Obut's new website

Yesterday the brand new Obut website went officially online, in 5 languages:
French, English, German, Spanish & Dutch.

A clear description of all the different boules available, and interesting graphics on the production techniques make it worth a visit for any petanque player.
And of course links to distributors worldwide.

"Bonne visite!"

www.obut.com

Petanque in Romania

Titus Marin, president of the brand new Romanian Petanque Association sent us some pictures of their Saturday get-togethers in a central park in Bucharest (Gradina Icanei). Clubs are now forming in different locations, and they are involving and teaching youngsters.

Many more photos on their site: www.petanqueromania.ro
Romanian is a (surprise!) roman language, so with a bit of Latin or French one can make out quite a bit of the text. More about Romania.

Good luck to this new national association!

Boules with eggs

Here's an interesting report from our Dutch friend Rommert:

In France they do all sorts of things with pétanque.
Take for instance this small village St Julien sur Bibost, west of Lyon. At the end of August, when everybody is back home from summer holidays, they celebrate seeing each other again with a full weekend of partying out in the streets.
One of the favorite roadside attractions is called "Oeuf cassé, c'est gagné" meaning "Egg broken, you win!".
By hitting an egg with a pétanque ball, one wins a bottle of cheap bubble-wine, nicknamed "Chateau Migraine".
Here you can see the blond Michel "The Dancer", who is very popular with the ladies for that; Thierry with the long hair is the local hunter and therefore very popular with his wife Lillian, who took most of these pictures.

American petanque in Provence

A pity, but I mostly forget to take pictures when we're playing with American bike or walking groups. I could probably fill an album.
Time always flies by. And why interrupt the fun for a photo session!

After hundreds & hundreds of groups I now manage to concentrate the "rules" part to a matter of minutes, so we get more time to play and start the bantering...
Invariably it turns into a ladies vs men competition. It's hilarious to watch how - when they're winning - some men wholeheartedly agree when I declare a "mulligan", yet get all shook up when - minutes later - the tide turns!

Provence remains a very popular destination. This season is extremy busy. I also had the opportunity to teach several Canadians and Brazilians this year, and made a lot of new friends.

Petanque in Holland

The Dutch have a reputation for being well organized, even when it comes to having fun.
Here's an example of a club in Asten, a town with a population of 16,000 in the SE of the Netherlands.
The petanque club has splendid facilities: 34 outdoor courts (fully lit) , 18 indoor courts and - "noblesse oblige"- a cafeteria, used for all kinds of parties. 80 playing members seems few. But during winter it becomes a hub for several clubs in the area who do not (yet) have indoor facilities. That creates many friendships and those clubs return the favor by inviting the Asten club in the summer.


Every year, early July they convert the town's marketplace into a huge boulodrome for a weekend, for the general public to enjoy.
Of course, no street festival without a well stocked Bavaria beer truck!
They also have an excellent website, updated permanently, where I snatched these pictures.



The Dutch Petanque Federation has 240 member clubs, its own color magazine, and is growing fast. With close to 18,000 members they are now # 5, after France, Spain, Thailand and Algeria. By the way, in Holland the term "jeu de boules" is a lot more popular than "petanque".