My family and I enjoy playing strategy games and as a lifelong Francophile, I was absolutely delighted to learn about the upcoming launch of the French-inspired board game called La Fleur by Dux Somnium Games. It features 18th century gardens, opulent French châteaux, and beautiful illustrations of flowers.
I wanted to learn more, so I reached out to Amy and Dusty, the founders of Dux Somnium Games and creators of La Fleur. Amy was so kind to answer my questions by email.
How do you play La Fleur?
“You start the game with a château that is empty and boring! Each round, you send your artisans to different locations around Paris to acquire flowers, commission garden features, get coins, and hire more help in order to build up your garden and make it more alluring in different ways like architecture, water features, paths, and more.
Each round, new visitors come to Paris, and at the end of the round, they attend the garden party of the player whose château has the highest score in garden features each visitor finds more attractive.
For example, Jean-Pierre loves architecture, so he’ll visit the garden party of the player with the best architecture. If two players are tied when attracting a particular visitor, then that visitor just can’t decide which party to attend and stays home. If that happens, though, you can have one of your artisans deliver a special invitation to the visitor to convince them to come to your party as long as another player doesn’t steal them away from you.
And, if your garden is particularly spectacular in a visitor’s favorite feature type, they can become your companion and attend all your garden parties for the rest of the game! Players compete to see who can attract the most visitors over the course of the game, and at the end of the game the player with the highest score is declared the host of the greatest garden party of all, the Grande Soirée!”
Tell me about the inspiration for La Fleur.
I’m absolutely in love with the botanical art of Pierre-Joseph Redouté. We used some of his art in Botany [their strategy board game available now] and that got me thinking about the Rococo period, the art, the style, and all the colors they used in their design back then, and I knew it would be such a fun theme for our next game [La Fleur].
How long does it take to develop a game from concept to a physical game in a box?
It takes us about 15 months from the first concept and playtests for a game to the point where it’s ready to be shipped out to our customers.
Who did the beautiful illustrations?
I mentioned Pierre-Joseph Redouté, who did all the flower images we use in the game, but we also curated art from many other artists during the Rococo period.
I love white roses and irises. What’s your favorite fleur?
Dusty’s favorites are sunflowers and California poppies, and I love lavender and roses!
How can I purchase La Fleur?
The game will be up for preorder on Kickstarter starting April 30, 2024 and will be ready to ship out to everyone in early 2025. Here’s the link: Dux Somnium Kickstarter page.
I’m happy to spread the word about this game that I’m sure will appeal to strategy game fans, art enthusiasts, anthophiles, and Francophiles (like moi)!
Thank you / Merci to Amy for permission to use the beautiful image shown here and for taking the time to tell me more about La Fleur. Visit the Dux Somnium Games website for a special offer. You can find them (like I did!) on Instagram @Duxsomnium for more information. 🌻🌹
Bonjour: A Francophile Blog 