What is Pétanque?

Pétanque is a form of boules where the goal is to throw metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (literally "piglet") or jack. The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat, in Provence, in southern France. The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass, sand or other surfaces.

How To Play

​1. Two people can play against each other or, if you there are more of you, decide on two teams of two or three people in each. In these notes ‘team’ means teams of one, two or three people.

2. Each player chooses a matching pair of boules.

3. Toss a coin to see which team goes first.

4. First team marks a starting circle.

5. First player stands in the starting circle and throws the jack (or ‘cochonnet’).

6. First player throws a boule, attempting to land it as close as possible to the jack. (This is known as having the ‘best boule’.)

7. The opposition throw next, and continue to throw their boules until they take the lead by getting ‘best boule’. Whenever a team takes the lead play moves to the other team. As well as trying to get closest to the jack, players may try to knock opposition team boules away from the jack. Once a team has used all its boules the other side goes on to throw the rest of its boules.

8. Count the points when all the boules have been thrown. The team that has the boule closest to the jack wins the round. They also get a point for each boule that is closer to the jack than their opponent’s closest boule. Only one team scores each round.

9. The winner of the round begins the next round. The starting circle is drawn around the final position of the jack. The winning team selects a player to toss the jack and throw the first boule.

10.The winner of the game is the first team to get 13 points..