ultimate word game which has spawned tournaments of all kinds, had full dictionaries written on words that can be used, and created an enjoyable and intellectual leisure activity for people of all ages. Scrabble has garnered a level of respect in society like few other boards games can.

5. Backgammon (200)

Backgammon is one of the oldest games in the world. combining the race game with the dice game. It has a long history and is studied widely. Backgammon even has a World Championship. Backgammon is a pillar of the world of board games which has been around for many, many years and will be for many more to come.

4. Puerto Rico (2002)

Puerto Rico may be one of the most brilliantly constructed board games ever made, with almost no flaws in its design at all. In the game, the players are plantation owners who take turns in various roles (mayor, builder, trader, etc.) which dictate the different phases of the gameplay. The only aspects of luck in the game are the way the plant tiles are drawn (which has little impact on the game) and the strategy of the other players.
Puerto Rico is the Citizen Kane of board games. Not only is it technically brilliant, its also highly enjoyable.

3. The Settlers of Catan (1995)

Settlers of Catan is everything you want in a board game: an interesting theme, lots of player interaction, enjoyable gameplay, a good mix of strategy and chance. Settlers also has the quality of being able to pull almost anyone into its orbit.
The board is made up of 19 hexagonal pieces which are rearranged differently every game so that you never have the same board each time you play. You collect resources from the ‘hexes’ which you use to build settlements and road. Yet the description of the game does not do it justice; this is a fun, involving game that everyone can enjoy. I truly believe that eventually Settlers of Catan will be taking the place of Monopoly as the quintessential board game of modern culture.

2. Go (c. 2200 BC)

From the annals of ancient China comes one of the oldest and greatest board games in the world. Go focuses on balance, tactics and strategy. Perhaps no board game has had quite the cultural impact that Go has had, especially in the Far East. In China, Go was actually known as one of the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.
Go ended up spreading to Korea and Japan and eventually to the rest of the world. Go was considered an important skill in some Eastern cultures and is a game with many philosophical implications. It is certainly one of the most important and meaningful board games ever made.

1. Chess (c. 600)

Chess: the grand master of all board games. Originating in India, chess has a long and intricate history of evolution into the game of strategy we know today. The game can be considered a war simulation as well as an abstract exercise of the mind where each individual piece has its own role with one common goal: protect the king.
Chess is often used as a metaphor for such philosophical views and life lessons such as sacrifice and thinking numerous steps ahead. The game is widely studied by scientists and mathematicians and is played at the highest international level, including the famous cold war match of Fischer vs. Kasparov.
No board game in the world holds quite the level of popularity and reverence as chess does. It is the ultimate board game and the standard for all recreational challenges of the mind.

“What color is this?”
I hold up a crayon to my two-year old as we start to draw a picture with her crayons.
“Umm… Green!” she replies.
“Thanks”
I wasn’t quizzing her on her knowledge of colors. I wanted to draw a tree and wasn’t sure if the crayon I was holding should be used for the leaves or the trunk. I’m colorblind.

“What do you see?”

You probably see a 74. I see a 21.

“What about stop lights?”

I’ve learned various ways to handle colors in my environment. For stop lights, the red and green are actually designed to be different looking so the green looks almost white to my eyes. There are also other clues that can be used: the red light is always on top or on the left when mounted sideways. In other situations, if I really can’t see the color I’ll ask someone. Usually my wife or daughter can help me out, but I’ve also asked complete strangers. Sometimes once I’ve been told something is red or green I’m able to then see the colors. I think somehow my brain compensates for what my eyes miss.

I also change my behavior to help avoid the issue. The color of clothes I buy is affected. As an engineer I often make charts of data. My charts will always have a color and shape associated with each different label. This is good practice for everybody: if you print out a report/presentation it should be legible in color OR black and white.

“I thought this was a blog about board games?”

