Good news for those who like to do puzzles.
An unsolvable puzzle has been solved.
The full French solitaire, which contains 37 holes, has revealed its secret.
For more than 100 years it has been impossible to start this game in the very centre and to end there, leaving only one peg.
Frans CREMERS, a retired teacher from Aalter, Belgium, found the key to reach the solution.
He has discovered how the original version was played in the 18th century.

The English solitaire has 33 holes and 32 pegs.
All the old pictures of the French solitaire show a board with 37 holes and 37 pegs.  With a totally fulfilled board it's impossible to start.  To open the game you must "sneak" a peg to the board, put it apart so you can put it back later in the original hole.  37 pegs are necessary.  The peg "sneaked" at the beginning is not really taken so it can placed back later on.  It is up to the player when he  wants to put it back.  (See also the solitaire triangular :  7-triangle.)

The prisoner in "La Bastille" must have been a genius.
The French 37-board is a remarkable solitaire in the sense that it is very much out of the ordinary.  The  patriarch  has a multitude of possiblities more than its later  weaker  brethren.
The English solitaire is by far the most know. There are different solutions to start from the center an finish to it.  But to finish in the center, one MUST start in the center.  There is no other way.
With Cremers' key, the French solitaire can start everywhere and always end nicely in the center.  

That the French solitaire is solvable after all, is easy to understand.
Isn't it rather bizarre that the original version should be unsolvable?
It is very unlikely that La Princesse de Soubise is portrayed while playing a silly game, isn't it?  Isn't it obvious that she'd have herself pictured for posterity showing with pride that she could master the problem?
"Admire me:  beautiful  and  intelligent !"