She has that frank smile and that natural bonhomie that immediately puts you at ease. No fuss or pretense at Brigitte Thomas. When she welcomes us to her Alsatian house in Erstein (Bas-Rhin) with its traditional half-timbered walls in mauve, we are received like friends. And we get straight to the heart of the matter. "I'll show you upstairs, it's a bit like HQ," she laughs in advance, ruffled plum hair above her black mask.
The narrow staircase is filled with heaps of colorful play boxes, further reducing the width of the steps. But this is just a taste. Once at the top, the spectacle is breathtaking: thousands of Monopoly, Bonne Paie, Risk, Labyrinth, Qui est-ce? or Power 4 are lined up on shelves and stacked until they touch the sloping ceiling.
Restoring the nobility to the game
"I have 3,000 games," says Brigitte Thomas, who seems used to this moment of amazement among her visitors. I renovate them at the bottom then I mount them so that they are encoded and sold on my Ludessimo site. I have 5,000 references from the 1950s to the present day, of which 3,000 are currently available for sale. This diversity is the strength of my site. "
Like any collector, Brigitte Thomas, 56, would like to meticulously organize her boxes by family and by model. “My husband, who is a logistician, keeps telling me that we have to put them where there is room, but I find it difficult to bring myself to do so, I like it when they are together, well aligned on the shelf, ”she admits. At first, Brigitte knew by heart the place of each of her treasures but after several thousand, she had to reorganize. Data processing and codes made up of "numbers and letters" now make it possible to prepare orders without too much "panic in the archives".
When asked what his favorite game is, his machine gun-like flow of words suddenly stops in silent hesitation. "I like it a lot," she finally let go. Take this one, "the race for the little beasts of Vilac": we build the ladybug, the snail, the bee and the wood turtle, it is very beautiful and it makes the imagination work. I also like the Triomino: with its bakelite pieces, it is strong, as soon as you have it in your hand, you become builders ... I like when the box is full, when the cards are thick, drawn by artists. And here it is relaunched, the verb as high as its Alsatian ceilings.
Ludessimo's customers are very diverse: individuals looking for souvenir or low-cost games, collectors looking for that rare gem, but also collective structures, such as nursery schools, toy libraries, psychomotor therapists or speech therapists, centers for autistic children or caring for the elderly. “We have the impression that playing is useless, that it's a waste of time, denounces Brigitte. Whereas it is necessary to give it back its letters of nobility: the game learns, beyond generations and social classes. The game becomes a society. "
The only copies that Brigitte refuses to sell or buy, "they are those which are filthy: when there is green coming out of the nose or when you have to flush the toilet," he says. she with her outspokenness barely tinged with an Alsatian accent.
"My wife empty on one side and she fills on the other"
The games we ask for the most? “Let's design fashion, The Inferno Island or Hero Quest,” she lists without blinking. Untraceable parts that Brigitte has already managed to find but immediately sold. Quests, often Proust's madeleines for grown-up children, which she records with respect in the "wish book" that she has created. Because it makes a point of honor to answer all the requests collected on its Internet site.
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To stock up on treasures, Brigitte goes to garage sales, gets supplies from resource centers, associations and receives donations. Then a long, very long process begins. In her kitchen, as colonized by game boxes as her living room, the mother sets up her workshop directly on the oilcloth of the table which hosts daily meals. “It doesn't bother me that there are everywhere, tempers Elise, her 13-year-old daughter, from the sofa in which she is installed to read a book. As long as we don't bump into it! "
Her husband Pascal, who has seen, year after year, boxes piling up in all the rooms of his house, remains just as philosophical. “When you live in it, you don't realize it,” he says, a tender smile behind his beard. It's when you come home after three weeks of vacation that you realize that the hallways are narrowing. He himself has his secret garden: he publishes the Alsace Philatélie Polaire bulletin, a document for stamp enthusiasts telling about the Poles.
" I empty ! Brigitte immediately defends herself. "Yes, it empties on one side and it fills on the other," agrees her understanding husband. Her parents' old garage was requisitioned and a warehouse was rented to store all of Brigitte's acquisitions awaiting restoration. 7,000 more boxes.
