July 22, 2003

On the Ball

Petanque, the It Summer Game

With all due respect to beach volleyball and kadima pros, what is it with summer sports? Hoo-ha! Let’s run around in the sun and get even more hot and sweaty!

Um, no. Three cheers for sports that let you stand still.

Like petanque. Alternately known as boules or bocce, it’s the preferred afternoon pastime of old French and Italian men, a breed that knows the value of a game in which drinking through a match doesn’t impair your performance.

Here’s how it goes: Teams take turns tossing baseball-sized balls as close as possible to a smaller target ball (the cochonnet). Whoever gets the most balls closest wins. Knocking your opponents out of the way is a bonus. The playing field can be a backyard, a beach, or a long gravel driveway. Sounds incredibly easy, and it is. But generations of old guys have spent lifetimes mastering it.

Which is fine. That’s what lazy summer afternoons were designed for.

For more information, visit petanqueamerica.com. Get a swank petanque set online at vivre.com.