Get one of the boules closer to the wooden ball called a cochonnet than the other team and your team wins. Discuss the result, then do it again. Drink some wine at the local café, and do it again. Everybody who has been to the South of France has seen the people playing pétanque in the parks and on the town squares. I spent hours watching the old men playing the game; admiring their skill at shooting or pointing.
But not only in France: Once I watched an elderly French man walk up to some Swedish students playing pétanque in Kungsträdgården in Stockholm asking to join their game. The confident youths invited him over almost patronizingly, however already the first round it became clear that youth and muscles were no match for skill. He kicked their asses, time and time again!
I took the photo above in the park they built where Les Halles used to be, on top of the shopping centre. No doubt immigrants from the South of France. ^_^
Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: SMC Pentax F1:4-5.6 35-80mm
