People have long had a love affair with card games but it isn’t often that words like “thrilling” are used to describe the experience. That is until the French devised a way to mix the white-knuckle adventure of a road race with a simple card game. The result was Mille Bornes, a game that allowed you the excitement of a cross-country excursion, all from the relative safety of your bedroom.

Mille Bornes (translation: a thousand milestones) was the brainchild of Edmond Dujardin, who created the game in 1954. The folks at Parker Brothers like the concept enough to release the card game in the United States eight years later and the result was an instant success.

Basically, Milles Borne is a card game that simulates a 1000-mile race and can be played by two to six players. Each participant is dealt 6 cards to start with, and each time a card is played, another is drawn, to ensure that they are always holding the same amount in their hand. Four types of card are available: Distance, Hazard, Safety or Remedy. By using a roll card (part of the “Remedy” subset,) each player’s vehicle is set in motion. Distance cards display various distances of either 25,50,75,100 or 200 miles and are used to make progress. Each time one of these cards is played, it is laid down side-by-side with other distance cards so that the length of travel could be easily calculated.

Hindering this progress were the Hazard cards. By laying down either a stop, speed limit, out of gas, flat tire or accident card, the opponents trip is slowed considerably. Luckily, there were a few remedies to such Hazards. By using a Remedy card, gas tanks could be refilled, flats could be fixed, etc. Longer lasting fixes were available through the use of Safety Cards, which allowed for the maneuver known in French as the Coup Fourre, or counter-thrust. Safety cards included such counters as Puncture-Proof Tire, Right-of-Way, Tanker, and Driving Ace. Unlike the remedy cards, these Safety cards provided protection throughout the remainder of the game, rather than being a one-time fix. As only one of each of these cards were available in the deck, however, they were pretty hard to come by.

  Today, Mille Bornes is produced by Hasbro and can still be found in the toy section of many stores. It is a fast paced card game with a twist – all of which has kept it popular for decades. Does it afford the same thrills as a driving game on a video game console? Perhaps not, but see how far you are able to drive one of those cars during a power outage. With Mille Borne, all you need is a little imagination, a healthy dose of strategy and an hour or two to kill and you will be speeding towards the finish time with reckless abandon, electricity or not.