Amelia Island Boules - week night

Saturday morning games are still as successful as ever, but... it's getting hot! So we tried out an alternative for those who are either busy on the weekend or don't like bright sunshine: Wednesday evening games, 6 to 8pm.

18 players joined in for the first test and had a ball.
One thing's for sure: you can't beat the sunset view!

Chanel boules in St Tropez - # 3

Further to my earlier posts, here you see the boules (and the legs ;-) in action:

Same game, different world ...

Every day you can find links to photo albums from all around the world, including pictures about petanque. These two showed up today and depict - better than words - how universal our favorite game is.

Tamatave, Madagascar: album link:

Osterley, Greater London, UK: album link

Int'l NYPC Open - June 19 / 20

The format has been changed, from triples to DOUBLES.

Click on the flyer for the latest updates ---->

FIPJP's new website

What a nice surprise!
This past weekend FIPJP has revamped their website with a brand new look.

The new webmaster is Karel Dohnal of the Czech Petanque Federation, and also a member of FIPJP's board.
Bravo & congratulations.

www.fipjp.com

Petanque in Old Orchard Beach

The Town of Old Orchard Beach in Maine just completed a nice 40' x 50' play area. Sufficient for up to 5 concurrent games.

Downtown, right in front of the Amtrak terminal, with the gazebo for shade, and the little light house for inspiration!

Our friend Al, who discovered petanque while wintering in Bonita Springs Florida, was the driving force behind this development and will be there to teach new players.

Old Orchard Beach is another marker on the Petanque in the USA map.

Chanel boules in St Tropez - # 2

It must have been quite a party, because pictures are popping up all over the net!
As always: people - whoever they are - love simple, unsophisticated entertainment.

Chanel boules in St Tropez

On Monday, white-ponytailed fashion guru Karl Lagerfeld invited friends for a petanque contest on the Place des Lices. Models & celebs from all over played games together and from the smiles it seems they enjoyed it.
On the left you see Diane Kruger cheering (with seemingly endless legs).
Vanessa Paradis (with the red jacket) is very familiar with pétanque because her partner Johnny Depp is known to hang out at the boulodrome in Plan-de-la-Tour when in town.



Plenty more pictures here:
10Magazine.com
GraziaDaily.co.uk
Fabsugar.co.uk

Thanks Mr Lagerfeld for bringing those folks out to the ball game!

Place des Lices is a dream to hang out for hours: play a few games, eat on a terrace and have a drink. In whatever order you like, anytime, any day of the week, year round.

Petanque America Open 2010

Mark your calendars

November 12, 13 & 14 - 2010

Friday: training & clinics
Saturday & Sunday: tournament

Details to follow soon.

Amelia Island expects you (again)!

Indoor petanque in Hong Kong

A brand new indoor basement pétanque bar & café.

Les Boules Café Pétanque

From a report in
HK Magazine:
Probably the world’s first (and certainly Hong Kong’s only) indoor basement pétanque bar, the ubiquitous metal ball-throwing game you see men playing everywhere in the South of France.
The revolutionary brainchild of Gecko’s Christophe and Eric Masson of the Hong Kong Pétanque Club on Lamma, Les Boules sits on a quiet street in Shek Tong Tsui. Venture down the staircase and it brings you to an unexpectedly cavernous subterranean realm that’s as bright as a fine summer’s day in Provence, with chanson and French electro lounge pop blaring from the speakers.
There are three sand-topped lanes and two smaller trainer lanes. Balls are there for rental, but you can also buy your own, with chic accessories like a bag for your boules or a handy magnetic ball retriever. There’s also board games such as Monopoly Bretagne and French Tarot (a card game, not for divinatory purposes). And s’il vous plaît, don’t be snobby and ask for fancy cocktails and dry martinis—this is pétanque and it’s all about pastis and draught beers.

Petanque in the Bay Area

Geoff and his friends started up their monthly "Pastis & Petanque " meetups again at Flood Park in Menlo Park. Next one on May 23.
From the photos on their MeetUp page, it is obvious they're having a good time!

Petanque in Arles Arkansas

Doesn't this look like your typical backyard in Provence?

Except that it's the garden of a vacation home in the beautiful Ozark mountains in North Arkansas!

And I'm very grateful to the owner (who ordered boules from us some years ago), because today I got a call from a lady who recently rented the house, wondered what this game was all about and ended up playing hours every day. Boules are now on the way to Kansas as well.