I was getting to that… Colorblindness definitely affects my board gaming. The most obvious (and generally least important) result is when I pick out my playing piece. I almost always pick blue. Yellow, white or black are my next choices. I generally avoid green, red, orange or brown. If each player in a game only has one token, it usually isn’t a problem keeping track of the colors (a conscious effort on my part at times). However, if there are several tokens and they will be moved around a lot (Carcassonne for example), I will sometimes ask other players not to use certain colors.

When the colors are a part of the game or can’t be avoided, it may be a challenge. I played Power Grid for the first time a few weeks ago. The board has a map with several regions, each a different color. We only had three players so only three of those regions are in play. I had a hard time figuring out which cities were in play and which were out. My first game of Ticket to Ride was also difficult. The colored train routes and cards were very similar to my eye.

Usually the colors aren’t a challenge and don’t effect my play, but not always. I already suffer from analysis paralysis in some games. The extra few seconds I need to concentrate on who-has-what-tokens-where can slow me down even more. To keep from slowing down game play, I may make a bad move because I didn’t realize that red enemy token was actually a green friendly one.

The colors may look alike, but the shapes don't.

And when the game is designed poorly (at least in color management), I try to adapt. In a second game of Power Grid, we blocked off the border of the regions we were using with the city tokens of a fourth color. It was a great help and makes me wonder why they didn’t draw boundaries between the colors. A game like Here I Stand looked confusing at first glance – the Ottoman green and Protestant Brown looked a lot alike. After playing, I realized it didn’t matter as those powers’ tokens never interact so I don’t have to worry about confusing the colors. And if it came down to it for a game I really liked that after repeated plays I still had troubles with – I would look at making my own board/tokens to eliminate any confusion. Fortunately, I haven’t had to do that…yet!

Yesterday I mentioned the McDonald’s “Just passing by” ad which is currently running on British TV, and how you couldn’t imagine a French version of it.

This big global brand has had its problems in “McDonaldising” France, and some of the TV commercials by McDonalds France are still a bit stone age compared with that latest UK one.

That’s not to say McDonalds isn’t big in France. It’s huge. The French love McDonalds.

To outsiders this may seem a strange contradiction. Are we talking about La Belle France, the country that gave us haute cuisine, charming bistros and brasseries, fantastic wine and cheese, wonderful markets, the aroma of freshly baked bread slowly wafting down the street from the village boulangerie etc etc etc? Le fast food, surely, is the very opposite of all this?

Yet France is a country bursting with contradictions. It is  well able to absorb foreign things such as Big Macs and give them its own Gallic twist.

McDonalds: France is full of contradictions

McDonalds opened its first French outlet in Strasbourg 30 years ago – around the time its first restaurant opened in Dublin’s Grafton Street too – and the multinational now has 1,140 outlets across France.

It’s the country’s largest private-sector employer, and a growing section of the population has fallen under the spell of Le Big Mac.

One million French people buy from McDonalds every day, and the global headquarters has sat up and taken notice of the amazing growth figures.

McDonalds has reached saturation point in the US. It has been feeling the pinch elsewhere, and on Saturday it served its last “(un)happy meals” at its three restaurants in Iceland. But McDonalds France keeps on growing.

It’s the second most profitable area in the world after the one in the US, and French customers are the world’s biggest spenders: an average visit comes to about $15 (€10), compared with $4 (€3) in the US.

In the Languedoc there are McDonalds  everywhere – from Carcassonne to Narbonne, Agde, Serignan, Béziers and Pezenas. Last month McDonalds France also unveiled plans to open a restaurant in the commercial mall under the Louvre in Paris. Le Big Mac, at the heart of France’s most celebrated cultural symbol? Shame! Scandal! Yet in France this was hardly a big deal.

José Bové

Sure, there have been some anti-globalisation protests, such as the one by  José Bové. This farmer and activist hit the international headlines in 1999 after he dismantled a McDonalds in Millau (in the Midi-Pyrénées). The protest raised awareness about the multinational’s use of hormone-treated beef, and Bové later ran for President.

After Bové’s demo, the local French management undertook a damage limitation exercise and began localising the brand.

