Petanque

The game of Petanque was first introduced in Gaul by the Romans and is one of France's most popular sports. The game is quite simple - a small ball (called the cochonnet) is thrown out onto a rectangular area, and then each team takes turns throwing larger metallic balls (called boules) in an effort to get as close to the cochonnet at possible. It reminds me a lot of shuffleboard, a game I used to love to play when I was a kid. Our students had the opportunity to practice their petanque skills this afternoon in the company of a few of their language partners. We found a lovely shaded Petanque course near the Garonne River and divided up into teams of three and four. If you're familiar with shuffleboard then it would not be a surprise to learn that one of the strategies in Petanque is to knock your opponents ball away from the cochonnet. That strategy didn't work so well for me, unfortunately, as every time I tried to knock my opponents ball away I ended up either hitting my own teammate's ball or nudging the opponent's ball even closer to the cochonnet. Most of the other students had much better success. After about an hour of play, most students left with their language partners for French conversation in a cafe.