Marley's work is priceless

The ground is good, pit marks filled, and fallen tree branches removed, so the pistes are ready to be used this Sunday! Just remember to thank Marley for the stick removal... ;-)

Fridays are Boule Days in Detroit

It was cloudy out, but on the warm side - so of course the club met for their lunchtime petanque session. Renee (depicted here) is an exceptional boule pointer. Despite the "trash-talking" from fellow petanquers, she usually gets a surprisingly close-boule. Co-worker, Michelle, joined today's game. TonyT was giving her pointers on throws.

REMEMBER: tomorrow is April Boules Day - so if someone on your team is wearing a funny hat, your team gets a 1-point advantage in that game.

It's strange how often a cochon goes astray while playing a days-worth of petanque (wink-wink). That's why this order of 200 cochons should last 1 season at the Detroit Petanque Club.

Perhaps we should hold a "Cochon Decorating" Contest. With the members voting on each cochon.

Another Beautiful Weekday of Lunchtime Petanque

Freeman Decides to Play Without the Trenchcoat

Summer season is right around the corner

Website traffic beginning to grow as the summer season approaches! We have a growing number of international visitors; a message to them (as with anyone) "Please say hello, and tell us some tales of petanque in your part of the world." We'd love to hear from you!

Detroit Petanque's Newest Member - Freeman

Double-Header Weekend (Sunday in the Park with Petanque)

With Sunday's temperature touching 46 degrees, and a full Sun shining down on the pistes at Campus Martius Park - it was indeed a gift from Mother Nature. We began at around 1pm and finished at around 3pm.

James and Cheryl

M.P.C. player Lindsay sheds her shoes to feel One with the Piste

Local Wolverine Bikers at Campus Martius Park

Gene & Sharon Beat James & Jeff

When Gene and Sharon play together on a team they are an unbeatable combination. These two D.P.C. members really know their strategy -- frequently discussing (in whispered seriousness) tactics to use during game play.

D.P.C. Havanese Mascot Meeting Held

President T'Choupi and VP's Celia and Pepper met in Wyandotte to discuss various aspects of canine petanque. One of the issues was the use of the term "dog boules" when referring to non-competition boules. They'd rather they be called "leisure boules." Other topics included the mandatory presence of a water bowl at all events, and an ample supply of dog biscuits.

Rainy Day Boules

Though the temperature was at a reasonable 40 degrees, the slight misting of rain allowed for only the hardiest of petanque fans to come out to Campus Martius Park today to play boules. Lindsay, Deric, David (Jonker), Joe, Dan, and Jeff played about 4 games worth of VERY good boules before running for warmth. We started at around 1:30pm and played until 4:30pm - all in all a good length of sport for an overcast & rainy day.

You can play every day in Detroit

Jeff's always available at lunchtime (12-noon) to take in a good game of petanque... Email him if you're interested, becausea if there's mildly good weather, he'll be there! ...I'm jealous enough that I have to watch him by web cam from my computer. ;-) Joe.

D.P.C. claims THIRD Havanese Mascot - Pepper!

Royal Oak Pistes Almost Ready

Royal Oak piste estimated to begin play in about 2 weeks. A few test boules on Saturday show that the ground still needs some drying. Keep watching the website for start times, it won't be long now!

"Hard Rock"er Tony T

Tony T is defending his reputation as the most-skilled DPC pointer...

As the Ice Melts - Our Club Plays On

Gene & Sharon Love the Competition

Gene and Sharon live and breathe petanque. Sharon told me that she even effectuates pointing throws when she's asleep!

Boule In Hand Rule - TonyT & Sharon win 4 Points

Article 13 of the FPUSA rules provides for the Boule-in-Hand rule. When the cochon is knocked off the piste, and only one team has boules left unplayed, then that team receives a point for each unplayed boule.

TonyT & Sharon paved their way to victory when TonyT struck the cochon right off the piste.

Deric Points In the CLosest Boule

Deric played boule with the rest of us on Saturday. His pointing has become extremely reliable - and he's usually right within a few inches of the cochon.

