Aluette or Vache ("Cow") is an old, plain trick-taking card game that is played on the west coast of France.

"La luette" means uvula in French and may refer to the fact that it is played with codified signs that allow team members to provide information on their cards during the game.

The cow was portrayed on the 2 of Cups and, later, also on the 2 of Coins; one 18th century pack depict it on the Ace of Swords.

[2] Aluette was traditionally played in rural and coastal areas in France between the estuaries of the Gironde and the Loire, that is to say, in the western part of the language area of the Saintongeais and Poitevin dialects, especially in its centre, in the department of the Vendée and in the Pays de Retz as far as Saint-Nazaire, as well as in Brittany.

According to a 1973 map by Alain Bourvo the game was then still regularly played in the coastal region between the Garonne and Loire rivers, including the area around Nantes, La Roche-sur-Yon and La Rochelle, as well as in the Loire valley between Angers and Tours; and the coastal strips around Cherbourg, St. Brieuc and Vannes.

In the 19th century it may have been played up the Garonne as far as Bordeaux and up the Loire valley to Orleans and beyond as well as along the whole of the coastline from the Gironde estuary to the east side of the Cotentin.

[3] This region is part of the Basque Country which straddles France and Spain and is where Truc is played, a game that appears to be related to Aluette.

The modern cards are based on those made in Thiers in the Auvergne until the 17th century for the Spanish market.

These cards are attested in Frances in the 17th and 18th centuries, when French cardmarkers, especially from Thiers, exported them to Spain via Nantes.

And, at a pinch, one could play with a pack of French-suited cards by removing the 10s and agreeing on a correspondence between suits.

The figures on the cards give rise to their nicknames and are associated with certain gestures players pass to their teammate.

Many of the illustrations on Aluette decks appeared in other early Spanish packs but have since disappeared like the six-pointed stars on the Four of Coins.

[4] Grimaud, a subsidiary of Cartamundi's France Cartes, is the only producer of Aluette decks at present.