Brooklyn - Bastille Day Tournament

Here are the details for this years' tournament:

Sunday July 16

Players must be present at 10:30am - no exceptions.
Tournament start time: 11:00am

To register, call Frank at BarTabac - (718) 923-0918
To keep things smooth, participation will be limited to 80 teams of 3 players.
Participation: $ 20 per team.
21 courts and lots of boules will be available.

Format:
First round: 3 games to 11 points
Second round: best 16 teams qualified, to 11 points
Then quarter-, semi- and finals.

Non-players are welcome anytime to watch, enjoy the choice of food, drinks and wonderful music by the Blue Orchid Dance Orchestra. The more, the merrier!

Location on Google Maps
Photo album of the 2005 tournament
The fast-forward movie of 2005

Petanque in Charleston, SC

Bastille Day will be celebrated on Friday July 14 at Freshfields Village , from 4 to 9 pm.

Traditional waiters races, food, music & drinks and
petanque games. A good opportunity to meet other players in the area.

Freshfields Village is located on John’s Island at the Kiawah/Seabrook traffic circle.

Famous petanque players

New York Times Magazine:
Jacques Pépin, the chef, author and television host, lives with his wife, Gloria, in a converted 1930’s brick factory on Long Island Sound in Connecticut.

And he loves to play pétanque.

A Country Kitchen: the interview
(if you visited the NY Times website recently you have to register. By clearing their cookie you get straight in again.)

Petanque in Brooklyn

A review of last year's Bastille Day Tournament: 14 hours from dawn to dusk concentrated in a 3:58 min. video.
Rendez-vous this year on July 16!

St Bonnet-le-Chateau

This is the view of St Bonnet-le-Chateau from Obut's factory.
A beautiful town with merely 1500 inhabitants but marketplace for the Forez region.
Of course - noblesse oblige - a stone sculpture of a boule + cochonnet on the front lawn.

Boules on the ocean

Last week I took a drive up to Obut's plant to check on the loading of our next container. Another 6000+ boules on their way to Florida!

Don't be fooled by the "fragile" stickers. Metal boules don't break easily at all, but we also loaded some Ricard glasses and carafes for the many folks who like to recreate a bit of Southern France atmosphere in their backyard.
ETA Miami July 2nd.

Anyone in Chico, CA ?

Pat Wilkinson has been a member of the Oakhurst Petanque Club for 4 years but lives in Chico, CA (about 90 mi. N of Sacramento).

Any players in that area ? Please email us.

Anyone in Raleigh, NC ?

Let's go up one state:

Trish Taylor in Raleigh, NC is looking for other players and hopefully starting a club.

E-mail us and we will put you in touch!

Aiken, SC tournament

Atomic Boule Club sent us these nice souvenirs of their first tournament on May 21.
Impressive trophies!

First place: Catherine & P. Vo
Second place : Pierre & Edouard

Contact the club anytime at atomicbouleclub@hotmail.com

World Cup Qualifier - June 2 & 3

Richard "Ti" Meas, Khalid Mesbah and Hans Jepson (L to R), from La Boule NY won the tournament in Sonoma last Sunday and will represent the USA at the upcoming World Championships in Grenoble, Sept 20 to 24. For Ti this is the second year in a row.
Congratulations!

They beat Xavier Thibaud, Alec Stone Sweet (both also of La Boule NY) and PJ Mallette (VOMPC, Sonoma) 15 to 8 in the finals.


Third place went to Freddy Canesse (Sarasota PC), Juan Garcia (S. Florida PC) and Gilles Canesse. (Sarasota PC).


And below, Barbara Hall, President of Valley of the Moon Petanque Club who hosted the event, and John Rolland, President of Federation of Petanque USA.


Many thanks to Juan for the pictures!

Here is the website of the 42nd WC in Grenoble. They are in love with Flash and long intros so you need to be patient...

Petanque... priceless

A nice article appeared today about petanque on priceless.com - MasterCard's website about new trends and lifestyles. We're very happy they interviewed Mr Midwest Petanque, our dear friend Joe who knows how to explain petanque in a nutshell. He's done it a billion times, at last count.

