“Between the castle in Bavaria, the same for fifty years, the palm tree under the Seychelles, the Labradors and the kittens. Yes, the puzzle is corny! This final verdict is not launched with a punch. It emanates from the greatest “assembler” in France, Sophie de Goncourt, multiple World and European champion, in team or solo. The one who stopped watching TV to train with her husband and teammate, who finished in three quarters of an hour the 1,500 pieces that will take you weeks, is well placed to judge the degree of kitsch of her passion. She has more than 1,000 boxes at home, many of them brought back from competitions she wins. And it’s unstoppable, she accumulates models of landscapes and cute but boring animals or “grannies with kitties on their knees”.
“We try to get out of the routine but we don’t have the budget to be original”, recognizes Marianne Agraz of the Gers association “Le puzzle est dans pré”, which is organizing its second competition this weekend in Toulouse*, before that of October 16 in Pornic. With registration at 20 euros per team of two, the room to pay, and 50 boxes of puzzles to buy – necessarily the same ones, whose pieces do not shrivel up and which leave with the players –, the Gers association must type in classic mid-range models, “at 12, 13 euros maximum”. Hence the impressive collection of “boat” models by Sophie de Goncourt.
“Niches in the niche”
But, we, Sunday reenactors, who extend this hobby (re) discovered at the turn of the confinements, are we also condemned to toil on coats and rivers with water lilies? “When you look hard, there are very amusing mystery puzzles, impossible puzzles, and even artists who make unique pieces,” reassures Marianne Agraz, who practices with her two sisters by the fireside. “There are a number of models on the market that always come back quite simply because the licenses are royalty-free and they cost less to produce for big publishers,” explains Sophie de Goncourt. But the puzzle is not just that,” confirms the fine connoisseur of this “niche market” and bargain hunter to boot. Without going, like her at the moment, so far as to unearth a “gallery of the most famous paintings, 8.50 m long and 54,000 pieces”, we must not be satisfied with the meager supermarket gondolas but find “the niche in the doghouse”.
“For limited departments, dogs, cats, Walt Disney’s castle remain a safe bet. But when customers really have a choice, in fact, there is everything, kitsch but not only “, underlines Eric Lathière-Lavergne, boss of the specialized group Alizé, which has the only French manufacturing plant and Puzzle.fr, one of the two specialized French sites. On the latter, the first puppy arrives in 27th position of the “top sales”, after a lot of reproductions of famous paintings but also several Fantasy Gothic option images. “A moon, a wolf, a woman, it works every time”, notes the specialist and the request has persisted oddly for decades.
Artistic dusting and personal photos
At the house of Ravensbuger, the global jigsaw giant, there is no question either of disdaining “the great classics” when “20% of the French population do puzzles”, even occasionally, and that, despite the easing of the confinement phenomenon, the market is still progressing by 4% This year. “We need cats, we need dogs, and standard landscapes, the difficulty being to find the right visual, the one that will trigger an emotion, and which, technically, will have the right solid colors. “, explains Laurent Cochet, the marketing director. “But we now have a much wider variety of images to match all types of puzzlers, those looking for relaxation as well as those looking for challenge and difficulty”
For the famous brand, the dusting operation takes the form of “new approaches”, collaborations with contemporary artists, in particular in the naive style, which is very popular at the moment. The giant also works for example with the photographer, Loic Lagarde, very present on social networks, for landscapes that are off the beaten track and which are rather sold “in cultural brands”. The manufacturer will also increase the difficulty of the puzzles of its “Escape puzzle”, which work hard.
Same search for originality on the side of the Alizé group, with artists’ collections. But on Eric Lathière-Lavergne’s site, as on the others, the most furiously trendy novelties are photo puzzles on request. Kitsch if we consider that a family photo and that of the tomcat of the house can be, sometimes doubtful. “But which can be very original when it’s an ultrasound to be reconstructed in a neutral box or invitation cards”, says the business manager.
But let the “so cute” Labradors and kittens be reassured. They keep invaluable strategic assets: “When I train, it’s with them, says Sophie de Goncourt. Because it is much more difficult to reconstruct the nuances of a coat than to reproduce the profusion of details of a naive painting. »
* Full contest but there may be last minute cancellations