12-noon - Lunchtime Games Back In Session

I'm sorry if I missed a few people yesterday (Renee reports that she saw Melissa K. and Gregory D. as well as TonyT come by on Thursday) - work kept me busy. But if you bring your boules, and for some crazy reason I'm not there, you'll still probably meet up with another player during the lunchtime games. As the weather gets nicer and warmer, our usual members will be coming out for some boule.

Gregory Using the "Luck 'o the Irish" for his Shooting?

Seems like we now know why the Didierjeans play petanque so well - they use the luck of the Irish! Seen here marching in Corktown with Melissa K. this week.

[Note: THANKS M. for the photo]

The Royal Oak Terrain

Being skeptical of the report on the website that the Royal Oak piste was "still a bit soggy" (sorry Joe/Jeff), I ventured forth yesterday afternoon, boules in hand, in hopes of finding that the piste had miraculously dried out. After all, the weather was warm and sunny, with a bit of a breeze.

But alas! When I threw my first boule of the season out onto the piste -- a demi-portée -- instead of landing and rolling up against the cochonnet, as I'm used to seeing (ha!), it embedded itself solidly into the surface, without a single bounce.

Not to be put off so easily, I tried different sections of the piste, especially those that looked as if they'd had a chance to bake in the sun more. The best result I could come up with was with a roll shot -- the boule managed to skitter a few feet before the softness of the ground caused it to dig in and come to a premature stop. Not being content with just rolling my boules (this isn't bocce ball, after all!), I finally gave up and went home, smoothing over the boule-sized depressions that I'd just created before leaving.

So this week I'll be praying for warm, dry, and breezy weather to descend upon Royal Oak, even though the extended forecast calls for chilly weather and snow showers by the end of the week. The power of faith is not to be underestimated, however, especially when it comes to wanting to play pétanque after a long, boule-less winter!

Saturday - March 11 - Beautiful Petanque Day

Guests from Paris; Slovokia; and Michigan

CuBOULES at the Michigan Cuboules Club !

Never ones to sit on our hands, The MPC and DPC have searched the globe for obscure sports, and now we're playing CUBOULES. The sport of Cuboules originated in the hills of France where Les Boules Carrees have been played for decades. The sloped terrain didn't allow for regular (sphere) boules to remain in place, so cubed pieces of wood were used instead. Most of the rules for CuBoules are the same as Petanque except: You stand in a square (not a circle); You play to 16 points (that's 4 squared); If a CuBoule lands atop


another CuBoule (or the CubeCochon) it's an instant win for that match. As a sideline amusement for the Members of the Detroit and Michigan CuBOULES clubs, we also Square-Dance before and after each game.

We invite you to come down to our square-piste, to play CuBoules with a bunch of squares like us.

Vice-Mascot - Celia meets the rest of the club

Saturday, James and Cheryl brought over their new puppy, Celia. She is a Havanese and this makes roughly 4-5 Havanese dogs as part of the Michigan Petanque scene.

Sharon Consistent as Ever in Her Shooting & Pointing

We had a fantastic season opener today (Saturday) at Campus Martius Park. While dozens of skaters whizzed by us on the ice rink, we were warmed by the Sun and happily bouling rink-side, on the two impromptu courts we set up. As the Winter chill subsides, we should have our regular weekend club meets back online.

Familiar Faces and Lots of Boule Play

Season Opener a Grand Success

It's going to be a different season - I guarantee it!

It took an extra 2 weeks for the special order 8500mm boules to arrive from France, but it will be well worth the wait. "There's absolutely no way I can miss a shot," boasted DPC President Jeff Widen, "I'm going to win every match our club plays."

There are some logistic problems to be overcome, namely, how is Jeff going to get past the FPUSA 80mm size maximum for competiton boules?

Jeff has an easy answer to that: "Simple. When we have an FPUSA event, I'll switch to my 74mm Integrale AC's, but in our casual weekend games, I'll use these babies!"