I was 11 when I started roleplaying with gamebooks. I vaguely remember L'œil Noir as a classic among "Livres dont vous êtes le héros". The same year I saw the older kids play a full D&D campaign with the adults during summer camp. In the following months Casus Belli and Jeux & Strategies, two magazines dedicated to RPGs, gradually replaced comics… and we eventually put together an "official" club at our middle school, where we played D&D for a while, and more games as we discovered them: MEGA II, Paranoia, Rêve de dragons, le JRTM, Call of Cthulu, Zone, etc.
Fond memories of Laelith ;-).