« Pétanque » is a word that rings out like the cicadas and the clinking of pastis glasses, indissociable from Marcel Pagnol's Provence!
Just sit down at a café and you'll probably hear a voice sing out from the pitch "tu tires ou tu pointes?" (do you drive or you draw?) or watch the memorable scene from the film "Fanny" by Pagnol , when the boules players stop a tramway to be able to finish their game. From the tram car, the Parisians watch the spectacle, dumbfounded by the audacity of the people of Marseille.
Little by little, tourists discovered pétanque in the shade of the Sycamores and got caught up in the game. That's how this "relaxing sport", as some would call it, reached the towns of the north and in no time at all fired up the most biased!
Although this sport is not suited to the pavement and asphalt of the Capital, the boulists never give up and will challenge each other on the smallest piece of available turf.
This blazing passion even resulted in a prohibition by a prefect of the police called Papon – but he did not have time to enforce it before the streets began to rumble and, fearing an uprising, he revoked his decision. It was a national victory and enthusiasm for this new game spilled over the borders.