So if you're looking for a gorgeous, peaceful vacation home on a lake, for up to 15 guests, with a petanque court, this is it!

Palm Desert Spring Tournament

Ken of La Petanque Marinière made a nice slideshow of last weekend's tournament in Palm Desert CA.

Brand new courts, great setting!
And cute uniforms :-)

Slideshow (48 pics)

Boule Bleue designs

If you want boules that totally stick out by their design, La Boule Bleue beats the pack. This is their # 4 reference.
And below you see two more, of a total of 31 groove designs they can make.

La Boule Bleue designs

Granted - they're not cheap, but oh so pretty!

Yannick Noah

This interview with the French tennis star and singer starts off with a VERY short segment where he plays pétanque. The rest is banter about French Tennis Federation president Jean Gachassin and joking around with ex OM soccer player Basile Boli.
At least now we know that Noah plays pétanque on Sundays.

RICARD / NYPC Open

Next week Sunday, May 2nd.

Select Triples, at the NYPC in Brooklyn.

<----- click on the poster.

Petanque in Holland (or is it?)

The Dutch petanque federation has a new website. With close to 19,000 registered members Holland is the fourth most active petanque country. Well organized, and constantly growing.
NJBB stands for 'Netherlands Jeu de Boules Bond', as the term "jeu de boules" is still more common in Holland than "petanque". Then again, the Dutch are used to adopting foreign words into their own daily lingo: such as "überhaupt", "sowieso", "meeting", "single", "tireren" or "portefeuille"...

But what struck me right away is the photo on their front page:

That's the sign of Lamorinda Petanque in Lafayette, California, and I took that picture when I visited them two years ago!

I honestly can't blame them for borrowing it. Lafayette does indeed have one of the most appealing public play areas in the US the world. And I bet Mary will be proud when she sees it!

Here's my report from May 2008.

Update June 2:
The photo has been changed to a more typical Dutch scene.

No boules today!

Over the past years, we've worked out a pretty neat system whereby almost every week we fly in boules from various manufacturers - leaving Europe on Friday, to arrive here on Monday.
No such luck this weekend as our shipment is still sitting at the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany - for obvious reasons...

Update 4/21/10
The shipment just arrived in Louisville KY!

Home court in Ilinois

Thom in Hanover Park IL (NW of Chicago) built a beauty!
It has all the "accoutrements" (a long French word for 'stuff') to make it a winner: attractive landscaping, lighting for evening games, a shed with a stocked fridge, and a patio with chairs, table and BBQ.

Thom is also an accomplished craftsman who supplies us with one-of-a-kind accessories like the wooden boule lifters.
Needless to say, he's got the right petanque spirit!

Amelia Island Petanque

Today our little group broke previous records with pickup games on the riverfront.
43 islanders came out to play, or to try it for the first time, or just watch and make new friends. The age range was from 5 to ... 89.
Out of the 43, there are only 6 or 7 who were familiar with petanque five months ago. And yet they (yours truly included) are not necessarily the best players!

Below is a very short clip that depicts the joyful atmosphere better than words:

Boulodr'homes

It's been a while since I posted home court pics, so let's start catching up.

Ken in San Rafael CA had been dreaming of his own court for years, but there was a major problem. His backyard is hardly accessible from the street, and abuts public land in the back. So how do you clean up and get the crushed stone where you want it??

Until the local public works department had to rearrange utility lines, dig up and build a new retaining wall on the property next door! The guys were very understanding and helped him out.
Below you see the different stages, with a beautiful end result.

Dallas petanque in the news

This was just before winter (and during our blog hiatus), but certainly still worth a read.

The Dallas Morning News did quite a feature on Bill & his friends in Dallas TX, at the occasion of their Fall Tournament. Bill has been a mainstay of pétanque in the Dallas area for many years. And he never gave up, even when only 2 or 3 players showed up for games.

Dallas News - Nov 4, 2009
Slide show with players' comments

La Boule NY - Newsletter

LBNY just published their Spring Newsletter. After a seemingly endless winter, high time for some sunny news!

<--- click on the logo

Austin petanque in the press

Photo credit: Larry Kolvoord/American Statesman

Heart of Texas Petanque Club was featured extensively by the Statesman.
Perfect timing: the first day of spring, and a week before their big tournament.

Statesman - March 20, 2010

Juan from Miami also filed a report about the HOT Open.