Boules

There is one thing I’ve never talked about in any my blogs on France & that is boules. In some parts of the country it is known as “pétanque”. I think every town, every village, every city has its ground for playing. We have spent many hours watching various games. The Fox has even had a go at playing, though, in his case, it was more fooling around.

Apart from the boules (bowls) all that is needed is an area of flattish hard pressed ground. It’s not often you don’t see someone playing. It seems to appeal more to the older people & men but that maybe the case that they have more time to spare to play during the day which is when we tend to watch.

 

At St-Paul-de-Vence

At Juan-les-Pins

On this holiday we watched in St-Paul-de-Vence - the restaurant we lunched at was next to the pétanque ground - & at Juan-les-Pins. It was at Cannes I first noticed the nifty device, a magnet tied on to a long string, which some players use to pick up their boules. It was at Cajarc that I first watched for any length of time and observed some of the strategy employed by the players. 

Cannes. You can just about see the string across the leg of the man to the left of the man in hte striped shirt

The aim of the game is to get the boules as near to the jack, a ball about the size of a large marble. This can be done by either aiming towards the jack or by aiming to hit the opponent’s boule away from the jack so you are nearer, or even by pushing the jack along nearer your other boules.

It makes for a very pleasant way of passing the time, sitting in the sun.