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The rules of pétanque
Two teams, one small wooden target, and a game to 13. The basics take a minute. The rules that decide close games, a dead jack, a boule on the line, who throws next, take a little longer, and they are the ones worth knowing.
How pétanque is played
Get more of your boules closer to the jack than your opponent’s nearest boule. Every boule you have closer than their best one is a point. Play ends until a team reaches 13.
Everything below is checked against the current FIPJP official rules, the rulebook national federations adopt. Where club play quietly ignores a rule, that is said plainly rather than left out.
Start here
A game is a sequence of ends. In each end the teams alternate throws until every boule has been played, then one team scores. The first team to 13 points wins the game. Leagues and qualifying rounds are sometimes played to 11 to keep a schedule moving.
Pétanque is distinct from other boules games mainly in one requirement: you throw standing still, with both feet inside a circle on the ground. That single rule is where the name comes from, and it is the rule most often broken by people who have just started. If you are weighing it up against a similar game, pétanque and bocce differ in more than the ball.
Pétanque glossary
Mène, carreau, donnée and the other terms you will hear on the terrain, with their French pronunciation.
Teams
Singles, doubles and triples
Singles and doubles players throw three boules each, and triples players throw two. The formats page sets out how many boules each player throws in every format.
Print the rules card
Thirteen rules on one printable page, from the toss to a jack knocked out of bounds. Free, with an A4 version for printers outside North America.
Equipment
What the rules require
Competition boules must be certified. For a game in a park, the specifications below describe what good equipment looks like rather than a checkpoint anyone will enforce.
| Item | Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Boules | 70.5 to 80 mm diameter | Metal, hollow, 650 to 800 g. Maker’s mark and weight engraved and legible. |
| Boules, under 11s | 65 mm and 600 g minimum | Only for players aged 11 or under. |
| Jack | 30 mm, tolerance ±1 mm | Weight 10 to 18 g. May be painted. Must not be liftable with a magnet. |
| Circle, drawn | 35 to 50 cm diameter | Traced on the ground and erased when the end is over. |
| Circle, ready-made | 50 cm inner diameter | Tolerance ±2 mm. Rigid, and it must not move when players step in. |
| Measure | Required | Any close call is settled with a measure, not an opinion. |
Three boules and a jack is the entire requirement to play. Everything sold beyond that is convenience: a magnetic retriever saves your back, a circle saves redrawing, a towel keeps the grit off. What each piece is worth, with real prices goes through it, and the boule selector narrows the choice by weight, hardness and how you play.
Boules must be distinguishable from your opponents’. Striation patterns do that in competition. In a park, a strip of tape works.
Step by step
Starting an end
The team that won the toss starts the first end. After that, the team that scored the previous end starts the next one.
- Place the circlePut down a ready-made circle or trace one 35 to 50 cm across. It has to sit more than 1 m from any obstacle and at least 1.5 m from another circle or jack in use.
- Throw the jackFrom inside the circle, between 6 and 10 m away. You get one attempt. The jack must end up at least 50 cm from any obstacle and from the end line, and be visible to a player standing astride the inside edge of the circle.
- Hand it over if it is shortAn invalid throw does not come back to you. The jack is handed to the opposing team, who place it anywhere valid on the terrain. They do not get to throw it, they place it.
- Throw the first bouleThe team that threw the jack plays first. Both feet stay flat inside the circle until the boule touches the ground.
The one-attempt rule is the most common gap between club habit and the rulebook. Plenty of clubs let a team re-throw a short jack two or three times. That is a local convention, and it disappears the moment a licensed umpire is present.
Feet: entirely inside the circle, not touching its edge, not lifted clear of the ground, and no other part of you touching the ground outside it, until the boule lands. Players with a lower-limb disability may keep one foot inside; a wheelchair needs one wheel inside.
Order of play
Playing the end
Who throws next is not a rotation. It is decided by the ground.
After the first boule, the opposing team throws. From then on, the team that does not hold the point plays. Hold the closest boule and you stand still; lose it and you throw again. A team can throw four boules in a row without the other side touching one, and that is entirely correct.
