Flemish Games

Replica of a small Flemish restaurant with the table game Jeu de puces

two originals: on the left in the shadow a simple jeu de la Grenouille, in the light a forerunner of the pinball machine, still as a pure game of chance.

For a long time, the restaurants in Flanders , the estaminets there , offered not only drinks and food, but also free games for their visitors to pass the time together, the Flemish Games , French jeux flamands or jeux d'estaminets . These wooden games were partly games of skill , partly games of chance , and partly a mixture of both forms of play. At the end of the century before last, this tradition declined more and more. Today, these games are increasingly being made and played based on old models.

A collection of originals is available for example. B. the Musée de la Poupée et du Jouet Ancien de Wambrechies in the northern French town of Wambrechies . The Écomusée du Bommelaers-Wall in Ghyvelde offers playable replicas, in addition to a few originals .

Today, billiards , darts , table football , pinball machines and bowling correspond most closely to the gaming culture of the time in restaurants.

Traditional Flemish games at the Écomusée du Bommelaers-Wall

• 
• 

  Traditional Flemish wooden game: jeux de marteaux

• 
• 
• 

  Billiards à balles

Web links

• Audrey Vautherot: Les jeux flamands: une tradition ranimée
• http://mincoin.free.fr/region/jeu/jeux.htm
• http://www.jeu-traditionnel.fr/~jeutradi/categories/14/0/jeux-d-estaminets-et-des-flandres.html?jsc=0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.gralon.net/articles/sports-et-loisirs/loisirs/article-les-jeux-flamands---une-tradition-ranimee-5223.htm
2. ↑ http://www.musee-du-jouet-ancien.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=70