One of the little pleasures of being on holiday in France, aside from the food and the wine, is playing the Michelin Green Guide game. This was made up by my parents when my sister and I were teenagers and we went on family holidays in France. I suspect their ulterior motive was so that my father could get to see as many “worth a detour” sites as possible in his guide book to the area without us girls rebelling! But it was a good way of passing the time around major tourist sites, and Christopher and I kept up the tradition when we holidayed in France.
The rules are quite simple. Points are awarded for every Michelin Green Guide that you spot. For two (or more) players, the first person to spot the guide gets the associated points. If playing on your own, tot up the score per day or per major tourist site. Points are available as follows:
For every Green Guide being carried, or visible within an open bag, score one point;
For every Green Guide being carried with a finger inside it marking the page, score two points;
If someone is consulting the Guide silently, score five points;
If they are reading it aloud to a companion, score ten points.
Only Michelin Green Guides count, not any other guide books – fortunately they’re a distinctive shape and colour which makes them easy to spot. There is an unfortunate side effect that, when playing competitively, there is somewhat of a tendency to “stalk” likely candidates who have their finger marking the page, in the hope that they will decide to read the description aloud so that you can claim the extra eight points! That has got me some funny looks over the years. As has the triumphant loud claiming of “10 o’clock, red shirt, five points!”
For the record, Albi was the surprising winner over the much more touristy Carcassonne. Mostly I think because it was too windy in Carcassonne on Tuesday for many people to read the guide books.
