A Sand-Filled Bastille Day Storms Brooklyn
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Pétanque players converged on makeshift courts in Brooklyn yesterday to vie for the championship of what organizers called North America’s largest pétanque tournament.
The pétanque club La Boule New Yorkaise organized the sixth annual tournament to publicize the sport and celebrate the French national holiday Bastille Day, the club’s president, Ernesto Santos, said.
“We organize serious tournaments. This is more like a party,” Mr. Santos said. “It’s fun.”
Early Sunday morning, trucks delivered the sand to make 24 courts, covering two blocks of Smith Street. Eighty teams competed. The final match was fought by two teams from La Boule New Yorkaise.
In pétanque, players throw metal balls toward a smaller target ball, and gain points for landing the closest. The first team to get 13 points, or 11 in yesterday’s shortened contest, wins.
A founder of the Brooklyn Bastille Day festival, Bernard Decanali, said he enjoys the mix of cultures at the tournament. “It gives a chance for everyone to learn how to play the game,” he said. He added that he sold more than 100 sets of equipment to new players.
The French consul general, François Delattre, said the festival highlights a growing bond between Americans and the French. “The number of French people living in Brooklyn is really growing in a spectacular way,” he said. Yesterday’s festival is a proof of our friendship that I find great.” On Court 11, a team of three amateurs faced three pétanque clubmates, including Mr. Decanali and a teammate who is a national champion. The veteran players won 11 to 7, but acknowledged it wasn’t an easy victory. “They didn’t give us any break. They play very well,” Mr. Decanali, a Frenchman, said.
A member of the losing squad, Paige Laverty, who played for the first time on Saturday, said she was happy with the outcome. “We started off really strong,” she said. “To get seven points from them is insane — they’re the best.”
Although Bastille Day was Saturday, the city’s largest festival marking the event was held yesterday in Manhattan and attracted about 20,000 people, the French consulate said. The holiday commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in France in 1789, and the onset of the French Revolution.