In 2001 they launched a cheeky promotional campaign, replacing Ronald McDonald with Astérix, the beloved cartoon character whose thick handlebar moustache just happens to be similar to Bové’s. In fact, Astérix was Bové’s nickname.

Making French fries more French

While McDonalds may be a huge global brand, the local French management looked at other ways to tailor the brand to French tastes.

“It has been tough for us to become integrated in the French market,” admits Eric Gravier, vice-president, corporate affairs, of McDonald’s France. “The focus we had at the beginning was to open more stores and to get suppliers, and we were attacked because we had this image of globalisation.”

To dispel this, says Gravier, French McDonald’s restaurants have dropped the “flashy yellow and red and lights” and become “a cosy place with nice, warm colours with free wireless, where you might like to stay for an hour.”
- “Why did France fall in love with McDonald’s?”, the Guardian, 24 July 2008

For a start, take the name. In France it’s not really McDonalds. It’s McDo (pronounced mac-DOUGH). Shorter, more slangy, hip, local.

Then there’s the latest tagline, “Venez comme vous êtes”, sounding more like a Nirvana song or a Benetton slogan than the prevous more global “C’est tout ce que j’aime” (I’m loving it).

Next, look at the interiors. Again, McDonalds France tore up the head office rulebook. It  spent lavishly to refit restaurants with chic and funky interiors – and extras such as music videos that entice customers to linger – LINGER! – over their meals. BusinessWeek drooled over its success.

McDo menus

Finally check out the local McDo menus. Despite American tourists assuring you that the McDonalds in France is “just the same as back home”, there are plenty of subtle differences. They include Le P’tit Moutarde and Le Royal Deluxe, which move more towards French tastes in mustard.

The P’tit Dej’ (breakfast – petit dejeuner) includes crossiant type meals alongside the waffles and pancakes and the Bacon et Egg McMuffin

You can even get a croque monsieur (Croque McDo), or a beer or espresso coffee, and Evian or Perrier water. The Jambon Beurre (slices of ham on a crusty buttered baguette) apparently outsells its burgers ten to one.

They’ve also started opening McCafés – standalone espresso bars offering lattes, macchiatos and so on.

McDo may be synonymous with junk food (la malbouffe) but it has managed to co-exist with more traditional French cuisine and local tastes. Some things are always universal, though, like the drive-in rip-off.

Here’s our favourite video prankster Rémi Gaillard from Montpellier (which has at least seven McDonalds), showing how to get a free meal at a McDo in these tough economic times…

Related posts

• That McDonalds poem

Not every quality gaming experience comes from a full retail-sized video game these days. The new surprising breed of gameplay fun can actually come from a downloaded smaller and less expensive bite-sized game from Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), Playstation 3’s Playstation Network (PSN), or Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console.

While we enjoy these downloadable games from all consoles (Flower is an amazing concept!), we will be looking at our staff’s most loved XBLA games. See if you agree with us, or if you have your own favourites and comment at the bottom of the article.

OXCGN’s Most Loved

Darkmurder

Geometry Wars 2: What’s not to love about seizure-causing graphics, awesome soundtrack and addictive gameplay? I could play this game forever and never get bored with it!

Braid: This game should have been simply titled Awesome- the graphics were so detailed and lovingly created that it was a feast for your eyes and lets not forget the bloody brilliant gameplay mechanics that were incorporated. This much quality from an XBLA game!

Shadow Wave

Braid: The sound track, the artwork, the story and the gameplay all compliment each other in such a way that just makes Braid a joy to play. While it may be on the short side, the game will be remembered for a long time as the most unique XBLA game to date.

Castle Crashers: This game is great fun solo or online with buddies (although it can be a huge downer if you both want to play as the same guy). It’s full of humour for all ages, and generally provides some highly addictive fun that will last many, many hours. Definitely worth the money.

Banjo Kazooie: The N64 classic plays and looks the best on XBLA. It’s a great way for fans to re-experience the classic game, but also lets the next generation of kids experience one of the definitive adventure games to date.

