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What is pétanque?
A French boules game played on gravel with steel balls and one small wooden target. Simple enough to learn while you watch a round, and deep enough that people give it forty years.
Pétanque is a French boules game. Two teams throw hollow steel balls, called boules, toward a small wooden target ball called the cochonnet or jack, trying to finish closer to it than the other team.
Both feet stay inside a circle drawn on the ground until the boule lands. At the end of each round only the closest team scores, taking one point for every boule it has nearer the jack than the opponent’s best.
First team to 13 wins.
The whole game fits in two sentences, which is most of its appeal. The difficulty sits somewhere else entirely: in the execution, in the ground you are playing on and in the decisions you make when the score is tight.
Pétanque rules card
Thirteen rules on one printable page, from the toss to a jack knocked out of bounds.
The round
How a pétanque game works, from first throw to 13 points
A round is called a mène, or an end. A game is a string of them, and the shape of one is the whole sport.
- Toss and draw the circle. A coin toss decides who starts. That team draws a circle 35 to 50 cm across, big enough for both feet, more than a meter from any obstacle.
- Throw the jack. From inside the circle, 6 to 10 meters out, at least 50 cm from any obstacle and from the end line. The team gets one attempt, and if it fails the opponents place the jack.
- Throw the first boule. Same team, same circle. Both feet flat inside it until the boule touches down.
- The other team answers. Whichever team is not closest throws next, and keeps throwing until it takes the point back or runs out of boules.
- Score the round. Once every boule is thrown, the closest team scores one point per boule beating the opponent’s best. The other team scores nothing.
- Start again. The scoring team draws a fresh circle where the jack came to rest and throws it again. First to 13.
You have one minute per boule. The clock starts when the previous boule or jack stops moving, or when a measurement has been settled.
The jack gets one throw, within one minute. Nobody enforces it on a Sunday afternoon, and everybody enforces it in competition.
Closer than Team B’s best boule
- jack
- A
- A
- BTeam B’s nearest boule ends the count
- A
- B
- B
Boules in order of distance from the jack
Team A scores 2 points. Team B scores nothing.
Line the boules up in order of distance and the scoring rule falls out of it. Both teams counting their own boules is the most common mistake in park games, and it is why a scoreline can sit at 9 to 0 and still be a close match.
A game between beginners usually runs 45 to 75 minutes. Tournaments cap rounds on the clock instead, which changes how the last few mènes are played.
How many players are on a side, and how many boules each of them throws, is covered on the game formats page.
How a game reaches 13
An end scores between 1 and 6 points in doubles and triples, and between 1 and 3 in singles. A doubles or triples game to 13 takes at least three ends, and usually far more.
Leagues and qualifying rounds may play to 11 under Article 5 of the FIPJP rules. In timed FPUSA games, the end in progress is finished when time is called, and one more end follows.
Origin
Where the name comes from
Pétanque comes from the Provençal pès tancats, meaning feet planted or feet anchored. It describes the one rule that sets the game apart from its ancestors: you throw from a standing start, both feet inside a circle, with no run-up.
Ernest Pitiot created that version in La Ciotat, near Marseille, in 1907. He did it for his friend Jules Lenoir, whose rheumatism had ended his ability to take the three-step run-up that jeu provençal demands.
Lenoir threw from a fixed circle instead, feet planted. The first tournament under the new rules was held in the same town in 1910.
The sport has been built around a player who could not run since the day it was invented, which is a large part of why a single club roster today can span four generations.
The vocabulary stayed French wherever the game traveled, so terms like carreau, donnée and mène turn up untranslated at North American clubs. The pétanque glossary covers the ones you will hear first.
The two throws
Pointing and shooting
Every throw in pétanque is one of two things. That is the whole game, and the choice between them is most of the skill.
Pointing
Throwing your boule to stop close to the jack. You can roll it along the ground or lob it through the air, and the surface decides which works.
Pointing wins the majority of points in most games at most levels.
How to pointShooting
Throwing hard enough to knock an opponent’s well-placed boule out of position. The perfect version is the carreau, where your boule takes its place exactly.
Harder than pointing, louder when it lands and unnecessary in casual play.
