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".

Bryant Park in the rain

Last weekend were the FPUSA National Doublette championships in NY.
Notwithstanding the pouring rain they kept going and going until dark.

The end results:
1st: Hery Rakotoarivony, Eric Bertin
2rd: Christophe Chambers, Ernesto Santos
3rd: Yngve Biltsted, Franck Petronio
4th: Hans Jepson, Richard "Ti" Meas
Consolante: Franck Labasse, Steve Ginsberg

Thanks to Brian Walsh for the pics, and Ernesto Santos for the info.

Apparently this years Coupe des Amériques in Manhattan on Oct 7 & 8 is shaping up to be a big event. Lots of Canadians are expected!
Further info on labouleny.com

Petanque on Catalina Island, CA

This awesome court is at Moonstone Cove, in the facilities of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

Sun, ocean breeze, palm trees, the surf and ... petanque: hard to beat!

Petanque for all ages

Some time ago I mentioned how in our village in Provence the kids of the elementary school get together with the folks of the retirement home - "la maison de retraite" - for a boules tournament.

No fancy setup: the walkways around the home work just fine.

The older generation is always eager to share tips and tell the young ones why they're going to point or shoot.

Although score is kept, it's almost irrelevant. The main purpose is to have a fun morning, to mix 10-year olds with 80-year olds in an activity where everyone is on equal footing. In good provençal tradition, all the teams had lunch together, another opportunity for swapping stories!

Needless to say, it helps that the school is walking distance from the retirement home, that some of the residents of the home still have their own rusted, dented boules from days gone by, and that everyone knows the game, but still - I think it's a brilliant concept that can be duplicated in other countries.

42nd World Championships

Close to 50 countries are expected on September 20 in Grenoble, a beautiful city at the foot of the Alps.

Novelty this year: the World Ladies tournament will be held concurrently.

The championship website is once again a labyrinth with tons of needless Flash presentations...

A quick glance at the US teams:

Hans, Richard, Khalid and Alec are all from La Boule NY.
Our Ladies team is an East & West Coast mix:
Josse Krauer is from La Boule d'Or (SF), Antonia Chavez & Erin McTaggart are from VOMPC in Sonoma, and Marieke Rolland from Boca Petanque 2000 in Florida.

Last June, the Sonoma Valley Sun dedicated a cover story to Antonia's petanque and chocolate making skills.

We wish them all good luck on the courts !

Petanque in Margate, Florida

Here's a message from Jose in Margate, close to Fort Lauderdale:

Hi:
If interested in watching a bunch of old f*rts playing petanque, visit our website and click on the "Sports and Games" tab: www.coralcayplantation.com.
Thanks!.

Either I'm an old f*rt myself, or I need new glasses. All I can see is experienced folks playing a hell of a game!

How I started playing petanque

A story from Lloyd in L.A.:

OK, the way I found out about petanque: Sometime in the early 80’s.
I was flipping around on the TV channels and came across a movie called: “Once in Paris”. It starred Wayne Rogers of TV’s “MASH” fame. He’s an American screenwriter. Hired to re-write/fix a French Screenplay, he is picked up by a frenchman who becomes his driver. On the way to the studio, his driver asks him if it’s ok to stop and play Petanque...and the rest is history...
I fell in love with the game....

Thanks, Lloyd! Anyone else?

Summer in Bryant Park

It's become almost a tradition that some of us, after the Brooklyn tournament, go to Bryant Park in Manhattan on Monday morning to unwind and play a few games before flying back home.
What a beautiful place. Bystanders watch and wonder. Some join in, some come back and become regulars.
If not for the skyscrapers, the yellow cabs and the array of wireless laptops you'd think you're in a southern French city - say Aix or Avignon.
Frederic Bourret sent us these nice souvenirs below. Especially with the delay of most digital cameras it's not always easy to catch a boule "in flight".

Building a court

Many visitors land on this blog while searching for tips on how to build a court.
The best resource so far is on Petanque.org: here's the direct link to their building archives. You'll see some examples, in different locations. The above picture is of a gorgeous court in Hollywood, CA.

Make sure to read Ray Ager's post of Sept 2002, titled "A campaign for real petanque terrains". He is absolutely right that a plain rectangle with a smooth surface is not a must. An irregular shape, fitting in your natural surroundings, with some trees, bumps and dimples here and there is more natural, more challenging, and improves your skills. That's also why he uses the term "terrain", as opposed to "court".
Of course, everything depends on the space you have available.

The simplest way to start is by asking your local building materials supplier, quarry or contractor how they build a crushed stone driveway in your area. Stone types may differ from state to state, but the principle remains the same: if a car can drive on it, and the top layer is a mix from fine particles up to 1/4 inch, it works perfectly for petanque. In some places that's called "1/4 inch minus" or simply "screenings". The typical term in Provence is "clapicette", or "du zéro/six" meaning anything between 0 and 6 mm: same thing.
And don't forget to start with a weed barrier. It's cheap and will save you hours of pulling weeds.

Petanque in Palm Springs, CA

Unheard of until recently - except at Club Meds, where petanque is standard fare - luxury resorts in the US are starting to include petanque as yet another way to entertain their guests.
Excellent idea!
Here's an example at the posh Parker Palm Springs Resort & Spa.
Click on "Play" and you'll see petanque right between, and 'on par' (couldn't help it) with golf and tennis. After you open the petanque screen concentrate on the picture. Saw it?

Very nice, and kudos to whoever wrote the rules: they're brief, clear, and very funny!

Brussels has the biggest boules

A couple of weeks ago I was in Brussels, Belgium and visited the completely refurbished Atomium. It was the landmark of Brussels' 1958 World Fair. Incidentally that was the last time I had seen it up close. Oops!

Impressive, to say the least.
Nine boules, 59 ft in diameter each, symbolising a crystal molecule of metal by the scale of its atoms, magnified 165 billion times.

Numerous celebrities were there in 1958, such as Liz Taylor.
Suddenly I saw what looked like a petanque video. Nope: old footage of one of the creators showing the clay model balls...

The tubes connecting the boules have eerie, kind of "Star Wars" lighting.
Next door is "Old Brussels", also a remnant of the '58 Expo, a vibrant collection of bars and restaurants. Needless to say, we sat there for a good while to recover from the walk. Also saw that Chez Léon, they now serve mussels with ... pastis?? Thanks but no, thanks. I'd rather have the pastis first, and Belgian beer with the mussels!