When a team runs out of boules and the other side still has some, the team with boules left plays them all, one after another. Alternating has nothing left to alternate.
Each throw has a one-minute limit, counted from the moment the previous boule stops moving or from the end of a measurement. It is rarely enforced outside competition, and it is the reason experienced players decide what they are doing before they step into the circle. What you decide there is strategy: roll it close, or knock theirs out.
You may not pick up any played boule before the end is scored, including your own. If you want to see a measurement, ask for it; do not clear the ground first.
Points
Scoring an end
Only one team scores in an end, and only the boules closer than the opponent’s best one count.
Find the opposing team’s nearest boule. Every boule of yours that is closer than it is worth one point. If their nearest boule is the closest on the ground, you score nothing and they count theirs the same way.
- Team A
- Team B
- Distance of Team B’s nearest boule
When two boules are exactly equal
Measured and genuinely equidistant, with one boule from each team, three things can happen. If both teams are out of boules, the end is dead and nobody scores. If only one team has boules left, it plays them and scores every boule it gets closer than the tie. If both teams still hold boules, play continues normally until one of them takes the point.
A dead end is not a wasted one: the jack goes back to the team that scored the previous end, and the game carries on at the same score.
Edge cases
Dead boules and a dead jack
These are the situations that cause arguments, so they are worth reading once properly.
When a boule is dead
A boule that straddles the boundary line is still valid. It is dead only once it has completely crossed the line, meaning it sits entirely beyond it when you look from directly above. Half on the line is in play, and a surprising number of games are decided by that distinction.
A dead boule is removed, and anything it displaced on its way out goes back to where it was, provided that position had been marked.
When the jack is dead
| Situation | What it means |
|---|---|
| It goes out of bounds | Including a jack that crosses out and rolls back in. Crossing the line kills it either way. |
| It is no longer visible | Judged from the circle, feet astride the inside edge. |
| It ends up beyond 20 m | Measured from the circle. 15 m for younger age groups. |
| It ends up closer than 3 m | Measured from the circle. |
| It crosses the end line or more than one adjacent lane | On marked lanes only. |
| It cannot be found in 5 minutes | The clock is on the search. |
| Out-of-bounds ground sits between jack and circle | The line of play is broken. |
What happens when the jack dies
If both teams still hold boules, the end is void. Nobody scores, and the jack is thrown again by the team that scored the previous end. If only one team still holds boules, that team scores one point for every boule it has left to play. It does not have to throw them, and this is where a dead jack can hand over three or four points at once.
A jack that is knocked but stays in play
Knocking the jack is normal play, and wherever it stops is where the end continues from. Two exceptions. If a spectator or the umpire stops it, it stays where it came to rest. If a player stops or deflects it, the opposing team chooses: leave it, put it back where it was, or place it anywhere on the line running from its old position through where it was found, out to a maximum of 20 m from the circle and somewhere visible.
Those last two options only exist if the jack’s position had been marked beforehand. Unmarked, it stays where it is found. Marking the jack with a scratch or a coin takes two seconds and settles the argument before it starts.
The ground
The terrain and its boundaries
Pétanque is played on gravel, dirt, crushed stone, or whatever a park has. Grass and smooth concrete are the two surfaces it does not work on.
| Level of play | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| National and international championships | 15 m × 4 m | The marked-lane standard. |
| Other competitions | Set by the federation | Never below 12 m × 3 m. |
| Club and casual play | Whatever fits | Flat, roughly rectangular, with edges everyone can see. |
Boundaries matter more than size. Ropes, boards, chalk, a curb, the edge of the gravel: anything both teams can point at. Without a visible edge there is no dead boule, and a game with no dead boules rewards throwing hard and hoping.
If you are building or measuring a court, the court dimensions page has the layouts and the drainage detail, and the public courts directory lists places to play that already exist.
Holes and loose stones
Nobody may press down, move or crush anything on the playing area during an end, under Article 10 of the rules. The one exception: the player about to throw, or a teammate, may fill in the hole the previous boule left.
Etiquette
Measuring, conduct and the unwritten rules
The rulebook covers conduct. Most of what keeps a club game pleasant is not in it.
