Pétanque (, ; ; ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports (along with raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls, and crown green bowling). In these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls towards a target ball.
In pétanque, the objective is to score points by positioning one's boules closer to the target ball than those of the opponent after all boules have been thrown. This is achieved by throwing or rolling boules closer to the small target ball, officially called a jack (), or by hitting the opponents' boules away from the target, while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground. The game is normally and best played on hard dirt or gravel. It can be played in public areas in parks or in dedicated facilities called boulodromes.
The current form of the game was codified in 1907 or 1910 in La Ciotat, in Provence, France. The French name pétanque (borrowed into English, with or without the acute accent) comes from petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pè tancat , meaning 'foot fixed' or 'foot planted' (on the ground).
History
Invention of the game
thumb|Boules players on the Champs-Élysées around 1840
Boules games have a very long history, dating back through the Middle Ages to ancient Rome, and before that to ancient Greece.
thumb|Boules player, by [[Paul Gavarni|Paul Gavarny, 1858]]
In France in the second half of the 19th century, a form of boules known as jeu provençal or boule lyonnaise was extremely popular. Players rolled their boules or ran three steps in this game before throwing one. Pétanque originally developed as an offshoot or variant of jeu provençal in 1910, in what is now called the Jules Lenoir Boulodrome in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles.
Jules Lenoir, a former jeu provençal player, suffered from such severe rheumatism that he could no longer run before throwing a boule and could scarcely stand. A good friend named Ernest Pitiot was a local café owner. To accommodate his friend Lenoir, Pitiot developed a variant form of the game in which the length of the pitch or field was reduced by roughly half, and a player, instead of running to throw a boule, stood, stationary, in a circle. They called the game pieds tanqués, "feet planted" (on the ground), a name that eventually evolved into the game's current name, pétanque.
The first pétanque tournament was organized by Ernest Pitiot and his brother Joseph Pitiot, in 1910 in La Ciotat. The game spread quickly and soon became France's most popular form of boules.
thumb|right|Pétanque players in [[Cannes]]
Before the mid-1800s, European boules games were played with solid wooden balls, usually made from boxwood root, a very hard wood. The late 1800s saw the introduction of cheap mass-manufactured nails, and wooden boules gradually began to be covered with nails, producing boules cloutées ("nailed boules").
After World War I, round shot manufacturing technology was adapted to allow the manufacture of hollow, all-metal boules. Paul Courtieu introduced the first all-metal boule, la Boule Intégrale, in the mid-1920s. The Intégrale was cast in a single piece from a bronze-aluminum alloy. Shortly thereafter, Jean Blanc invented a process of manufacturing steel boules by stamping two steel blanks into hemispheres and then welding the two hemispheres together to create a boule. With this technological advance, hollow all-metal balls rapidly became the norm.
Global spread of the game
upright|Pétanque being played indoors at an IBA reunion in [[Rotterdam, the Netherlands|alt=|thumb]]
After the development of the all-metal boule, pétanque spread rapidly from Provence to the rest of France, then to the rest of Europe, and then to Francophone colonies and countries around the globe. Today, many countries have their own national governing bodies.
In France, the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP) has over 300,000 licensed members.
There are strong national federations in Germany, Spain and England. Pétanque is actively played in many nations with histories of French colonial influence, especially in Southeast Asia, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Puducherry in India, as well as some parts of Africa including Madagascar.
Pétanque was featured at the 2015 All-Africa Games hosted by the Republic of the Congo, a former French colony.
Pétanque is not widely played in the Americas. There is a Canadian pétanque federation based in Québec. In the United States, the Federation of Pétanque USA (FPUSA) reports that about 30,000 play nationwide. As of 1 December 2015, FPUSA counted 2,141 members in the US, in 52 affiliated clubs.
On the international level, the governing body of pétanque is the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP). It was founded in 1958 in Marseille and has almost 800,000 members .
National and international competitions
thumb|Pétanque at the [[2019 Southeast Asian Games]]
There are a number of important world championship tournaments.
The FIPJP world championships take place every two years. Men's championships are held in even-numbered years, while Women's and Youth championships are held in odd-numbered years.
Perhaps the best-known international championship is the Mondial la Marseillaise à Pétanque, which takes place every year in Marseille, France, with more than 10,000 participants and more than 150,000 spectators.
The largest annual tournament in the United States is the Pétanque Amelia Island Open (formerly the Pétanque America Open), held in each year in November at Amelia Island, Florida.
Pétanque is not currently an Olympic sport, although the Confédération Mondiale des Sports de Boules—which was created in 1985 by several international boules organizations specifically for this purpose—has been lobbying the Olympic committee since 1985 to make it part of the Olympic Games. Pétanque has appeared in every edition of The World Games from 1985 onward. The 2022 World Games in the United States included women’s pétanque, the first time that only women's events were held as part of the boules sports programme at The World Games.
Playing the game
Based on the rules of the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque & Jeu Provençal.
Jack
The jack, or target ball, is a small ball made of wood, traditionally boxwood or beechwood, in diameter. In the past, jacks were often left "natural"—unfinished or with a clear finish—but nowadays they are often painted in bright colours. In French, the jack is known by a variety of names, including but (goal or target), cochonnet (piglet), bouchon ("little ball" in Provençal language, not related to the French word "bouchon" that designates a bung), le petit (the little one), and gari ("rat", also in Provençal language).
Playing area
Pétanque can be played on almost any flat, open space. The ground may be irregular and interrupted by trees or rocks, and the surface is likely to be uneven, with some areas hard and smooth and other areas rough and stony. When an area is constructed specifically for the purposes of playing pétanque, the playing surface is typically loose gravel, decomposed granite, brick grog or crushed sea shell. Sandy beaches are not suitable, although light plastic boules are sometimes used to adapt the game for the beach. There is no requirement for backboards or sideboards (as in bocce), but dedicated playing areas are often enclosed in boards or some other structural barrier.
In France, village squares and park pathways are often used as pétanque playing areas. In addition, many towns have recreational facilities (boulodromes) constructed specifically for playing pétanque.
An area where a single pétanque game is played is called a terrain. A "playing area" (aire de jeu) is an area containing one or more terrains. For tournaments, a large playing area is subdivided and marked off (typically using nails and string) into rectangular marked terrains (also known as "lanes" (cadres) or "pistes") so that multiple games may be carried on simultaneously. For tournament play, a marked terrain is a rectangle at least wide and long.
- mène. "End" i.e. the period of play from the throw of a jack to the point when both teams have played all their boules.
- pousette. A shot that pushes one's team's boules nearer the jack; or to that pushes the jack.