PÉTANQUE

Helen Parkinson is bowled over by the worldwide appeal of this quintessentially Provençal pastime

- Helen Parkinson

Like swathes of lavender fields and refreshing glasses of misty pastis, pétanque is a Provençal institution. Yet its roots are Greek; in ancient times, simple coin-tossing games in Greece progressed into competitions to see who could throw stone balls the furthest.

The Romans upped the ante by adding a brick target to aim for. It was their soldiers who brought the game to Provence, where it evolved into Jeu Provençal in the 18th century. Played with bronze balls on a court twice the size of a current pétanque court (usually around four by 15 metres), Jeu Provençal sees players taking a short run-up before bowling.

From Jeu Provençal to pétanque

Pétanque as we know today was first developed as an accessible version of Jeu Provençal by a group of friends in the south of France. In the seaside town of La Ciotat, near Marseille, at the beginning of the 20th century, an elderly