It's MMXVI! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from all at the Virtual Village to all the Indomitables in the Known World!

We wish you a wonderful year, fuelled by a magic potion full of laughter and good cheer!

Here in the Village, just like where you live no doubt, the beginning of the year was full of good resolutions, made a little too hastily as usual: cutting down on the number of boars, avoiding punch-ups, etc. Who could resist such healthy impulses?! So to make up for their (rare) excesses, and because they haven't been eating the right food or getting enough exercise of late, our heroes have decided to take up sport this year!

And here's the proof: a selection of sporty e-cards to be used without moderation in wishing all your friends a Happy New Year! After all, mens sana in corpore sano, as they say!

Ready for a year of sport? Let's go!

Asterix and Obelix are no strangers to sport! Running, fencing, horse riding, archery, swimming, sailing, chariot racing, and even judo all crop up in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix! Not forgetting wrestling of course, along with less official but nevertheless fun-packed sports: tossing the caber, menhir lobbing and even Roman hurling, to name but a few!

2016, already looks set to be a great year of sport for the Indomitable Gauls! In the coming months, you'll be able to discover a special edition and a luxury edition of Asterix at the Olympic Games, as well as a one-off edition full of all the sporting highlights from Asterix.

And lots of other surprises besides, all to be revealed in the next few months. There's just one slogan for 2016: faster, higher and stronger with Asterix and his friends!

Cijep

This time, our favourite Gauls have every reason to make a meal of things: here they are starring on some remarkable pieces of crockery! Plates, bowls, glasses - there's sure to be something that's your cup of tea! What's more, they're unbreakable! Mrs Geriatrix is over the moon: no longer can her husband use dishes as missiles during village fights in order to get out of the washing up!

Momot

The Korean company, king of paper toys, tried out our magic potion to make these Asterix toys. Now it's your turn: you can cut, bend, assemble and glue them to make some awesome figures that you can show off to all your friends at home! By Toutatis, these paper toys are going to be a sensation!!

Discobelix: the new must-see attraction

Parc Asterix just got bigger! It opens again on 2 April 2016 with a stunning new attraction: Discobelix.

With Discobelix kids and grown-ups alike can sample the delights of discus throwing thanks to Obelix, as they plunge into the world of Asterix at the Olympic Games.

Of course you all remember that Asterix, Obelix and their friends in the Gaulish Village were a huge success at the Olympics. But while Obelix wasn't allowed to take part in the tests because he's pretty much always under the effect of the magic potion (he fell into it when he was little), he still did some training in secret, in order to set a few records of his own. Never short of ideas, he simply grabbed the bronze disk off a giant statue of a discus thrower and hurled it with such power that he sent it spinning off for ever more... Visitors can now sit right inside the spinning disk and enjoy a ride they'll never forget!

Discobelix: key figures
- Disk 10 m in diameter
- Capacity of 40 people
- 80 m ride
- 70 poles sunk 12 m into the ground
- 7 months' work
- A €3 million investment
- Minimum height 1.20 m
- 6 m statue of Obelix

Book your tickets right away on the Parc Astérix website www.parcasterix.fr

Visit the Asterix and Obelix Facebook page and www.asterix.com to make sure you don't miss out on the latest Asterix news!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

On the Gaulish social media, discover the crazy sports played in the Crazy Gaul's Village: fish fights, legionary bowling, Roman hurling, hog racing and menhir lobbing! Let the games begin!

Stay tuned to www.asterix.com:

Throughout the month of January, send your greetings for 2016 with our special New Year's e-cards .

In February, support your favourite team in the Six Nations tournament with the collection of Asterix rugby e-cards.

And while you're online, check out the Champions Cup  , the incredible football game, 50 BC-style!

And follow Asterix and Obelix on Twitter so you don't miss a single scoop!

New translations and new publications! Asterix and Obelix continue their globetrotting journey with plenty of new events.

Asterix and the Celts

2 years after the publication of Asterix and the Picts  in Scotland, the publishers Dalen continue to translate the Asterix albums. And so last December saw the publication of Asterix and the Soothsayer  in Welsh, Asterix the Gladiator  in Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic and Asterix in Britain  in Scottish and Irish Gaelic. The ideal way to prepare for the next Six Nations Tournament with a smile on your face! It all kicks off in a few weeks, and the French team will be squaring up against the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish, amongst others!

Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior and the Goths

While our German cousins' love of all things Asterix is no secret, our neighbours across the Rhine are also connoisseurs of the complete works of Goscinny and Uderzo. Alongside Oumpah-Pah, which is already famous in Germany, Jehan Pistolet  and Luc Junior  arrived in the country in 2015, with two superb complete collections published by Ehapa.

Asterix in the pages of Le Monde!

In 1974, Asterix made a splash with a preview version of Asterix and Caesar's Gift in the pages of the French newspaper Le Monde, a first for a cartoon. The political debates between Vitalstatistix and his rival Orthopaeix were even juicier at a time when French opinion was divided between Giscard and Mitterrand, during presidential elections that were more hotly contested than ever. In late 2015, Asterix had the honour of featuring in a special edition of Le Monde ! Confoundtheirpolitix, the "journalist" in Asterix and the Missing Scroll, was over the moon!

The History of Gaul in the eyes of Asterix and his friends

A grand world tour in the footsteps of Asterix and Obelix, the heirs of Getafix, our heroes on their travels, a look back at Gaul ... just some of the exciting topics covered in the beautiful special edition of Géo magazine . 32 paperboard pages in a book that's not to be missed!