Pétanque is a popular spectator sport. At its best, Pétanque is both serious competition — often for money — and social theater. The game is full of big personalities, flamboyant egos, and weirdos. One has to be mentally tough to play at the elite level; most players, even gifted players, lack this toughness. Outside of the elite championships, there's always trash talking, cheating, and showing-off to, and bantering with, the crowd. Even in relatively polite games, there is an important language, not always verbal, that mixes respect and aggression towards one's partner and opponents. Great games never end, but are rather reconstructed and debated over pastis, a complex liqueur made of anis and a dozen other spices. The Pastis bar is literally built into a good bouledrome setting in the South. The best clubs have true connoisseur spectators, whose involvement in a game or tournament is total: they watch attentively; they actively debate the pointing and shooting decisions of the teams; they banter with the players; and they sometimes even intervene in disputes taking place on the courts. The best spectators in the Marseille area congregate at the Boule Florian (Sortie Saint Loup, near the OM Vélodrome, between Marseille Centre and the town of Aubagne).
If you're in Pétanque Land — especially Provence, the Maritime Alps, Corsica, the Aveyron, the Auvergne, and the Languedoc-Roussillon — you might consider taking in a tournament. Or ask in a local bar (not the fancy ones!) for the location of the best bouledrome. Look for a crowd — crowds do not watch mediocre players. Competitions are announced in local newspapers.
The most important tournaments are the French singles, doubles, and triples championships (June and July), the Mondial la Marseillaise (July), and the Mondial de Millau (August). I play the Marseillaise and Millau, and go to the French championships every year. The World Championships, a kind of international Pétanque Olympics, take place annually, usually in late-September, and involve more than 60 national teams. I represented the USA at the Worlds in 2003, 2005, and 2006, and will do so again in 2007. I post annual photo-illustrated reports on competitive pétanque around the world on the website of my home club — La Boule New Yorkaise.
