St Paul-de-Vence .. the art of playing boules

The intriguing game of boules  is played at the village’s social centre adjacent to the café before the gates of the medieval village of St Paul-de-Vence.  I took these photos after our walk around the village (which I will feature next time)  while we were sitting under the huge shady trees waiting for the next stage of our day’s adventure!!!   I was expecting a long strip of hard sand, like traditional bowls,  but this was played on a square patch, being the ‘boules court’ which had dips and small troughs!!  I’ve no idea if it’s played the same way as traditional bowls – looks like we started watching at the end of one game or half-way thro’..

.. as they all stood up and gathered together, chatting and smoking (we found the French generally smoke an awful lot!!)  ..

.. glancing at their balls in between ..

They started bowling again in very specific ways – definitely an art to the game!!!!    … and those knees .. killing on the knees and thighs!!!

There’s even a monument/sculpture or whatever you want to call it, for this popular game !!

Peeping through the trees from the Boules court to the villas of Vence ..

Next post .. a walk through the narrow streets of St Paul-de-Vence

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