Petanque is like the French version of bocce ball. There are four players, one person throws a wooden jack and then everyone tries to throw their ball (each person has 2) closest to the jack. The biggest difference is probably that there is no real court, it's just dirt. Also the balls are solid metal, super heavy, and you throw them with your palm facing down, you don't roll them. You can "point," which is just throwing to get nearest the jack, or you can "tires," which is when you try to knock the other person's ball away.
When we showed up at the petanque court there was a sign that said, "Club Petanque du Marais," but we were playing in a public park which is free, so we went in anyway. Some super old lady came up to us and rattled off some bitchy French about how the club was playing. Whatever, we'd stay on our side of the court and we wouldn't bother them. Then she walks over to her sign, picks it up, and walks past us while holding it up next to her face and pointing. It was hilarious.
While we were playing she came over a few times, each time becoming gradually more friendly until she eventually invited us to join her club! It's only 7€ but you can only sign up in February. Bummer. As we were leaving she informed us, "Je suis presidente du club petanque." Pretty big deal, guys.
Caitlin, Sarah, me and Sam (the entire afternoon group)
Caitlin is pointing to MY BALL! I got a point! I actually got 3, overall. You technically play to 13 points, but we don't really know how long we played because Caitlin stopped keeping track of her points. Pretty sure she won.
Facebook album here, which also includes a couple of pictures from dinner at Melanie's house. Her host mom was out of town this weekend so we went over and had dinner and then ate a ton on macarons from Arnold Delmontel. I wanted to go back to Arnaud Lahrer but they apparently are closed from 1-3:30pm so I had to go next door. Not as good, but we got a bunch of delicious flavors to try (and a few no-so-delicious ones)
Also tacked onto the end of this post:
Thursday Melanie and I took our usual field trip, this week to Palais de Tokyo, which is a contemporary art museum near the Eiffel Tower in the 16th. A couple posts back you can see the sweet view of the tower from next to the museum. Entrance was only 1€ with our Louvre cards, which was great because I will most certainly be going back with the twins. It was probably one of the coolest museums I've ever been to.
It's the only museum in Paris that is open until midnight. They have no permanent collecting, and instead give experimental artists a place in central Paris to exhibit. The emphasis is on interactive art and installations and it had a huge open warehouse feel to it, even though the exterior looks like this:
(but I don't think that thing is on the roof anymore)
The website's description of the exhibition I saw:
"Every year the Palais de Tokyo invites an artist to take on the role of curator and
come up with an out-of-the-ordinary project. Enlisting the help of
quite a few collaborators, Jeremy Deller, a winner of the prestigious
Turner Prize, has devised an exhibition that defies categorization
where the protagonists can escape being defined as artists and the
objects presented are not always apprehended as works of art."
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