French départements map game: conquer the map of France
Updated October 27, 2026
If you are looking for a geography game about France, Towndom turns the idea around: instead of asking you questions, it puts the real map of the 96 départements in front of you and lets you fill it in. Every town where you place a piece colors a bit of your territory. Here is how the map works, and what you pick up on the way without noticing. The app is in French for now, so the screen names below are translated.
Towndom is a game: the currency is 100% fictional and nothing can be won or withdrawn for real. This guide is not investment advice.
What does a geography game on the map of France look like?
Towndom is a stock market game where the stocks are French towns, but its main screen is a map. That is the board: the real France cut into départements, 96 of them plus a strip for the overseas territories. A département is an administrative division, a bit like a county. Each one is tinted by today’s trend, and your towns show up in gold while rivals’ towns stay violet.
Everything is play money. You start with €2,000 in game currency and no bank card: the game is for exploring the map and having fun, not for putting real money anywhere.
How do you explore a département?
Tap a département on the map and it zooms into its towns. You get filters, the day’s top and bottom towns, and the mayorships still up for grabs. It is a very good way to spot towns you did not know.
Every town has its own page: a price, a chart, today’s change and a short ticker code (PAR for Paris, LYON for Lyon). You can search by name, by département or by ticker. The “Why is it moving?” button tells you the local events behind each move, so you see the life of a place: a festival, roadworks, a strike.
How do you learn the départements by playing?
Towndom is not a geography course and does not pretend to be. But the map forces you to place things. To drop a piece in Brittany, you need to know where Brittany is and which towns it holds. To aim at a département you have never visited, you open it and read what is going on there.
We remember better what we have held than what we have only read. A town where you hold a tower, you remember by name, region and neighborhood. It is memory through use, not through repetition.
How do you complete the collection of 96 départements?
In chill mode, your board never resets and has no rankings. A département counts in your collection as soon as you hold at least one tower in it. The milestones are at 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 and then 96 départements, each rewarded with écus, then with exclusive appearances.
A travel log offers three goals every week that you can always complete alone, like “Place a piece in Brittany” or “Become mayor of a town of more than 20,000 inhabitants”. It is a gentle way to push you toward départements you would not have picked yourself.
- Start close to home: a first département whose towns you already know.
- Spread out by neighbor: bordering départements are easy to read on the map.
- Look for contrasts: a very urban département, a rural one, a coastline, a mountain.
How is this different from a départements quiz?
A quiz asks you a question, you answer, and you are right or wrong. It is efficient for revising department numbers or prefectures. Towndom does not do that: there are no right or wrong answers, and nobody grades your knowledge of the map.
What the game offers instead is a living territory. Prices move with the news, rivals take towns, a mayorship changes hands. If you want to revise by heart, a quiz will do better; if you want to make the map your own by playing, this is the place.
Who is this map game for?
Three kinds of players find their way in, each in their own manner:
- Geography-curious players: the map is the game, and every département is a small discovery.
- Quiz fans: a companion that gives you a reason to know France other than flashcards.
- Families: chill mode has no rankings and no pressure, and the currency is fictional, so you can play together with nothing real at stake.
How do you get started on iPhone?
Towndom is free on iPhone, from iOS 18. There is no Android version yet. You pick a nickname, with no email and no password, and you receive your €2,000 in play money. The game asks whether you want competition or a relaxed game: to fill the map, choose chill mode.
Open a département you know, place a first piece of €100 and watch your tower rise. The rest of the map is waiting.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this a départements quiz?
- No. Towndom is a board and stock-market game, not a quiz: it does not ask questions and does not grade you. You learn the map by holding towns, not by answering.
- How many départements are on the map?
- The board has 96 départements, with a strip for the overseas territories. A département counts in your chill collection as soon as you hold a tower in it.
- Do I need to know French geography to play?
- No. You can start with a town you know and widen out little by little. The map, the town pages and the filters help you place each commune.
- Does the game use real money?
- No. The currency is entirely fictional: you start with €2,000 in play money, no bank card, and nothing can be won or withdrawn for real.