Documentation for constructing a petanque court

Petanque players,
I constructed a petanque court at my house in Austin, Texas. Before I began building it, I searched the Internet for ideas from courts located around the world and I took the best ideas I found to build my court. I documented the construction and am sharing that on the Internet so others can examine my ideas.

I hope this helps others who are building their own petanque courts.

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Joueurs de pétanque,
J’ai construit une cour de pétanque chez moi à Austin, au Texas. Avant de commencer à le construire, j’ai cherché sur Internet des idées de tribunaux situés à travers le monde et j’ai pris les meilleures idées que j’ai trouvé pour construire ma cour. J’ai documenté la construction et je partage cela sur Internet pour que d’autres puissent examiner mes idées.
J’espère que cela aidera d’autres personnes qui construisent leurs propres tribunaux de pétanque.

Jim’s 2016 Tour de Petanque – January-February, 2016:

January, 2016

I arrived in Paris after the usual long 14-hour flight from Austin (I wish the Concorde was still in operation as that plane used to make the flight from New York to Paris in 4 hours). I picked up a rent car and plugged in my GPS equipped with European maps. What a convenient technological tool. On my previous trips to Europe in 1974, 1975 and 1982, I used a big Michelin book of maps. 

I drove through Paris and got to Sainte Genevieve de Bois, just south of the "city of light", in time to get a few petanque games in with friends at the petanque club. I then stayed the night in a college dorm room, arranged through AirBnB. The next morning, I picked up Arsene Dupin, the President of the Heart of Texas Petanque Club in Austin (I’m the Vice President), who was visiting his mother, and we began our 2016 Tour de Petanque.

On the plane, approaching 0 degrees longitude 

Retired Concorde on display at Charles DeGaulle Airport

I’ve had a lot of fun during the past two weeks, travelling around the south of France attending a major petanque competition in Lyon and playing in one of the largest tournaments in France in Martigues, near Marseille.

The Lyon tournament is on a circuit called “Passion Petanque Francaise”. I attended this same tournament last year in Draguignan and both times, I got to play in “pro-am” games with the big boys. This time, I played with 4-time world champion Christian FAZZINO and along with Arsene, our triples team beat the team of Philippe QUINTAIS, 8-time world champion. Wow, what an experience! I also got to assist as a referee in the “precision shooting” events.  What a great 4 days. We were also interviewed by a TV sports channel.

Afterwards, Arsene and I drove to La Ciotat to make our “annual” pilgrimage to the Jules Le Noir Petanque Club where petanque was invented in 1907. The people in that club always treat us great.

We played in their triples tournament and along with Raymond Ager, a British guy I had met several years ago, and who lives in La Ciotat, finished in 2^nd place in the Consolante. We won 15 Euros each which is not enough to pay for the trip but enough for a nice French lunch in a local restaurant.

We stayed at the home of a girl friend, Chantal, and she threw a big lunch-time party where we got to meet dozens of her friends. A long-time friend of Arsene’s also hosted a dinner for us. I am so lucky to experience these types of get-togethers and meet great people in the south of France!

While staying in La Ciotat, we also entered a couple of very large tournaments in Martigues – just west of Marseille. It was several tournaments during 3 days with over 1,000 players. We did not do well but what a great experience.

On the way back to Paris, we stopped in Montlucon to see the world’s largest Boulodrome (inside petanque courts) which were recently built and named after a local boy-makes-good, Christian FAZZINO. Yep, the same guy we played with in Lyon. As luck would have it, he came by the club and invited us to play some games with him and some locals. Again, the team of Fazzino, Dupin and Schwobel were victorious, winning all three games quite handily against some great local talent.

Our next stop was Angers, France where we spent a couple of days. Austin is the “sister city” of Angers and we had visited there last year and had an afternoon of informal matches. This year, the regional petanque club organized a tournament with the three local teams (we picked up a local player and in the triples tournament, we came in 6^th out of 30) and had a nice reception afterwards. Then it was off to the Mayor’s office for another reception and a long visit with the mayor’s staff who represent Anger in the “sister city” arrangement with Austin.  We did a lot to solidify the “cultural/sport” element of the sister cities - the other parts being commerce and education.

A couple of days ago, Arsene and I returned to a suburb of Paris where is mother lives. We attended a most unique wake for Arsene’s friend who was the manager of big circus in Paris. It was a full day filled with all kinds of circus performances by people who had been a part of the circus – some as long as 40 years ago.

Yesterday, I came to Paris to spend a few days before heading home. I’m in a little hotel, just a few blocks from Notre Dame and other sites in central Paris. This is my first time to hang out in Paris since I spent some months in 1974 and in 1982. I wonder if Paris has changed as much as I have in those years?

