Did You Know You Can Watch French Fort Boyard For Free Online And Not In A Piratey Way?

Well, you do now.

EDIT: Seems they've made more recent content private, but there's still plenty available on YouTube

In the last few weeks, following on from the post which featured a clip of Richard O'Brien hosting the British pilot episode of Fort Boyard, I've found myself watching the full French episodes of the newest series on YouTube, and it's only just hit me that I was doing so on the official Fort Boyard YouTube page. As such I wasn't watching something that a fan had uploaded to share with the world, I was watching it because the production company was letting me.

Now, my French is about as good as my Mandarin Chinese, that is to say barely existent. However, I have not found it to be an issue as just by watching along, you can pretty much understand everything that's happening. So for the benefit of viewers at home, here's a brief summary of how the French show is structured across its roughly 2-hour run time (Yes, 2 hours, they've clearly got more patience sat watching TV across the channel).

And this covers the 2019 series, earlier series probably have differences. It's been going 30 years, differences keep it fresh. And for the record, much like Crystal Maze is this year, every show has celebrity contestants, but French celebrities, so barring any footballers that crop up, you're unlikely to be as aware of them as say Vic Reeves or Al Murray.

• After the gong is whipped to start the 50-minute timer, games in this 50-minute segment are played for keys to open the treasure room at the end. The current series requires 9 keys to open the room. Any players still in the rooms after times up will be taken to the prison.
• At the end of the 50 minutes, the team will then take on the Judgement games. This is to make up their key total to 9, and also to allow any prisoners at this point to earn their freedom. The games in this stage are presided over by Blanche. Each player entering her suspiciously clean realm earns the team a key but their game must be won otherwise it's off to the prison. Prisoners are just playing for their freedom.
• After the Judgement games, one player goes off to the Willymix (sounds painful, I know) whilst the rest discover the 6 ordeals they will now go through to earn clue words. After they are shown a montage of the upcoming ordeals, the player in the Willymix then gets a chance to earn a Joker allowing one substitution before an ordeal, so should someone really not want to try taking on a bungee jump or go face to face with some snakes, they can tag out. To earn the Joker they must just answer 4 out of 8 questions right.
• Next is the 6 ordeals to try and earn clue words which, hopefully, will allow them to figure out the word which will release the gold in the treasure room. These are a bit more on the side of Fear Factor as opposed to the tests of skill and strength that earned keys.
• Once the ordeals are done, any prisoners are tasked with escaping the prison. There's clues in their cell and obstacles along the way however they have two and a half minutes to pull a lever on the side of freedom. Every second over this time limit is deducted from the time the team gets in the treasure room at the end.
• Next comes the Council games. Duels that if won will earn the team an extra 15 seconds per game in the Treasure room.
• Finally is the Treasure room itself, from the moment the time starts and the door starts to open, the team must open their clue word containers, figure out the word that releases the gold, and collect all the gold they can. If they haven't got enough clue words they can give up a player in return for another clue but this obviously means two fewer hands collecting gold.

Simple really. And for further viewing there's also a follow-up show which looks like it would be the equivalent of an ITV2 extra show that directly follows what would be the ITV main event.

Extra games, some behind the scenes stuff, some chat. It's some dessert after a lengthy main course. A bit harder to follow if you don't speak French, but it's there if you want it.