Two-city Mafia and Gatsby night — Montpellier community

In short: what this weekend is

For the last weekend of the summer the Russian-speaking community of southern France joins forces with a crew from Toulouse: two cities converge on one villa near Montpellier. The villa stands in the middle of 1.8 hectares of private parkland — pines, garrigue, a large garden and a pool — and the sea is about twenty-five minutes away. The organisers put the idea into one line back in their July teaser: “Two cities. One villa with a pool. Two nights. And a game where the winner is not the strongest but the craftiest.”

The first thing to understand is that the format is flexible. “You can come for one evening or two, or stay as a guest of the villa for the whole weekend — your choice,” is how the announcement puts it. People arrive on Friday and leave on Sunday, and nobody is obliged to be there for all three days.

Friday 28 August: the Gatsby evening

The first evening is not a loud party but an evening of introductions and good conversation. Jazz, candles, a secret password at the door, a buffet and a barbecue in the garden, a photo corner, light games and prizes for the best look.

The dress code is meant seriously: the 1920s. Black and gold, pearls, feathers, classic suits. This is one of those evenings where the outfit is half the point — there is a real prize for the best one, and the photo corner is set up for exactly that kind of costume. The start time for Friday was not named in the announcement; it is given when you sign up in the chat.

Saturday 29 August: the two-city Mafia, 18:00 to 23:00

The main event of the weekend. Five hours at the table: several rounds back to back, with a champions’ table at the end. The game is run by a host who has been working with Mafia for years, from club tables to tournaments.

Newcomers are genuinely welcome here, and that is not a polite formula. The rules are explained on the spot, and in this community’s experience it is often the newcomers who knock out the experienced players. It worked exactly that way at the community’s first game, on 18 April 2026 in a bar in central Montpellier: the rules were gone through in advance, the rounds were discussed afterwards, and the barrier to entry turned out to be zero — you could turn up purely as a spectator and step into a round when a player got tired.

While a round is in play the rest of the villa carries on: the pool is open, you can swim, talk, or watch the table from the side, which is a pleasure in itself — in April there were nearly as many spectators as players.

Between the two evenings: a story game for villa guests

For those staying at the villa all weekend, a separate story game unfolds between Friday and Saturday: everyone gets a role, a secret and a task of their own. It runs in the background — over breakfast, by the pool, in the garden — and it delivers to Saturday’s table a group that already knows one another. It takes nothing away from people who come only for the evenings: Saturday’s Mafia starts from a clean slate.

Formats and prices

• A double room for the whole weekend — €250. Your own room with a double bed, parkland outside the window, the pool a few steps away. According to the booking announcement, breakfasts are included in the stay.
• A bed in the shared room — €100 for the weekend.
• Both evenings for people staying at the villa — €60 per person.
• Evenings only, without accommodation: both €70, a single evening €40.

Saturday’s price covers the hosted game, the buffet and the pool. The money is collected by the weekend’s organisers directly: the community sells no tickets, keeps no cash desk and is not a travel operator — we gather the group, and payment is settled with the organisers in the chat.

An honest note about the prices: they are published exactly as they were announced. Under that same announcement, room bookings closed on 1 August and were held by a deposit, and there are only two double rooms at the villa. So please check in the chat what is actually still available — the beds may well be gone while evening places are not.

Getting there

The villa is in the countryside around Montpellier, next to a vineyard. The organisers have not published the exact address or commune — those are sent when a booking is confirmed, together with the arrival time. The one honest landmark we can give is distance: about twenty-five minutes by car to the sea.

Getting there without a car is realistic, but not by public transport, which does not run out here. For every out-of-town event the community pools cars: the announcement for the May barbecue said it in as many words — “We’re pooling cars. If you don’t have one, shout and I’ll try to sort everyone out” — and rides home from the campsite near Sète were arranged the same way. It works reliably on one condition: write to the chat a day or two ahead, not on the evening itself.

What to bring

• A 1920s look for Friday: black and gold, pearls, feathers, a classic suit.
• Swimwear and a towel — the pool is open on both days.
• Comfortable shoes for the park: this is pine and garrigue, not city pavement.
• If you are staying over, things for two nights, 28 to 30 August.
• Nothing at all for the game itself: masks, roles and rules are the host’s job. At the community’s first game the host bought the masks in advance and brought his own.

How many places there are

There are few places, and that is not an urgency trick: the villa has two double rooms plus beds in the shared room. Evening places are limited by the size of the table — at the community’s first game the table sat eleven, and the organisers said so honestly: “The team is only 11 people — be quick if you want the first table.” Here there are several rounds in an evening and there may be more than one table, but the principle is unchanged: whoever writes to the chat first gets the seat. You can always come as a spectator, though — at past games spectators stepped into rounds for players who had had enough.

About the community

Vibe Sud France is the Russian-speaking community of Montpellier and the whole south of France, around four hundred people in a Telegram chat. It is free and volunteer-run: members think up the events and run them themselves. In a year and a half there have been barbecues for a hundred people, mountain hikes, beach meet-ups, days at sea on a yacht and a catamaran, an ice rink, Maslenitsa, karaoke, dance nights and a standing Mafia club series that began with a single message in the chat. Being in the chat costs nothing; for events people pay only the real cost — the boat, the villa, the venue.

What the community did before this

The villa weekend is the third event in the Mafia strand. It began with the first game of Mafia and karaoke on 18 April 2026 in a bar in central Montpellier: a free table for eleven, spectators standing in for tired players, and karaoke straight afterwards. The full chronicle is in the Events section: there is the big barbecue of 24 May, where our car-pooling routine comes from, the barbecue and overnight stay at a campsite that was the community’s first large event, the days at sea — the yacht on 2 July and the catamaran on 8 August — and February’s dance night, the closest thing in spirit to a Gatsby evening.

If you are new to the south and still finding your feet, there is our guide to Montpellier for our people and a separate page on Russian-speaking Toulouse — the city whose crew is coming to this weekend. And what Vibe actually is, who runs it and how things work here is on the about the community page.