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