Measuring falls to the player who threw last, or a team-mate. The opposing team always has the right to measure too, and asking is not an accusation. Use a tape rather than a foot, a shoe or a confident opinion.
Using an opponent’s boule by mistake earns a warning the first time and the boule is swapped back. Do it again and that boule is disqualified.
| Convention | Why |
|---|---|
| Stand still and stay quiet while someone throws | Movement behind the jack is genuinely distracting. |
| Stand behind the circle or well to the side | Never between the thrower and the jack. |
| Leave every boule where it lies until the end is scored | It is also a rule. People break it constantly. |
| Mark the jack before a shot that might move it | Saves the only argument that has no answer. |
| Take a measurement without sulking | The tape is neutral. You are not. |
| Shake hands at the end | Every club, every country. |
Test yourself on the awkward ones
A jack knocked out of bounds with boules still in hand, or a boule sitting on the line. Pick the Rules topic and 5 to 50 questions, each answered on the spot.
In practice
Club play against the rulebook
Nobody plays a Sunday game by the full rulebook. Knowing which rules are quietly dropped is part of knowing the rules.
| Rule | In competition | In club and park play |
|---|---|---|
| Jack throw attempts | One, then the opponent places it | Re-thrown until it lands somewhere sensible |
| One minute per boule | Timed, and enforced | Ignored |
| Certified boules | Required, and checked | Any decent steel boule |
| Terrain size | 15 m × 4 m marked lanes | Whatever the park gives you |
| Feet in the circle | Strict | Strict, and worth keeping strict |
| Measuring | Tape, always | Tape, once the eye stops being enough |
The one to hold on to is the circle. Stepping out of it turns pétanque into a different game, and habits formed in a park follow you to your first competition. Everything else can bend. Grip and stance is where a repeatable throw starts, and pointing and shooting are the two things you are choosing between every time you step in.
Court dimensions
Championship play needs at least 15 x 4 m, about 49 x 13 ft. The free planner sizes a court for your space.
Rule updates
What changed in the latest FIPJP rules
The FIPJP Executive Committee approved the rules in force in December 2020, and they apply from January 1, 2021. FIPJP has confirmed that nothing changed for 2026, so a new edition could apply from January 1, 2027, at the earliest.
| Rule | Rules in force |
|---|---|
| Distance from another game | 1.5 m from another circle or jack in use (was 2 m) |
| Jack near an obstacle or the end line | At least 50 cm (was 1 m), and it may touch a side line |
| Marking the jack | Required when it is thrown and after every move |
| Wet boules | Allowed, the old ban is gone |
| Practice during a game | Forbidden, even on another lane |
| Late team or player | Eliminated after 30 minutes (was 1 hour) |
| Resuming after a break | One point penalty after 5 minutes late (was 15) |
A 2023 FIPJP directive, which FPUSA passed on to US umpires, adds no sanction when a team plays a boule while it already holds the point. The wasted boule is penalty enough.
The full text is in the official FIPJP rules, and Pétanque Québec published the list of changes in French.
Questions
Common questions
How many points do you need to win at pétanque?
Can you lift your foot when you throw?
What happens if the jack goes out of bounds?
Is a boule touching the boundary line dead?
Who throws the boule next?
How many tries do you get to throw the jack?
How far do you have to throw the jack?
Can you score more than one point in an end?
What happens if two boules are exactly the same distance?
Do both teams keep throwing alternately?
Can you move or pick up a boule during an end?
What size boules do the rules require?
Is pétanque the same as bocce?
Where can I look up a term I do not know?
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The numbers
- Game to 13 points
- Circle 35 to 50 cm drawn, 50 cm ready-made
- Jack throw 6 to 10 m, one attempt
- Jack 30 mm, 10 to 18 g
- Boules 70.5 to 80 mm, 650 to 800 g
- Terrain 15×4 m, never under 12×3 m
- One minute to play a boule
Scoresheet generator
Print clean match sheets for a game to 13, or run a full tournament with pools and knockout brackets.
Playing your first game
What to bring, how to set up on a patch of gravel, and the handful of things beginners get wrong in the first hour.
Find people to play with
Clubs across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with locations, schedules and how to join.