Mille Bornes Racing Card Game

A thousand kilometres, and everybody at the table would like you not to get there.

Edmond Dujardin designed this in 1954 and it has been in print somewhere in the world ever since, which is a longer unbroken run than almost anything else on the shelf. You race to play distance cards totalling a thousand kilometres while the other players hand you flat tyres, empty tanks, accidents and speed limits, and you dig through your hand for the remedy that cancels each one.

What has kept it alive for seventy years is that the hazards are funny and specific rather than abstract - being given a flat tyre by your own sister lands differently to losing a generic turn. Two to six players. The French name means a thousand milestones, and the box has been a fixture of European family holidays for three generations.

Perfect for: Anyone whose grandparents had a copy, and the grandchildren who are about to find out why.

2-6 players | Card game | First published 1954