Tarot of the Regions of France

Tarot of the Regions of France
Florence Magnin, 1986

Looking through my collection to decide which Tarot review I should end this year with, I found a deck that was perfect for the season. This is a 78-card French deck published by Grimaud in 1986. The illustrations are by Florence Magnin, who also created the Amber Tarot in 1994. Each Trump is double-ended, and each end is fully illustrated. It was a challenge to decide which ends to show upright since there are so many nice images.

Each picture is a snapshot of French country life. The deck comes with only a set of rules for the game of Tarocchi, so there is nothing which describes any of the scenes depicted. Many of the scenes appear to be quite specific, showing landmarks such as fountains, churches and other striking buildings. On many of the Trumps, there are portraits of the natives in regional costumes at one end of the card and landscape scenery at the other end. The reversed images of two cards below can be seen in this close up of Trumps 15 and 21, which also shows the wonderful level of artistic detail in the deck.

This deck can be seen in Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Tarot volume III, where he describes the Trumps as illustrating nineteenth-century country life within four regions of France: “Alsace, which is in the northeast and borders Germany; Provence, in the southeast, on the Italian border; Brittany, in the northwest, on the English Channel; and Burgundy, the rich wine country in the east bordering Switzerland. Trumps 1 through 5 show Alsace; 6 through 10, Brittany; 11 through 15, Provence; 16 through 21, Burgundy.”

The cards have little connection with traditional Trump imagery. Instead of mystical symbolism, we see a wide spectrum of daily life, such as childhood (Trump 1), weddings (Trump 4, not shown), coastal life (Trump 8), harvest (Trumps 13 and 18, not shown), hunting (Trump 19), a gypsy camp (Trump 15), farm life (Trump 16), and schooling (Trump 20, not shown). Trump 21, above, shows three older gentleman playing card games at a dining table, apparently using the cards of this deck. Trump 6, shown in the top row above, shows a fantasy scene of trolls wandering around the standing rocks of Brittany.

The pip cards show suit symbols, as seen below, and the court cards have illustrations of the people and costumes of each region. Kaplan says that the Spades court is matched to Alsace, the Clubs to Brittany, the Hearts to Burgundy, and the Diamonds to Provence.

This deck is inexpensive and fairly easy to find online via European shops, or from Mabel’s Card Shop located in New York.

Review by Mark Filipas, 12/1/00