Petanque & Party time in NY

Tribeca - July 12
Brooklyn - July 15 - 10th anniversary!

There ain't nothing like a huge petanque street party:

Boules, beach, music & fun ....

We highlighted this video years ago, and it remains the quintessential depiction of having a good times with boules. And so close to the atmosphere we enjoy in Amelia Island!
Now on YouTube, without annoying advertising, the fabulous group "Message", zouk music from Guadeloupe:

PA Open 2012 - Teams

Latest update on where the teams come from this year:

May 10: 20 teams - 8 states & France
May 29: 40 teams - 11 states & also Belgium
June 15: 50 teams - incl. a team from the Netherlands
July 22:  62 teams - 16 states
Aug 10: 72 teams - 18 states and 3 teams from Canada.
Sep 4:    87 teams - 19 states, and Slovakia.
Sep 9:    92 teams - one from Germany
Oct 14: 117 teams - also from Israel and Mexico!

Petanque America Open 2012

Redwood Empire Boules Club

They've been around for years ... , and now also on the net.
With 6 play locations in the NW tip of California.

Petanque in Augusta, Maine

Tall ships & petanque - April 29, 2012

Two French Navy schooners are on the way from Brest to Fernandina Beach (Amelia Island) for a weekend of R&R before heading to Jacksonville, Savannah, Annapolis, Philly and New York: sister ships L'Etoile and La Belle Poule ("the Star" and "the Pretty Hen").

We'll welcome the sailors with open arms. And treat them to a wonderful petanque tournament / festival along the river. What better way to celebrate friendship. May the best win!

Video clip of l'Etoile's visit to Cannes and Monaco last summer. Gives you a pretty good idea of the atmosphere on board:



The ships are here to celebrate the 450th anniversary of French Captain Jean Ribault's arrival in Florida in 1562.

Fernandina Beach events
Jacksonville events

Petanque in Santa Monica

Right at the beach, in one of the busiest spots of California's coast. Kudos to Mark Greenberg and his friends of the Los Angeles Petanque Club.
We can never stress it enough: to Promote Petanque, Play in Public Places!

Interview with Marco Foyot

"Admired by many, hated by others, but passionately observed and followed by all..."

Thus starts an in depth interview with champion Foyot at Boulistenaute.com, right after he returned to France after winning the Petanque America Open.

Original article in French

English translation by Google

Noteworthy passages:

- the Canadian players he met in Amelia Island have invited him for a tour in Canada.

- "in Florida I barely won from a Russian team that played extremely well."

(meaning our friends Artem & Paul!)

Fresno Petanque on ABC

Open 2011 Results

Here they are. As always, we like to spread it out, so almost one in 4 teams goes home with something. Amounts this year ranged from $1,000 to $50 , for a total purse of $7,500.

M6 in New York

M6, one of France's major private TV channels made an extensive (4 min. is long in TV world!) report about petanque in New York.
Sorry - no English subtitles, but very nice camera work, and a lot of familiar faces!
And preceded by a funny French commercial :)

(if you get a black screen, follow this M6 link)

St Tropez -1958

Sophia Loren & Carlo Ponti, having fun playing petanque:




Just like Elke Sommer and Robert Mitchum. Timeless!

PA Open 2011 - Teams update

Sep 19:
Registration is closed for now. You can email us to go on the waiting list, in case a team cancels.

Sep 12: 127 teams, and one more state (WV).

Registration will be closed any day, and we'll open a waiting list.

Sep 9: 118 teams, one more state (OR) ànd at least two players flying in from France.

Sep 3: 106 teams, one more state (CO) ànd a team from Belgium.

Aug 29: 97 teams, two more states (NM & IL).

Aug 23: 85 teams, one more state (PA) and two teams from the Netherlands.

Aug 22: 10 more registrations today, and one more state, New Hampshire.

Aug 21: with almost 3 months to go, 72 teams have formally signed up, from 13 states. And from Canada, Germany and Israel. At this pace, we will easily reach the target of 128 teams by end September.

Petanque, a people connector

Here's a short interview of Matt Curtis, Communications Director for the City of Austin, TX. He plays with our friends of HOT Petanque. I've watched it several times and find it striking how he conveys the essence of the game in roughly 90 seconds. No wonder he's in communications!

La Boule NY on France3 TV

Ernesto, Steve & Yngve from La Boule NY were interviewed today on French television, during their second game at La Marseillaise.

Petanque America Open - 2010

Wonderful souvenirs ... Let's get ready for 2011!
A 5 min. cut of the 30 min. documentary DVD by our friends at UBK Studios.
Watch in full screen mode to feel like you were there :)



Petanque America Open 2011

Petanque in Saratoga, CA

"What is petanque?" wonder people in the street.
They will soon find out, thanks to Devin Utter's passion for the game.

Open 2011 - Registration

Teams can now register, at
www.petanque-america-open.com

Paris at night - Place Dauphine

Just a bunch of friends who, after work, had drinks and/or dinner and decided to do a quick game before calling it a night. Below you see the same Place Dauphine on a sunny afternoon.

Louis de Funès - Petanque picnic

From the classic 1964 movie, Le Gendarme de St Tropez.
Gendarme Cruchot (de Funès) wants to impress his new boss, sergeant major Gerber (Michel Galabru) during a petanque party with his deputies. As usual, it backfires.
Besides being funny as hell, it depicts so well how petanque can - and should - be played anywhere. A Sunday afternoon picnic in the woods? Bring out the boules.

NYPC - New website

New York Petanque Club has a new website. With beautiful graphics!

And together with La Boule New Yorkaise, they started a new initiative:
Player Rankings for the season.

An excellent idea, taking into account the results of your matches, wherever they're played.

Petanque TV

Markus Viktorsson in Kristianstad, Sweden, has launched an internet TV channel, called Petanque Exclusive.

They travel to major tournaments in Europe, so you can see them live, but have also accumulated footage from old championships that are worth watching. An archive, so to speak.

Membership is 36€ / year (abt U$52).

You can see some trailers for free, at Petanque Exclusive.

We wish him luck with this new initiative!

UPDATE 2011-05-07: Please read the review in the comments below.

Shoppers from Canada

This is the time of year when thousands of snowbirds drive back home from their winter in Florida. We sent out flyers to RV resorts to alert them that Amelia Island is only minutes from I-95 and thus a convenient stop to shop for new boules, ànd discover a place they usually speed by.

These past weeks we've welcomed visitors from various northern states and Canada, in all sorts of vehicles. This one, driven by Gilles and his wife Sophie broke the record: a Freightliner truck with a 38 ft trailer!

Lovely people, and very happy with their new petanque gear. Cheaper than in Canada, by the way :)

Boules collection

Rainer and Meike in Lauenau (just west of Hannover, Germany) have, over the years, gathered what is probably the most complete collection of boules ever made or available today.

The list starts with the group "Antique Boules" followed by the 20 different brands. Impressive!