Great Pétanque Balls of Fire

After many long hours of watching old French men playing their pétanque (ed: definitely check out this link!) in the parks of Paris, I finally had a chance to toss the metal balls this Easter Sunday in Nantes! Allow me to explain: pétanque is the "bocce ball" of France, a sport (hey, if you can call golf a sport, you can call petonc a sport) in which nearly anybody could play as long as they have working arms. It begins by tossing the tiny yellow ball (le cochonnet) a few meters away. Each player has two large metal balls you toss in an attempt to be the closest to le cochonnet. You play traditionally in teams up to a score of 13. Claire took some pictures of us playing at Olivier (Claire's brother's) and Dorothée's (his wife) house.

French election-related Vocab for the Day: la procuration. As you may know, the French election is rapidly approaching (April 22nd). Because of a series of boring bureaucratic details I shan't bore you with, Claire is unable to vote in Paris and remains registered in her parents' home of LaBaule. But she's still going to be able to be represented by giving the right to vote "by procuration" to her father. She will simply tell him who she wants to vote for (that is, once she finally figures out WHO she is going to vote for...another story) and then trust him to mark it down for her. Anyways, I thought this was interesting since I'm pretty sure you can't do anything like this in the United States.