France Travel: Petanque Tournament (aka Boules, Bocce, lawn bowling minus the lawn)

Here in St. Bertrand de Comminges' lower square, called Le Plan, which is where out house is, there has just erupted a rolling Petanque tournament. Players are playing past our front door and we are very pleased that the dog hasn't been an obstacle! This is part of today's local Fete. Over the past hour we watched as first the umbrella and table went up, then the beer taps, then a surprising number of registrants for the tournament. I was still making a late lunch and enjoyed watching the production from the kitchen window. It is sort of an all terrain version of lawn bowling I think. I did also read that after WWI the French changed the rules so that disabled veterans could still play. Unlike lawn bowls or bocce, in petanque there's no step forward. You stand in one place to throw.

The beginnings of the day...

Players outside our front door...

The lane in front of our house... one end...

Watching the action...

We are sure the chickens were watching too...

From our front door...

Yes... this is the laundry in our backyard!