Cult: crosswords, a timeless holiday pastime

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They always have their place in beach bags. Crosswords or arrows , these are words that travel. Who said they were old-fashioned? These little notebooks are much more than vacation companions. "I get up and until I've finished my crosswords and arrow words, I don't do anything else," says one vacationer. In summer, and not only, this century-old pastime is being shaken up by a new generation and is almost becoming trendy.

The first grid was invented by an Englishman in 1913; it resembled a sort of diamond. The light-hearted game then became popular in the American newspaper The New York Times in 1941. In the midst of World War II, the idea was to offer a moment of respite from the anxieties of the time. Then the game was exported to France. Very serious competitions emerged. Even television got involved.

And today, a new generation of crossword puzzlers is updating the puzzles and reinventing the game. Drawing on culinary trends and references from their generation, at 25, two women created their crossword puzzle book this summer with the desire to shake up the classic puzzles a little. "We noticed in the more traditional puzzle books that there were definitions that were a bit sexist, a bit racist. We need to include as many female characters as male and try to be as representative of our society as possible," notes Dior Beye, co-creator of the "Grillé" crossword puzzle. And to test their next edition, they called on friends who sometimes get a bit stuck.

A winning bet. This summer, young people sharpened their pencils and packed crossword puzzles in their luggage. The result: the game is flying off the newsstands. It's showing up where you least expect to find it. In a trendy boutique in the capital, the crossword puzzles particularly appealed to customers between the ages of 20 and 30. "Yes, it's a crossword puzzle, sure, but it's also a beautiful object, and I think people buy it for that too," says Ulysse Pijollet, manager of the Fleux 1 boutique. Nearly 7 million copies are sold each year in France.