An ode to Pétanque: IES Abroad Excursions in Nice

If you can’t easily tell, I am an old soul at heart. If it was up to me, I would buy a flip phone, send only letters instead of emails*, and have the largest garden on this side of the alps. 

And in this crusade, I recently discovered a classic French pastime that is right up this alley, pétanque. The pretense of the game is simple and similar to boules, the game of who can throw large glass balls closest to a smaller ball that is thrown onto the court at the start of the game. 

The game itself is as melodramatic and drama filled as you can expect. What I adore about it is that it's both a game of skill, but also, for the new player, a game with a whole lot of luck in attempting to guess the physics of the game.

With the demographic of those who play this game is not those who study abroad, it is a pretty small, if not a non-existent Venn diagram. Well, mostly. A few weeks ago, my local IES Abroad center here in France took a small group of us out to an evening game of pétanque. This had to have been one of my favorite wholesome experiences in France, for its sheer humor and also fun. 

We were playing at the local pétanque club, being taught the skills of the trade by a delightful old gentleman. As we were learning the game and its ropes, the local Niçoise were also playing on their own courts.

But as we started playing, and the Niçoise finished up their games, one of my favorite memories occurred. Instead of all going to the club house or getting the tram, many of them finished their game, and then watched ours! For them I imagine, the sight must have been pure entertainment, a bunch of young Americans playing the French national pastime, very poorly. 

But even in spite of my lackluster skills (now the rest of the group…some were pretty good!), the part that I hold dear is that they started to cheer us on, and give us tips and tricks, all in French! So not only were we connecting with “the locals”, but also having an opportunity to practice our French in a very casual and calm way, full of laughter, suspense, as each team got closer to the magical 13 points, that means you won the game.

It got so tense (in a joking way) that the tape measure had to be pulled out to make some calls!

Surprise surprise, my team won. Just saying…expert pétanque player right here. 

Afterwards, we were treated to some potato chips and various soft drinks in their clubhouse, before all running our separate ways back to quickly make some dinner!

In all, this had to have been one of my favorite exercises. To be able to casually use my French in a low-stakes setting while getting to build more connections and friendships with the people in my cohort was a wonderful experience!

There’s also a pétanque concept store in Nice…I need to go there!

*As a joke, I wanted to mail in my thesis to my advisor to submit it, but I did run out of printer credits, and I was way too close to the deadline for comfortability. So while I am an old soul at heart, I still clearly have the time management skills of a college student.