A Somber Note

My wife saw this article on yahoo.fr yesterday and asked me to translate and share it with everyone.

I know that our blog is normally a place to share our funny stories and tidbits about this game that we love so much. This is as it should be, since pétanque is meant to be a fun game, not one that you'd normally associate with danger and tragedy. However, as the article demonstrates, it's worthwhile to be reminded from time to time of the potential dangers involved, however miniscule the probability that they'd ever occur.

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Pétanque player dies after getting hit in the head by a boule

Adé, Hautes-Pyrénées, France – Franck Hourcade was hit in the head by a boule Friday during a pétanque game. He didn’t survive his injuries.

The 39 year-old man, who worked at the Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport, was also a coach at the rugby club in Adé, a small village near Lourdes.

A boule thrown by one of his teammates hit him in the head as he was approaching the cochonnet to check and see which team had the point.

He was transported to the medical center in Lourdes and died of his injuries early Saturday morning.

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Sorry to inject such a somber note into our otherwise cheerful blog, but a little bit of awareness may go a long way to avoiding our own pétanque tragedy on this side of the pond.

Now, back to the pistes.... :)