What is Petanque?

Our travel around mostly the southern France during Tour de France entailed lots of walking around the city. We walked many cobbled streets lined with roadside cafes, we saw many a nice manicured and flowery medians, weekly markets selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and more. Btw, I feel that, the best way to learn and get a feel of the place you visit is not by only visiting the touristy places but to walk around the city checking what the locals do, where the locals go.

It was when we were on our way to see the Russian Orthodox church of St. Nicolas in Nice when we saw a bunch of people playing with metal balls or boules, the sport called Pentanque a favorite French pastime during summer vacations.

A sport that originated from the Provence region of southern France, it is closest to the French hearts and a sport that allows for social gathering of friends who play together over a glass of Pastis, a liquor that goes well with the sport was what I was told.

You can play the game with two teams of one, two or three players on each side. With teams of one or two, each player has 3 boules; with teams of 3, each has 2 boules. Each of these boules can weigh anything between 650 gms to 800 gms.

Though the game is popular mostly among the older generation, age is definitely not a criteria and anybody can participate. The old champions who otherwise would have had to retire from the sport due to arthritis and other health ailments, in order to stay back in the game made a rule that the sport will be have to be played standing still in one place! The present form of Pentanque was invented French boule lyonnaise player named Jules Lenoir in the year 1907 in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles, who suffered from rheumatism.

The sport is now played with the feet together in a small circle, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (jack). A coin is tossed before the beginning of the game to decide who plays first. Any player in this team chooses where to draw a circle on the ground in which every player will stand to throw their boules. This person then throws the cochonnet 6 to 10 paces in any direction from the circle. One player from the first team attempts to throw the boule trying to get as close to the cochonnet. The player must do so staying within the circle and his/her feet together. The objective of player from the other team is then to either knock the opponent’s boule away from the cochonnet or throw as close as possible to the cochonnet. He / She has precisely 1 minute to do so from the time his/her turn comes. The boule nearest to the cochonnet is said to be “holding the point”. The players in the team that is not “holding” continue throwing until they place a boule closest to the cochonnet, and so on.

You count the scores once every team member has thrown his/her boule. Only one team gets to score in one round. The winning team scores one point for each boule nearer the cochonnet than the opponents closest.

Well, it looked like a fairly simple game till I was told about the various strategies plotted by the two teams! Pentanque has a fair share of vocabulary, which to a traveler like me was a bit confusing.

Later we saw this game being played in almost all the French cities that we visited including Paris, where by the side of the Seine river, there is a designated area for Petanque lovers.

The first Pentanque tournament was held in La Ciotat in 1910 by the brothers Ernest & Joseph Pitiot and once it caught interest and became popular amongst the people, the international Pentaque foundation – Federation Internationale de Pentaque et Jeu Provencal was founded in 1958 at Marseille and comprise of 7 lakh plus people as its members in 52 countries.

I was surprise to learn that world championships are organized every year in various countries and members from around 50-52 countries participate! The first world championship was hosted in the year 1959.

That was Pentaque for you.