Axis of Reality

Shadow Complex: It’s always a good day when you wake up to a Live Arcade game with production values as high as a top retail game at a fifth the price. Shadow Complex shows the potential for highly polished games that are right at home in the current generation to live in Live Arcade instead of just streams of old ports.

Geometry Wars Series: What Live Arcade list would be complete without it? Geometry Wars is attributed with prompting services like Live Arcade after it appeared in Project Gotham Racing 2 and was an instant hit. Small games for even smaller prices?

Who wouldn’t like that? And we all have Geometry Wars to thank for pushing Microsoft to create a service that I can’t believe I lived without last generation.

Halfbrick Rocket Racing / Echoes / Raskulls: From a studio that was known for licensed handheld games to suddenly break out with some of the best games on Live all at once is a massive achievement. Halfbrick Rocket Racing, Halfbrick Echoes and Raskulls are all amazing independent games that demonstrate small studios don’t have to live under the boots of a big publisher but can free their creativity and experiment with innovative new gameplay concepts on their own with Live Arcade and use the earnings that go directly back to them to make even more.

Sutton Dagger

Braid: Without a doubt, Braid is my favourite XBLA game. Essentially a puzzle platformer, Braid weaves the tale of a flawed man trying to find his ‘princess’, into mind bending puzzle elements based around the manipulation of time. Though some may argue a it’s a short game, the experience you’re rewarded with is priceless.

Banjo Koozie and Tooie: They are another great addition to the XBLA lineup. Classic Nintendo 64 platformers given the HD treatment and missing interconnectivity, what more could you want. This bear and bird duo still have the classic charm we all remember, these two games are a must have for gamers who want to experience the nostalgia of the ‘good old days’ and new players alike.

dkpatriarch

Carcassonne: Having played this tile strategy game in its original corporeal form I was excited to discover that it translated perfectly to video game format on XBLA. It now does the math for you so players can’t argue over how much grass it takes to be able to link up built castles and therefore get more points. Well worth the play and can be very addictive multiplayer game for even casual gamer types.

Zuma: Okay this one is old and relatively simple by XBLA standards these days, but it still is a classic. I hated Tetris and don’t like Bejewelled or other repetitive shape games but this one got me quite addicted for longer than most. Challenging without being too frustratingly so, it really was a clever idea.

Age Of Booty: Everybody loves pirates- well except the game, music and film makers who don’t like the kind that find ways of getting their products for free, and except the cruise passengers off the coast of Africa who see modern pirates in mini-boats waving RPGs at them- but everybody loves the mythical eccentric Johnny Depp-like pirate and pirate ships of legend!

This game is my pick because it is great for the family. Unlike most the bigger releases these days, Age Of Booty allows multiple players on one console and one screen. You all are seeking to battle it out with other ships and conquer fort towns to collect booty and resources to upgrade your ship. Capture enough fort towns on a map, and you win. Even better, the game features a rudimentary map editor so you can construct your own ‘high seas’ to battle on.

GrathiusXR

Shadow Complex: For the price of 1200 MSP and the final Arcade released in this year’s Winter Of Arcade for Australia/Summer of Arcade For America, Shadow Complex takes a twist in the 2D platforming genre and adds a unique 3d perspective to it.

Whilst controls may be a bit annoying at first once coming to grips with them and finding new weapons and power ups the game shows itself at its best. With multiple ways to complete the game on each play through with either being able to finish it in under 2 hour or over 10 hours it’s a gem of an arcade game that not only rivals some full retail games in graphics but also replayability.

Battlefield: 1943: Another gem of a game that goes for only 1200 MSP takes what we all loved about BF: 1943 and makes it better. Now whilst it may be missing the Medic class which many so love to play as it still did offer a heap of fun and value for your points.

Its graphics, again like Shadow Complex, rivals many full retail games and its multiplayer triumphs over many games that struggle to keep a room of 8 people lag free. It was a multiplayer only games that had much to offer and now still keeps on giving.

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En début d’après-midi, nous arrivons dans la cité fortifiée. L’entrée de la cité a un air de Mont-St-Michel avec ses rues étroites et encombrées de commerçants. Très joli site médiéval. Après une grande balade et la visite du château, il est temps de repartir pour notre nouvelle destination.

