Introducing the amb-cotedazur crossword – a different kind of puzzle

Crossword puzzles seem to be popular with English speakers in France to judge by the fact that many anglophone publications here include them. Interestingly, the majority of these are of the cryptic, rather than definition, type. We guess that there may be many readers of this website who like this kind of puzzle, but of course we can’t be sure. Hence we thought we would experiment to find out. Below you will find the first in a series of puzzles set by Martin Hills, one of our regular contributors, who has pioneered his own variety of bilingual puzzle, first in Var Village Voice and currently in The Connexion.

Martin writes: ‘Like many other crossword puzzle setters, I graduated through years of solving other people’s in the UK papers. I have always enjoyed puzzles that are a bit different, like the many original forms that Araucaria has created for The Guardian. The puzzles that appear here will all be cryptic and will all have answers in both English and French, because most of us can do with practising our French and developing our vocabulary. The French words are to be found in a good dictionary. On top of that, each time I plan to add another twist of one sort or another. Nothing too difficult – the level will be roughly similar to that of The Times or The Guardian – but enough to get the little grey cells to work. Remember, this is the sort of mental exercise that is supposed to help ward off Alzheimer’s!’

At present, we can’t provide a truly online crossword operation (though we are working on it). Meantime, what we would like you to do is to solve the puzzle and then either scan and email the completed grid with your name and address to crossword@amb-cotedazur.com or fax it to 04 93 60 11 85 or mail it to AMB Cote d'Azur, Villa La Fontaine, 525 chemin du Ranch, 06740 Chateauneuf-de-Grasse.

There are no prizes, but we shall publish the names of the senders of the first correct solutions received. If you’d like to add a comment about how you liked the puzzle – or didn’t – we may publish some of these too, if they are printable. What we really want to establish is whether there is enough interest to justify including crosswords of this sort on a regular basis, so if you’re a keen solver make sure you let us know.

Click here to see January's crossword solutions.