Lamorinda Pétanque Club

What is pétanque?

Pétanque is fun!

Pétanque is a fun game that brings together people of all ages. It is played with metal balls (boules in French, bocce in Italian). Playing with balls started during the Roman conquest of Gaule. The balls were made out of clay, then wood, and finally steel. The first official club was in the "Clos Jouve" in Lyon around 1850. The Pétanque derivative was created by Jules Lenoir in La Ciotat, near Marseille, France in 1907. Jules, who suffered from rheumatisms, drew a circle and played with "pé tanca", which means feet anchored to the ground in the occitan language. Petanque now has over 10 million players worldwide in 160 countries; over 2000 players are licensed in the USA.

Boule Game in 1850

Cafe Clos Jouve today

Boule Statue in Clos Jouve

How to play basics

Pétanque is played in two teams with two sets of differently marked balls (boules). You can play in teams of two (3 boules each); three (2 each) or one against one (3 each).

Draw a circle on the ground 50cm in diameter.
A player from team one stands in the circle and throws the jack (the small target ball) to land 20 to 33 feet from the circle, 3 feet away from any obstacle. Team one throws a first ball as close as possible to the jack, this is called pointing.
A player from team two tries to get a ball closer and take the point. If successful the play returns to team one. If not, they continue to throw until they do.
The team that does not have the point plays until either they get closer or they run out of balls. The other team then throws the rest of their balls.
The team closest to the jack gets a point for each of their balls closer to the jack than the closest ball of the other team.
The team that scored draws a new circle round the jack and throws it to start the next round.

Play ends when one team reaches 13 points.

The Official FPUSA rules can be found here

Sportsman-like behavior is expected

Basic petanque techniques are illustrated here

Training Manual