bringing up solitaire yesterday reminded me that the cards are different in france. this is what they look like, except not as ugly (these are an unusual set designed to be ugly. though i think they’re more silly than ugly.)

they say that cards were invented in asia long, long ago but the modern deck of cards came from europe (either spain, italy or france) in the 1400s. the cards with the suits are ironically called “french suits” because it’s claimed that the french invented the four suits (hearts/cœurs, spades/piques, clubs/trèfles, and diamonds/carreaux,) and were the first to mass-produce them. apparently, the french discovered that it was cheaper to use stencils instead carved woodcuts to print cards.

essentially, french cards are the same as their u.s. counterparts with the exception of the royal cards, an ace is usually a 1 but called l’as, the king is le roi, queen is la dame and jack is le valet.

the set from the above picture is from a free video poker game called, “ugly poker,” designed by french artists. wanna play? download it here: ugly video poker (MAC) or download ugly video poker (linux). NOTE: FOR MAC & LINUX ONLY (NO PC VERSION).

while we’re on the subject of cards, in france, TAROT is not the same as what the english-speaking world is familiar with: cards being read for divination. the french version of tarot is a card game but using a deck of 78 cards and with the addition of 21 trump cards/atouts, a knight/cavalier, a fool/l’excuse, and 3 cards called oudlers or bouts.

interested in playing french tarot? download: mac version, linux version or windows version (does not work with windows 98)

note: if you have problems or questions with any of the games, please contact the developers directly.

[for more information, see french tarot]