How to shootKnowing which one a situation calls for is the judgment half of the sport, and it separates players who keep improving from players who plateau at club level. That is covered on the match strategy page.
Think you have the rules down?
Pick 5 to 50 questions on scoring, fouls and the throwing circle, with the reasoning behind every answer.
Equipment
What you need to play
Less than people expect, and probably nothing at all for your first few games. Most clubs keep loaner sets for newcomers.
- Boules. Two or three per player depending on the format
- A jack. The small wooden target, also called the cochonnet
- Flat ground. Gravel and packed dirt play best; a hard park path works
- Something to draw a circle with. A heel through gravel does it
- A tape measure. Only once the rounds start finishing close
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Boules | Metal, 70.5 to 80 mm across, 650 to 800 g, unmodified after manufacture |
| Jack | Wood or approved synthetic, 30 mm across, 10 to 18 g, never magnetic |
| Throwing circle | Drawn 35 to 50 cm across, or a rigid ring of 50 cm |
| Jack distance | 6 to 10 m from the circle, at least 50 cm from any obstacle and from the end line |
A leisure set for two players costs somewhere between $30 and $80 and plays perfectly well in a park. Those same boules disqualify a team the moment you enter a sanctioned tournament, since only the specification above is legal there.
The difference between the two, and what the hardness numbers mean in the hand, sits on the equipment page. You need no dedicated court, no special footwear and no athletic ability, though the court dimensions page has the measurements if you want to mark one out properly.
Free starter kit
Rules, a boule sizing chart, court dimensions and the glossary in one printable PDF.
Comparison
Pétanque, bocce and lawn bowls
Three games that look alike from across a park and play nothing alike.
Pétanque is played with hollow steel boules thrown from a fixed circle, feet planted, on any flat ground; bocce allows a run-up on a prepared court, and lawn bowls are delivered from a mat on a manicured grass rink.
The bocce question is the one newcomers ask most, and the differences run deeper than the throw. The full answer is on the pétanque and bocce comparison.
The culture
What playing is like
Pétanque has the reputation of a slow game for older French men in village squares. The reputation is earned and it is also misleading.
A typical game does involve standing in the sun with a cold drink within reach. It is also a game where the strategy runs deep, where one well-executed shot turns a match around and where players in their seventies routinely beat players in their thirties.
What makes it unusual is the shape of the thing socially. Between throws you stand and watch.
You talk. You argue, politely, about whose boule is closer.
The tape comes out. Someone points out that the slope took it.
It is, in the best way, a game that makes you slow down and pay attention to the people you are with.
North American clubs mirror that: welcoming, patient with newcomers and serious when the competition calls for it. Most have players who have been at it for decades standing alongside people who found the game last summer, and both are completely normal.
If you want to see what that looks like near you, the club directory lists schedules and loaner-boule policies, and the public courts listing covers terrain you can use with no club at all.
Common questions
What people ask first
What does pétanque mean?
The name comes from the Provençal pès tancats, meaning feet planted or feet anchored. It describes the throwing stance: both feet stay inside a circle on the ground until the boule lands.
How do you score in pétanque?
Only one team scores per round. The team with the closest boule takes one point for every boule it has nearer the jack than the opponent’s best.
First team to 13 points wins the game.
How long does a game take?
Between twenty minutes and over an hour, depending on how the scores fall. Beginners usually take 45 to 75 minutes.
Tournament games are often capped on the clock instead of played out to 13.
Are pétanque and bocce the same game?
No.
Pétanque uses smaller hollow steel boules, a fixed circle with both feet planted and any rough ground. Bocce uses larger resin balls, allows a run-up and is normally played on a prepared court with side walls.
Do you need special equipment?
A set of boules per player, one jack, a flat patch of gravel or packed dirt and something to draw a circle with. A tape measure settles close calls.
Most clubs lend boules to first-timers, so you can play several games before buying anything. More beginner answers sit in the pétanque beginner FAQ.
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Boule selector
Five questions on hand size, throwing style and budget return the diameter, weight and hardness that fit you.
Pétanque quiz
Pick 5 to 50 questions on scoring, fouls and the throwing circle, with the reasoning behind every answer.