At Bill & Rosa’s Book Room we are fans of jigsaw puzzles. One of our ideas was to always have a puzzle in progress at the Book Room for a collective effort. We even found a puzzle of Rosa Bonheur’s painting of Buffalo Bill! That was to be our first one, but Covid has pushed that idea to the back burner for now. However at home puzzle time has grown with Covid. It’s a great quiet, yet concentrated, relaxing activity away from screens. We just discovered that Larousse, one of our favorite editors, publishes jigsaw puzzles. They have something for everyone. Our favorites are the series in progress by Monsieur Z. Richard Zielenkiewicz, known under the pseudonym Monsieur Z, is a French illustrator and graphic designer living in the south of France. He has created hundreds of colorful posters for French cities and regions as well as other European cities. On these puzzles his colorful retro world transports you to the Alps or to the south of France! Pretty much any puzzle is great fun, but these colorful retro posters of France add to the pleasure. Monsieur Z’s images are well adapted for puzzles that are big but not too terribly hard as they offer a nice splashes of colors and lines to help with putting them together. Plus you could even frame it once finished if you want. The two different formats (1500 pieces or 2×420 pieces) offer two levels of difficulty.
- Alps puzzle (1500 pieces) 20.90 €
- Plein Sud with Monsieur Z 17.90 € Contains 2 puzzles of 420 pieces each + 1 booklet
Larousse also publishes a complete variety of puzzles, so there is something for everyone with all sorts of levels of difficulty.
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Astro-puzzles. Discover the therapy puzzle … In each box a puzzle of 64 pieces (9 x 9 cm), with an adorable its cat-zodiac sign illustration, a pretty wooden frame to hang or set up, a humorous booklet in French all about the secrets of your sign
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The Zanimos. Sets of 3 puzzles in each box in the pastel universe of little Zanimos! 240 pieces each, perfect for the little ones.
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Larousse has published pages from the famous Petit Larousse illustré as puzzles. These have a retro look of botanical drawings or birds of the worlds.
Did you know that the Book Room also sells used puzzles? Most of the ones that people donate are in great shape. There are also a few old-fashioned wooden ones that are quite unique.
Don’t know which one to choose? Get a Bill & Rosa’s Book Room gift card instead. Available in the shop or online.
Did you know?
Jigsaw puzzles were created in the 1760s when European mapmakers pasted maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. John Spilsbury, a British engraver and cartographer, is credited with the first one. For him it was an educational tool to teach geography. Puzzles for adults emerged around 1900, and by 1908 a full-blown craze was in progress in the United States and has more or less continued ever since. Puzzles arrived in France via the Russian aristocracy during their 1917 exile.