Arsene and I have taken a lot more photographs and they can be seen in Arsene’s postings in the Heart of Texas Petanque Club’s Facebook page à https://www.facebook.com/Heart-of-Texas-Petanque-Club-184532784905198/?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

Colorado - cooler weather and HOT petanque

Howdy from Colorado!

I left the hot Austin weather last Tuesday, July 22, taking a leisure three-day/1000 mile drive to Colorado and much cooler weather.

 

I drove through Oklahoma and Kansas discovering esoteric attractions along the way, you know...rusty old tractors, broken windmills - but NOT enjoying the smell of cattle feed lots that went on for miles and miles in western Oklahoma and eastern Kansas. How do those people stand the omnipresent odor?

Arriving in Colorado Springs, I got to spend a couple of days hanging out with Arsene Dupin, a world famous magician and the president of the Heart of Texas Petanque Club (I'm the vice president). He is performing at the Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, Colorado - between Denver and Colorado Springs. We visited a few sights in the area and played some petanque with a fun group of folks in Colorado Springs.

 

 

The main purpose of this trip was two-fold: to take a "shake-down" cruise in my new (to me) motor home and to participate in a weekend of petanque tournaments sanctioned by the Federation of Petanque, USA (FPUSA) and sponsored by the Mile High Petanque Club of Denver, Colorado.






The tournaments included a singles tournament on Saturday and a doubles tournament on Sunday. It was held at Centennial Gardens, an oasis of flora and fauna in downtown Denver. I include "fauna" because there were several cotton-tail rabbits living among the shrubs.

This was the first time that club had sponsored an "official" FPUSA tournament and I must say, they did a fantastic job of organizing and executing a flawless tournament.

I played in both tournaments – doing poorly in the singles but getting 2^nd place in the doubles tournament. There were 11 teams from all over the world in the doubles tournament. My partner was Ed Porto, who is the President of FPUSA and lives in California. It was a pairing arranged over the Internet as we had never played together. We lost the final game 13-8 to a team from Togo and France.

I plan to stay in the area a week or so visiting more Colorado attractions as well as playing some more petanque with the folks in this vicinity.

 
 

Latest solar water well installation in Haiti – June 2014

This was my third trip to Haiti in the past 3 years. I've made these trips as part of a 3-man team along with my friend, Ronnie Sauer, who owns Southwest Texas Solar, Inc. in Eldorado, Texas, and his grandson. We have now installed 4 solar water wells for remote villages located in the southeast corner of Haiti. While we are not affiliated with the missionary group, Hispaniola Mountain Ministries or the non-profit organization, Barco's NightingalesFoundation, we have gladly given our time and expertise for these worthwhile projects for the people of Haiti.

The three wells we installed on the two previous trips helped get clean water to an area that used to get their water from an irrigation ditch that ran through the village of Anse-a-Pitres,Haiti. That water was not clean and helped contribute to the 30% mortality rate, mostly from water-borne diseases, among Haitian children under 12 years old. 

This recent solar water well is located in the mountain village of Boucan Guillaume, Haiti. It is a remote community that can only be accessed by a 4-wheel drive vehicle traveling over 20 miles from the nearest maintained road. The people in this village had to walk or ride burros 4 miles down a steep hill through a sparsely populated area to a spring-fed river for their water. The return trip was more difficult because they had to carry one or more of the common 5-gallon water containers (40 lbs. each). Women had a much more serious problem because they were frequently raped and sometimes murdered along this route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took us two days to get to this area of Haiti. First, we flew from Austin, Texas to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR) where we stayed one night. The next day we rode a bus for 8 hours to Pedernales, DR., which is on the border with Haiti, where we stayed in a hotel each night. Each morning, we crossed into Haiti.

Weeks before our arrival, we had shipped 6 solar panels, pumps, plumbing and electronics to the Dominican Republic where there is no import duty. To avoid the 30% import duty into Haiti, we had to smuggle all that equipment across the border in our 4-wheel drive truck. it seems counter-productive for the Haitian government to levy an import duty on equipment that can provide the basic necessity of life, safe drinking water, to remote areas in Haiti.

Our "smugglers route" took us far into the mountainous jungle, often driving along very narrow mountain roads that were barely wide enough for our truck and that dropped off hundreds of feet. In addition, we had to make several difficult river crossings. I did not ask what the penalty was if you get caught smuggling because at the time, that was the least of my worries.

This will probably be my last trip to Haiti. Just before this last trip, I wrote an installation manual that contains extensive instructions and lots of photographs showing the 40+ steps necessary to install a complete solar water well system. On this trip, I trained several Haitians and Dominicans who work for the missionary group – and had them do the installation while following the manual. The training was successful and I am confident that they will do a fine job on future well installations and all we will need to do is send them the equipment and the installation manual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on these solar water well projects helped improve the living conditions for the people in the southeast corner of Haiti – but the personal satisfaction I received from doing something that will save lives was an extremely rewarding experience. I hope everyone gets to experience something like this in his/her life.