The article links to our Clubs in the USA page. Any club or group that's not on the list as yet, do let us know. We'll even make a one page presentation for your club, with pleasure (and for free), like we did for Seattle, Boca and Menlo Park until they have their own website.
We cannot stress enough how important it is for groups/clubs to advertise when and where you get together so anyone can just drive by and have a look before deciding if petanque is something he or she would enjoy.

Thank you to the people of MasterCard.

Kids in Provence

Six 10-year olds enjoying a game.
The different typical playing styles, and mannerisms are already clearly visible.

American petanque in Provence (6)

A busy week!
I played with a delightful family from Colorado on an extensive holiday in Provence, and several groups of bikers and hikers. Close to 100 people in all.

What is it about this game? Wherever people come from, whatever their age or background, each time at least one in two gets into it really fast.
I have also noted that golfers are quick learners. They are used to judge distances, to develop a consistent swing and - essential when putting as well - to study the bumps and dimples in the terrain before playing.

Judging by the number of folks who asked me for details about building a court at home it was another good week for petanque in America.

Tools of the trade

Every profession has its tools.

The funniest part is when the teachers of my kids ask:
"What does your dad do for a living?"
"Il joue aux boules!"

That's how come every spring I lend several of these boules bags to the elementary school of our village. So they can train for the annual competition in June: elementary school vs the retirement home.
A wonderful concept the principal came up with, and I'll post a photo report when it happens.

American petanque in Provence (5)

Saturday evening.. a quiet side alley in St Rémy de Provence.
Don't be fooled by the peaceful demeanor at first sight. Here we were just warming up.
Minutes later the competition became fierce. The score went from 2/0 to 2/3, to 4/3, to 4/5, etc..
No time for more pictures: I even had to take out the compass to settle millimeter spreads!
The laughing and cheering was contagious. I'm sure the neighbors wondered what on earth was going on! An unforgettable evening.

St Supery, Napa Valley, CA

St. Supery Winery organized a first Petanque tournament during their wine club member “Spring Fling” on May 6th.

Sixty guests teamed up in threes to compete for, what else, wine prizes!
What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, isn't it?

www.stsupery.com

American petanque in Provence (4)

Last night I headed west to a beautiful chateau close to Avignon, to meet with a group from many different states, 14 eager players in all.
A bit of rain didn't stop the party: we just headed inside the 18th century "salons" - with chandeliers the size of hot air balloons - for a drink and a chat.
The front yard in this location has quite coarse gravel which worked wonders: as soon as the rain stopped we could play again: no muddy boules, no wiping hands.
For the petanque purists who will no doubt count the amount of boules on the picture: when teaching larger groups I bend the rules a bit and give each team 8, or even 10 boules. That way everyone gets to play.
Some of the participants from NY promised they would join us at BarTabac in Brooklyn on July 16. Vinnie, don't forget!

A new court in Santa Fe, NM

Our friend Lew thought it was high time to build his own terrain in his backyard in Santa Fe.

Here's his report and pictures.
Thanks a lot, Lew, for sharing these.

It took about 18 tons of crusher fines ($275), 5 hours of work with a bobcat ($325), and about $270 of pressure treated lumber, 4 by 4 and 4 by 6 all 8 feet in length.
I bought some pikes and nails and a battery driven drill for the 3/8 inch by 12 inch spikes. So altogether about $950, and two weekends.
We are having lots of fun, and of course I get to practice more. We have fun pick up games in the afternoon and evening.
At the moment it is a hard surface, with the balls having a long roll. As the small stones work their way to the top it will be different I am sure.

American petanque in Provence (3)

Another late afternoon of fun with young folks fom NY and NJ.

In the second picture, in the background, you can see one of Lance Armstrong's favorite hangouts, the Mont Ventoux.

American petanque in Provence (2)

I took another group of bikers to Maillane, a small village where the village petanque court is next to a quiet canal with a water wheel.
Ladies won 13 to 12 against the guys. No pics of us playing, but have a look at the improvised picnic!

American petanque in Provence (1)

The tourist season in Provence is in full swing.

This week I started with my annual petanque sessions. The first group was a lovely bunch of students from UK - University of Kentucky in Lexington KY. They caught on very fast and we had a lot of competitive fun. As you can see, some even rushed out of the shower to join in!

They promised they would look up the website of our friends at LSU for inspiration.
Anything we can do to get a college league going, we're on.