La Petanque

We experienced France's national pass time on the weekend. We had our very
first social outing with some new friends that we met at church. It was a
beautiful sunny day, and we caught the metro to the end of Line 1 and got off
Chateau de Vincennes.

For those of you who aren't versed in the sport of Petanque, allow me to explain
the rules:

1. Take a set of 2 or 3 matching balls depending on how many people you have
playing.

2. Throw the cochonnet (a small wooden ball, literally meaning "piglet") from a
circle you have drawn in the sand.

3. Throw (underarm only) your ball to try to land closer to the cochonnet than
your opponents.

4. Once everyone has thrown, the person or team with the ball closest to the
cochonnet wins a point.

5. The first one to 13 points wins.

I had heard about this French version of lawn bowls in high school, and written it
off as boring and for old people. We stumbled upon it being played, mostly on
weekends, in social places like parks and gardens all the way around France. It is
incredibly popular and common to see huge groups of people playing for hours.
Luke was OBSESSED. He was even quoted as saying, "One day can we just turn
up to a park and sit next to a group of people playing until they ask me to play
too?"

Luckily it didn't have to come to this.

I played a game or two, decided to officially re-name the cochonnet a "snitch"
(for obvious reasons) then took a seat on the grass to enjoy the sunshine, the
scenery, and the smile on Luke's face as he beat the French at their own game,
Aussie style.

The balls, and the snitch

Luke being taught about the different patterns on the balls

My viewpoint for most of the afternoon