 

 

More boulodromes....

It is now Thursday, October 31, 2013. I make special note of the day, date and year because it was at the end of this day that I had one of the best experiences playing Petanque. 

This morning I left La Ciotat after spending 2 weeks playing Petanque daily with either Jules le Noir or Cercle des Boulomanes Ciotaden – the two clubs in this great town on the Mediterranean Sea. Yesterday, I said goodbye to the members of those clubs. It was an emotional experience for all of us because we had experienced a bond, not just between myself and the two clubs, but between the Heart of Texas Petanque Club and those two clubs. I look forward to helping Arsene encourage the club members to come to our tournaments in Texas because I had the impression from the two club presidents that it could very well happen.

 

Milou - at Jules le Noir Petanque Club

 


Herrero, the president of the Petanque club -
Cercle des Boulomanes Ciotadens



Pierrot MARQUES - President of Jules le Noir Petanque Club - La Ciotat, France

 

The original charter for the Jules le Noir Petanque Club
- the place where Petanque was invented in 1910 

 

Club house - Cercle des Boulomanes Ciotadens
in La Ciotat, France

 

Jim and Alain - vs - two others

 

Raymond Ager - an English guy who moved to La Ciotat -
primarily to play Petanque.
 

 

Jim, Paul, Paul and Raymond
Note the display of ancient Petanque boules on the left.

 

Jim, the clubhouse cat and Paul

 

Raymond and Milou

 

 So why was today such a unique experience? This afternoon, I was driving on the Departmental road (older highways that are slower than the new Autroutes or toll roads). I have always liked driving on them for the obvious reasons that you get to experience more of France at a slower pace.  So as it was getting to be time for me to start looking for a hotel or camping grounds, I was driving down the road and had just enough time to see a handwritten sign that had the word "camping" on it.  I turned the car around and found it and it indeed was advertising a camping grounds. I tried to call the number but it did not go through so I followed the brief directions that led me onto a much smaller road through a tiny town, several kilometers off the main road. I followed multiple signs that lead me to an even smaller road with the final sign directing me to a 1-lane road through a vineyard and into a very remote camp ground with just a couple of camping cars. It was on the side of a hill, overlooking the Canal du Midi – one of my favorite features in France.

Well, I got to talking to the owner who was a bit older than me and had retired from the French military. Gerard was a very nice fellow, with a friendly personality - well suited for running a camp ground. He made the necessary effort to understand my level of French (not all French people have that skill). When I shifted the conversation towards Petanque, he asked me to walk over to his car and out of the back of a very old Renault and amongst a bunch of tools (I don't remember even seeing a spare tire), he pulled out a set of rusty Petanque boules and we played a game right there in the driveway. The game helped make for a most enjoyable evening socializing with a new friend.

Gerard's Renault, containing tools and boules



Gerard, owner of camp grounds in the countryside, near Trebes, France

During our conversation, he told me about a boulodrome in Trebes, just a few miles from the camp – so I camped there for several days. When I returned from Trebes in the evenings, Gerard invited me for aperitifs (Pastis, of course).

Gerard, his friend and our friend, Mr. Pastis!

 

 



Jim, Brigitte and Jerome
at La Petite Boules Trebeenne Petanque Club,
Trebes, France

In Trebes, I played some pick-up games one day and the next, I was able to play in a triplets/mixed tournament. Philip, Bridgette and I managed to get as far as the semi-finals in the consolate bracket – and we each won 4 Euros ($5.25)! Who cares if the admission fee was also 4 Euros…I'm counting that as a WIN!

 

After three days, I left the Trebes area for Carcassonne to search out the two boulodromes there. I found the first one but it was vacant with lots of leaves on the outdoor terrains, so I went to the other one. As luck would have it, being Sunday afternoon, they had a tournament and I got onto a team with a couple of guys and we did poorly.

Looks easy but this was very difficult terrain in Carcassonne, France

I would call this terrain in Carcassonne, France, a gravel pit on top of deformed concrete!

David Faro, President of Cite Petanque Club,
Carcassonne, France

We were quickly sent to the consolate round where we lost our first game there too. Not sure why we got to continue (double elimination in the consolate round?)  but we won the 2nd consolate but lost the 3rd – no prize for my team! I did meet the president of Cite Petanque Club, David Faro –> http://citepetanqueclub.free.fr/  This was definitely a working man’s petanque club. Not many older players. The members and the terrain were very different from the Jules le Noir Club in La Ciotat. Several times it was difficult to see the jack because of the big rocks.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: My return to Toulouse, France - where I lived in 1975.