A city which reads like a formulaic romance novel sometimes opens it’s cover to reveal pages formed from square disco ball mirrors.  As the light reflects, you gaze amazed at what you see.  I arrived at Carcassonne expecting a simple wine festival but I got a lot more.

The festival was held in a small square in the downtown core of the city, away from the hypertouristy citadel of UNESCO notoriety.  The stalls circled the open area and were filled with a local wine – a wine celebrated each year during it’s harvest.  Bottles ran from a ridiculous 5 Euro to a whopping 8 Euro.  Wine, as you can see, is as cheap as chips.  By glass number three, I was already hearing the disco in my head.

Disco rained through the event.  First, it came from one stall and the crowd lovingly congregated around the deep funky sound waves, huddled around wine barrels used as tables and freely uncorked.  Then, without notice, the Docteur arrived.

There is nothing more I can say about Docteur Groove that the video cannot.  Truly, the tuxedo with tails lined in zebra print are an expression of their awesomeness.  I cannot imagine anything more incredible than an 8 piece brass band with added electric guitar and percussion playing James Brown and other funk classics.   

My time in France has been about French food.  I may never have another time to experience this food and so I have been engorging myself in all the French culinary experience possible from the bizarre french fry and duck fat sandwich to the charros to the beef bourgneon.

I had never heard of the Gibson Brothers before but they are apparently quite big here.  The sing in English, Spanish, French and in the greatest language of them all – DISCO.  With hips shaking, two massive drum solos and an abundance of audience participation, the disco rang large from the Brothers with two versions of CUBA.

Charlotte is a friend of mine whom I met many years ago in India.  She took a small trip to Carcassonne away from her English home to meet me for the festival. It was wonderful to see her. 

Sorry for taking so long to post.  This was all done last weekend but it has take me a while to get my YouTube videos uploaded.

Learned from Carcassonne:

- Let your history be haunting; illuminate it at night; let your hair stand on end as you hear whispers in dark corners…

- Let fat stay on the meat; the flavor is intoxicating.

- Be bold!  Make friends on the road! (People make wonderful companions…)

- Walk in the rain, even if it’s cold; don’t miss out on any experience because of “bad weather.”  There is no bad weather, only bad attitudes.

- Drink rose wine and eat good cheese.  Presentation of food is key.

- Some people are still really upset with the USA.  (Sidenote: Racism is not a uniquely American phenomenon).

- Drink everything in wine glasses.

Learned from Arles:

- A whistle is intended as a compliment.  Take it in stride.

- Be grateful always for your own bed, your own sink, your own shower, and — vitally — your own toilet!

- The French sure love their carbohydrates in the morning.  Tread lightly.

- Sometimes you end up at your destination by getting lost first.  And that’s ok.

- A dinner for one is not at all a lonely thing.  Eat alone more.  And eat well.

- Learn more about Van Gogh.  You might be soulmates.

- Get drunk on color.  Watch the light dance around you.  Marvel, and take pictures.

Learned from Avignon:

- Allow some time to become friends with a new place.  You always do.

- Your body can handle more than you think it can: walk, climb, push yourself!  You are sore everywhere, but you feel SO good.

- Views from on high are spectacular.  See them more.

- If the opportunity arises to live in a castle, you should really take it.  Even if you are a part of the clergy.

- People-watching is a cultural-immersion experience.  Partake liberally.

- Ask for help when you need it.  Don’t judge people based on how they look.

- Say “voilà!” more.

- Riding buses can be humbling.  Ride buses more.

Learned from Vaison la Romaine:

- Funky hotels are the greatest thing.  Always try to get a room with a view.

- Sometimes the journey is more difficult than the destination is worth.  Although, sometimes, they are about the same.

- Go to bed early.  And sleep.

- A boulengerie is a bakery.  It does not serve coffee.

- A quick jolt of caffeine can be all you need.  Then, start to hike.  All the good views are from on high.