How to Play 

MOST BOULES PLAYERS  believe that the game is easy to learn, but difficult to master. This concise eight-point tutorial will get you started playing pétanque. ​From that point on you can enjoy learning by doing. A word to the wise, pétanque is measured according to the metric system, so do yourself a favor and get comfortable with metric measures.
Social play will advance your competence. Drills will do even more to advance your skill set. You might find that nothing does more to push you onto the next level of play by focusing your mind and body than keen competition.
​Photo courtesy of Coast Multimedia.

1

Petanque is usually played by teams of two against two (three boules per player) or three against three (two boules per player). One player can play against another with three boules each.

2

The metal balls we play with are called boules. They are 70.5 cm–80 cm (± 3 in) in diameter and 650g–800g (±1.5 lbs) in weight. The small target ball is called the cochonnet, bouchon, or jack.

3

All players must play from the same circle drawn on the ground. The circle must be 35cm–50cm, or about 18 inches. Players' feet must be in the circle and always touching the ground while they play.

4

A coin toss decides who plays first. The first team to play throws the jack in any direction to a distance between 20 and 33 feet, and a minimum of 1 yard from any obstacle.

5

That same team then plays their first boule, trying to get it close to the jack. This is called “pointing." The boule closest to the jack “has the point."

6

The opposing team then tries to get their boule even closer to the cochonnet and so “take the point." If they fail to take the point, they must try until they succeed.

7

The team that doesn’t have the point must play until either their boule is the closest or they run out of boules. Then the other team must do the same. At some point either team may choose to try knocking away the boule that is holding the point. This is known as “shooting."

8

Play continues like this until all the boules have been played. The round is over and it’s time to count points. The team with the boule closest to the jack gets one point for each of its boules that is closer to the jack than the closest boule of the other team. The team that scored starts the next round by drawing a new circle where the jack lies and again throwing the jack between 20–33 feet. More rounds are played until one team reaches 13 points and wins the match.

How to guides

The button below will take you to links for one-page downloads of how to play guides in English, Spanish, and French, as well as customizable how to play guides in English and Spanish, and FAQs in English and Spanish.