Piquet

thumb|256px|A Game of Piquet, imaginary 17th century scene painted in 1861 by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891), [[National Museum of Wales]] Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but one which is now only played by "aficionados and connoisseurs." The game is historically also known as Sant or Saunt, from the French Cent.

==History== Piquet is one of the oldest card games still being played. It is first mentioned, as Le Cent, in a written reference dating to 1535, in Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais. Although legend attributes the game's creation to Stephen de Vignolles, also known as La Hire, a knight in the service of Charles VII during the Hundred Years' War, it may possibly have come into France from Spain because the words "pique" and "repique", the main features of the game, are of Spanish origin. The earliest clear mention of the game – leaving aside various predecessors – is in 1585 by Jacques Perrache, described as a "Provençal gentleman", who refers to two unusual games, "premieres, & piquets".