Come and join Alliance Française de Bristol for the annual pétanque tournament!

This will be the 3rd year that we invite students taking French lessons with us and their friends and anyone who wishes to join for a friendly tournoi de boules ou de pétanque.
Boules started to be played regularly at the beginning of the 20th century in La Ciotat, near Marseille.
There were three teams ( trois équipes) and the distance was between 10 and 15 meters from the thrower to the goal. The player throwing la boule ( le tireur), had to jump three times before throwing. An elderly player had rhumatism and could not jump anymore, he felt rather left out. To involve him in the game, it was suggested that he could throw with both feet together, pèd tanco in provençal or tanqués, inside a circle, and within 5 or 6 meters from the goal ( le but, which is a little wooden ball called le cochonnet). Pèd tanco gave the name la pétanque.
These explanations come from the French magazine Bien Dire.
You can read about the rules of la pétanque in last year's blog, for more info...
If you wish to take up the game, here is what the world champion of pétanque, Dylan Rocher, recommends:
A lot of concentration ( beaucoup de concentration), calm ( de calme), skill ( d'adresse) and training ( d'entraînement).
Don't worry, it won't be so demanding if you join us on Saturday, 6th September at 4.30pm, for more info...

If you wish to enrol for one of our French classes, for any level, either with Alliance française de Bristol or Bath you can come and chat to us on Saturday, 6th September as our lessons are starting soon, for more info...