Frequently asked questions about pétanque

Pétanque is a boules game born in the south of France in 1907, at La Ciotat. Players throw steel boules as close as they can to a small wooden target called the jack. At the end of each round, the team whose boule sits closest scores one point for every boule placed better than the opponent’s best one.

It is played on almost any flat surface: gravel, packed dirt, a park path. The throw is made with both feet together and still inside a circle, which sets pétanque apart from other boules games and gave it its name, pès tancats, feet planted. The longer version of the story sits on what pétanque is.

Two neighboring games, two origins. Bocce comes from Italy and is played on a long, narrow, built court, with its own dimensions and its own scoring. Pétanque comes from Provence and needs no fixed court at all.

The throw is where they part company. In pétanque both feet stay on the ground inside a circle of 35 to 50 cm until the boule lands. In bocce the player may run up. The balls differ too: 70.5 to 80 mm of steel in pétanque, against noticeably larger balls in bocce.

A game to 13 points between two doubles teams runs 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how experienced the players are. Beginners spend longer measuring and talking through shots; club players move through the ends quickly.

For social play, plan on roughly an hour a game. Tournaments often set a time limit, after which the current end is finished and two more are played.

Two to six. All three official formats are played to 13 points:

• Singles 1 against 1, three boules each
• Doubles 2 against 2, three boules each
• Triples 3 against 3, two boules each

Each side therefore always has six boules, whatever the format. In casual play nothing stops five or seven people from sharing the boules differently. The three formats are set out on formats.

No. The motion is gentle, there is no running and everyone plays at their own pace. Pétanque is one of the few sports where a 70-year-old competes on equal terms with a 25-year-old.

Plenty of clubs have players in their sixties and seventies playing competitively. Accuracy and reading the ground count for far more than strength.

It is real but modest, and very unevenly spread. The Federation of Pétanque USA has around 2,100 members across roughly fifty clubs in seven regions. Pétanque Canada and Pétanque Québec operate as a single organization and publish a club list covering Quebec plus a few Atlantic clubs. The Mexican petanca federation, founded in 2011 and based in Ensenada, oversees about twenty clubs.

Quebec is the best served territory on the continent, and not by a small margin. Municipalities there build pétanque courts in neighborhood parks the way other places install basketball hoops. Our survey of public courts lists 61 places across North America, 31 of them in Canada and almost all of those in Quebec. The full club directory sits on find a club.

Fifteen minutes of explanation is enough to play a full game. The throw, the scoring and basic etiquette land quickly, and from your first sessions you will play without awkwardness in a relaxed setting.

Playing well takes far longer. Pointing consistently, shooting reliably and reading a surface are skills built over years. That is what keeps players: the game keeps revealing depth long after you think you have seen all of it. Our technique pages break each skill down.

Yes. Players aged 11 and under may use lighter boules, 600 g and 65 mm across, under Article 2 of the FIPJP rules.

No. Closed shoes with a flat sole keep you steady in the circle.

Your feet must stay on the ground until the boule lands, but lifting a heel is allowed.