Board Game Cafés

Board game cafés seem to be growing in popularity everywhere you go! When we first discovered there were board games cafés in Paris we found three or four of these cafés cum bars listed in various guide books. They were scattered around the city but all were within the boundaries of the peripherique, the large ring road which encompasses what I would call the “tourist area” of Paris.

Our intent was to spend an afternoon whiling away our time playing games that were not readily available back at home. The only problem was, who wants to spend an afternoon inside playing board games when the sun is shining outside and Paris awaits you!

Our last visit to Paris met with the perfect opportunity to while away the afternoon inside. We had visited enough museums to satisfy that need and when we surfaced from a tour of the Catacombs to find it cold and drizzling we knew that it was time to search out one of these game cafés we had read about.

What we Visited Near the Café

We discovered that we were actually within walking distance of L’Oya which is located in the 13^th arrondissement. L’Oya is only 1.6km (not quite 1 mile) from the Catacombs. As it was midday, we searched for a restaurant first and found L’Hydrophobe was midway between the Catacombs (metro Denfert-Rochereau) and our destination. It turned out to be strictly a “locals” restaurant with amazing food at a great price.

Lunch at L’Hydrophobe on Blvd Arago

The walk to the restaurant was quite pleasant, taking us down russet and gold the tree lined Boulevard Arago. The fall colors were splendid!

The Gobelins Tapestry Museum tempted us even though we had decided it was going to be a “no museum” afternoon, so we stopped there before going on the game café. It was fascinating ! The tapestries, furniture and the architecture of the building were wonderful!

Les Gobelins Museum

Choosing a Game

If you are going straight to L’Oya Café, the Gobelins metro stop is the closest. And, although it is called a games café don’t expect food. You are here to play games and have a drink. For 5 € per person you can have drink (we had coffee and tea) and play for as long as you want. For an additional 3€ you can play an additional game.

L’Oya Board Game Café

There are more than 500 games to choose from and they come from all over the world. Don’t worry about not being able to read the directions! The owner is quite happy to explain the game to you in English and play the first round with you to be sure you don’t have any difficulties or questions.

The game we played was FITS which had directions in 7 languages (none of them English). With one of us reading French and the other of us reading German fluently we didn’t have any problems. However, the owner seemed eager to join us and chat so we played a round with him. What fun! Through the course of the conversation we discovered that the café is quite active in the evenings, particularly on the weekends.

We played FITS and enjoyed it so much that we ordered the game when we returned home!

After several days of walking all over Paris, we really enjoyed this afternoon of game playing. The pleasant conversation with the café owner was a plus.  You can also visit their website (in French) which updates you on the various games they carry.

L’Oya Directions

25 rue de la Reine Blanche, 13ème arrondissement Paris, metro “Les Gobelins”.

Telephone : 01 47 07 59 59

Hours : 2pm to midnight daily except Sunday 2pm to 9pm
Closed Monday

http://www.oya.fr