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Where and When to Play Petanque

Located in the Pacific Northwest, twenty minutes North of Seattle, Edmonds is a charming town with quaint boutiques and cafés, many parks and restaurants, and beautiful beaches with magnificent sunsets on Puget Sound. An ideal setting for a relaxing day by the sea!  Edmonds is also a great place for pétanque. Most of the time, you'll find a fun bunch of happy players at the pétanque courts located at Civic Playfield, near Bell Street and 6th Ave N in Edmonds (the GPS address is 230 6th Ave N in Edmonds WA 98020.) With three dedicated pétanque courts and the availability of a soccer field and the track around it, Edmonds Civic Playfield is a destination of choice if you are a pétanque player, whether you're a "pro" or a beginner.

About the Game of Petanque

Click here for basic petanque rules

The Ancient Greeks played a game of tossing coins, then flat stones, and later stone balls, called spheristics, trying to have them go as far as possible, as early as the 6th century B.C. The Ancient Romans modified the game by adding a target that had to be approached as closely as possible. This Roman variation was brought to Provence by Roman soldiers and sailors. A Roman sepulcher in Florence even shows people playing the game and stooping down to measure the points.

Pétanque (French pronunciation is [petonk]) is a game of boules where the goal is, while standing inside a starting circle with both feet on the ground, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (literally "piglet") or jack.  The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass, sand or other surfaces. Similar games are bocce (Italy), bowls (Commonwealth Nations), curling (Northern Europe and North America), and horseshoes (North America.)  Closely related games in France include "Jeu Provençal" and "Boules Lyonnaises" similar to pétanque but played on longer courts, and "Boules Bretonnes" which is similar to bocce.

The current form of the pétanque game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat in southern France. The name pétanque comes from pès tancats meaning "feet together" or "feet anchored" in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language.

A casual form of the game of pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France, mostly during their summer vacations. Players participating in tournaments are usually licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP).  There are some 375,000 licensees in France and some 3,000 in England. Another 20,000 or so play in Quebec.  Pétanque is also played in Asia, in countries like Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.  Additionally, pétanque clubs like the Edmonds Petanque Club have appeared in cities throughout the United States in recent years.

About the Edmonds Petanque Club

Michelle Martin, our 2011 Club President, recalls: "Every time we returned from a trip to France, I would think of how nice it would be to play pétanque in Edmonds, like the French do in Southern France."  Michelle Martin and a group of friends started playing at Edmonds Civic Playfield.

Eventually, pétanque took roots in Edmonds in the Summer of 2010, when more and more players joined the group for regular games. A few months later, Michelle approached the City of Edmonds about building a pétanque court at Edmonds Civic Playfield. With the warm support of John Hunt of  the Seattle Petanque Club, former Director Brian McIntosh of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services for the City of Edmonds, and Parks Manager Rich Lindsay, a court was built, a picnic table was added, and an inauguration ceremony for the new court took place on September 18, 2010, with our local celebrity Rick Steves.

Our expanded group of petanque players was then formally incorporated as a non-profit sports organization in January 2011, under the name "Edmonds Petanque Club," with an affiliation to the Federation of Petanque USA and the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP), which gives club members a license to participate in other clubs' events nationally and internationally.  Anyone of any age may apply for membership in the Edmonds Petanque Club for a modest annual fee, whether it is just for casual fun (most of us) or serious competition.

We encourage you to become a club member, but the petanque courts are always available to the public and you do not have to be a member to play.  Come and join us any time for a game or two. You'll meet a bunch of friendly, happy people ready to welcome you and show you the basics of the game. At first, do not worry about bringing your own boules, because there are usually extra boules to share on location. 

Game on at Edmonds Civic Playfield!