Juan (mid) & Mo (right) won this years' title in Sarasota over the weekend, organized by Gilles (left) of the Sarasota Petanque Club. Bravo!
Our friend Jerry reports about taking his boules from the US to France (yes, as in "coals to Newcastle") to christen them while on holiday.
Everbody in US pétanque circles knows Christophe of La Boule NY. Well, right now he's in Austin, TX , and urgently needed an area to train. He calls it "Piste off". But he isn't.
The boules have arrived, so has the French contingent, and they are playing everyday!
Our friends from LSU were active again, teaching petanque to kids at the Ecole Bilingue at Calhoun Street, at the annual Fête Française on March 8.
When I mentioned the Sun-Sentinel article last month, I had only seen the online version. A friend just mailed me the original and now I realize it was almost 2 full size pages of the weekend edition.
As usual, when I see figures, I like to put them in perspective, so on the right is the list of the 100 largest US dailies, with a yellow highlight for those that carried a major article about petanque in the past 2 years. Only 91 more to go ;-)
The other day we got a call from an officer in Afghanistan. Originally from GA, now posted in one of the camps there, he wanted boules urgently because they're expecting French colleagues and would like to challenge them to a couple of games.
Tom from Sonoma asked to see the PA Open scoreboard again. Indeed, it's already more than 2 years ago.
We're still waiting for other tournaments to copy this unique idea!
Gridskipper, the urban travel guide, recently ran a short article about pétanque clubs in Paris.
Talk about dedication.
So true: in the (still) few places where you can get pastis in the US, bartenders are often unfamiliar with the ratios and pour the liquor as if it were lemonade. Topping it up with ice, sometimes a drop of water.
Carolina Petanque is now formally registered with FPUSA. Thanks Frank, for the smooth process.
This years' edition of the San Pedro Open, at the cruise ship terminal will be on Sunday April 13. Select triples.
Petanque Talk is Nathan Doster's latest contribution to petanque development in the Western States. Nathan doesn't mind driving hours & hours to catch a game, and has visited almost all of the 17 clubs, from San Diego, CA to Seattle WA.
Back to the West Coast, where Tim & friends of Fresno Petanque Club are unstoppable.
Our friend Kevin in Kaohsuing is actively blogging these days from Southern Taiwan. Unfortunately we missed each other twice at the annual Brooklyn Bastille Day tournament.
Jeffrey from Akron, OH picked up pétanque recently, but seems to have a knack for ball games. Since he has hardly anyone to play with in his hometown, he often trains just by himself.
Anything can happen on a pétanque terrain. But this is truly amazing.
...in other words "Crazy about pétanque". Although they're pretty far up North, the Portland Petanque Club likes to start their season early, whatever the weather.
