goose game

I get to do another children's classic! An NRC journalist is rewriting the goose game rules, and I am going to draw the board for next week's Saturday paper. The board shown above is the one I own, the doodling is Otger's, he is ashamed of it now. I don't know much about the game, other than that it is very old. I found lots of old boards, mostly on French websites. Where did it originate? I hardly find anything in English, is it known at all in North America? I found a disgusting new age version, can't those people leave anything alone?

Update: Ineke found this website with the history of the goose game.