Petanque pretensions..

Right from the first week I landed in France, I was introduced to this hitherto unheard game called petanque. Now I wonder why did the French keep it to themselves, unlike the English who went about pitching 3 stumps and playing cricket in whichever corner of the world they went .

The best part of the game is that anybody with functioning semi-circular canals in their ears (balance organs), and a reasonable grasp of the simple notions of 3 dimensional space around them, relative velocity, law of conservation of linear momentum, the variation of accelaration due to gravity with respect to altitude, and the coefficient of friction of surfaces can pick up the game in no time. ( whew !!)

To describe the same in English, you need to throw boulles (balls) made of solid metal very close to a tiny plastic ball called cochonnet ( pig ball:)
--now it sounds like my kinda game !

Readers are not to confuse this with the ancient Indian strategy games of gilli and goli.

Then come the specific roles of pointers and shooters in the team roughly doing the jobs of arranging and deranging the boulles. But however careful and calculated you are in your launches, the little stones in the mud track, and the slope of the field, and grass if any can alter the best throws. This adds an element of uncertainty for good players, and a ray of hope for bad players!!

The game is to be played with gentlemanly spirit, and all conflicts related to deciding whose boulle is closer to the cochonnet are to be resolved with peaceful measuring devices like dried grass, strings drawn from your opponents t-shirt, or vernier callipers. The players are strongly discouraged from using the metal balls as ballistic objects during an argument or practicing shotput at the opponent teams best pointer.

One can easily imagine a setting where Asterix and Obelisk playing this game in ancient Gaul. So the French guys seem to have petanque in their blood. But people who spent their childhood playing underarm bowling while playing cricket in the extremely confined spaces (bedroom, corridor etc) have a good advantage to start with. Those who love bowling in alleys may not like the mud, dirt that accumulates in the special shoes they use.

To know more about the game, do not expect me to add some useful links, but please go ahead and search it out in google !