"I have always liked to put things right"
In front of us, it is the repair of an old Cluedo that the enthusiast is working. His mania: sniffing each of the boxes. "When it smells musty from the bottom of the cellar, there is only one solution: leave it in the fresh air for several days", explains the one who has refined empirical and personal techniques for each step. Peel off the large brown adhesives, restore the original color using one of its 300 paint markers, fill in any tears, clean cards and pawns, level the surfaces, replace a game rule or a score book, replace a pawn or a missing die. She often makes two boxes one. "It's a bit like painting or architecture," Brigitte reflects. Does renovating mean making new? Me, I try to discreetly repair and keep the patina. "
To achieve this, this passionate about manual work - who sews and paints in watercolors as well as she practices mosaic - has accumulated dice, pawns, tokens and figurines by the thousands in jars, boxes or drawers. “I have always liked to put things right, remembers Brigitte. Before I was director of animation and development projects. "
Diagnosed as gifted at 52
Her career, a real "conquest", to use the words of this woman from a modest family, the only girl among six boys. “My mom was at home and my father was a driver assistant at the SNCF,” she recalls. For my mother, black foot and illiterate, the place of a woman was at home with children. I had to fight to register for a health and social BEP. "
At the age of 15, Brigitte left Troyes (Aube) for Alsace with her family, thanks to the mobility of her railway father. She married at 18 and had her first child a year later. This fighter will never stop learning and progress. "I read books when others went to happy hours", observes Brigitte, who liked "Monitor and punish" by Michel Foucault, found Pierre Bourdieu a little "difficult" and not understood, despite his desire and three attempts, " The Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men ”by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
In parallel with her work, Brigitte has graduated, increasingly demanding, in continuing education. Until this Bac + 5, a certificate of aptitude for the functions of director of establishment or social intervention service (Cafdes) acquired in 2015 while she is unemployed. He doesn't give her a job anymore.
“I was an executive, I couldn't find a job and I was going to do housework when I discovered, at 52, that I had an IQ of 154. The same as Sharon Stone but not with the same physique! »Brigitte jokes, trying to hide her emotion behind her humor and her fuchsia glasses. Her two children, 13 and 31, were also diagnosed as gifted. "What a gift," resumes the fifty-something. It is as if this test had told me: “Allow yourself! And I launched my restaurant and game sales business. "
"I have a roof, I'm a little naive but that's fine with me"
“It's a job that doesn't exist, I don't fit into any box,” smiles Brigitte, declared a self-employed person since 2017 after a stay in a nursery. If Ludessimo's activity is in full swing, especially at Easter or during Christmas with around thirty boxes shipped per day, it brings Brigitte "between 600 and 800 euros the best months". "She sometimes spends three hours on a box that will sell for 15 euros", observes Pascal, her husband, however happy to see her do what she likes.
“My life is behind me, I have a home, I'm a little naive but that's fine with me. I do not see myself chasing money ”, slices the micro-manager who prefers to evoke“ gift ”and“ exchange ”when one speaks to him“ profitability ”or“ profits ”. She is also a volunteer for the association "Lire et faire lire".
And now, the tour de France of donations
Never short of ideas, Brigitte has embarked on a new challenge since August 1. A tour of France to collect donations, previously collected by volunteers from his Facebook page @Ludessimodons. Driving during the day and on a foam mattress in the back at night. For four weeks, the all-terrain fifty-something will travel the roads of France aboard a van bought with some savings and fitted out by Pascal, who is also a handyman.
Brigitte expects to receive a ton of games, including two magnificent collections of 150 and 250 boxes, personally delivered by collectors who would have given them only to her. “As the journey goes, I will weigh the donations and my daughter will present the cities and the people who run the collection points on Facebook,” Brigitte already rejoices. It's going to be a great adventure! "
Brigitte Thomas' website: Ludessimo.fr (under maintenance, it will be available in September)
BIO EXPRESS
October 26, 1963. Birth in Troyes (Aube) of a Franco-Spanish mother and a French father.
1980. BEP Health and social.
1992. License in sociology (in continuing education) one year after obtaining his state certificate in animation functions (Befa).
2001. State diploma in project director, animation and development.
2015. Despite obtaining a diploma level, Cafdes, does not find a job and launches the idea of Ludessimo.
