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Video length: 4 mins.
The French passion for petanque was born more than 100 years ago, near Marseille. This must-have summer game brings together all generations.
In Provence, petanque is a way of life. The history of petanque begins in La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône), in 1910. Jules Lenoir, an expert in Provençal games, suffers from paralyzing rheumatism and can no longer run before shooting. Friends, sensitive to his suffering, offered him to play sitting down. “He said, no, boules are played standing up. (…) My grandfather decides to draw a circle around Jules Lenoir’s chair, and this circle will become the symbol of all petanque games”says Martine Pilate, granddaughter of Joseph Pitiot, the inventor of petanque.
A game accessible to all
Soon, all of France got caught up in the game. From camping to the beach, petanque unites and brings together all generations. Formerly an emblematic holiday pastime, pétanque is now offered to amateurs in restaurants, or open-air bowling alleys, as in Paris.
Accessible to all, the game has been democratized in particular by the technological evolution of balls. Initially, players used studded wooden balls, before the arrival in 1929 of the integral steel ball. Obut, which arrived in 1955, is today the world leader, with 2 million boules sold per year. Today, petanque has become a high-level sport. The world in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) brought together, in early July, 14,000 bowlers from all over the world.