How to play petanque

I've always wondered how to play Petanque...and playing on the beach in Nice, France would be tres chic.  Oui?

Petangue ~ Pétanque (French pronunciation: [petɑ̃k]; Occitan: Petanca [peˈtaŋkɔ]) is a form ofboules 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. It is also sometimes called a bouchon(literally "cork") or le petit ("the small one"). 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 and bowls.

The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat, in Provence, in southern France. The English and French name pétanque comes from petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats [ˈpɛs taŋˈkats], meaning "feet together"^[1] or more exactly "feet anchored".

Pétanque players on the beach at Nice, France.

The casual form of the game of pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France, mostly during their summer vacations. It is also widely played in neighboringSpain. There are about 375,000 players licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP), some 3,000 in England. In the United States (FPUSA) has 1,500 members in 40 clubs, and estimates about 30,000 play nation wide. Another 20,000 or so play inQuebec, Canada. Additionally, pétanque clubs have arisen in cities throughout the United States in recent years. Petanque is also played inSoutheast Asia due to the French presence in the area during the last centuries: Laos, north Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

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Petanque players in Cannes
Image via Wikipedia

This is very similar to bowling but I think I might stand a chance of winning throwing a hollow metal ball instead of a 10 to 12 pound bowling ball!  HA