French yard game used as tool to teach French

Learning a new language is no easy feat, but grasping a new dialect while also discovering a new pastime can make the transition a bit easier.
Mike LeBlanc, of Lafayette, said, “The hidden agenda of Pétanque is to teach others French. You explain the history of the game in French and you tell others how to play the game in French.”
Leblanc, a volunteer at the Experience Louisiana Festival, has played Pétanque for eight years. He and some friends were planning a French picnic and a French man from Reynes, France, who had been playing Pétanque since he was a child, taught him how to play the game.
Pétanque originated in the early 1900s in France and is like bocce ball. The goal of the game is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground. The game is also popular in Italy, Spain and Portugal.
“Petite chochons, or little pigs, are the smaller balls used in pétanque,” LeBlanc said. “The boules are the bigger balls, and the object of the game is to get one of your boule’s closest to the petite chochon. It’s the same rules as bocce, but pétanque balls are heavier, and the bocce balls are colored.”
Leblanc has played pétanque in other states and countries, and he has even met four-time pétanque world champion Bernard Champey of Ardeche, France.
While Leblanc taught some French and some pétanque at the festival, he also had the opportunity to have some full-fledged French conversations a well.
“My dad was a janitor at the school in Mamou, and on his breaks, he and another worker would play bocce under the oak trees by the school,” said Deola Ardoin, of Savoy, as she and LeBlanc discussed the Cajun heritage, their families and the game of pétanque. “I don’t know where he learned to play, but I ran across his set of balls the other day.
To contact Claudette Olivier, email claudette.olivier@eunicetoday.com