No more Pentaque at Place Dauphine?
 

Too bad. I enjoy watching the elderly players. I've never seen noise or much dust. Has anyone else?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...t-hotspot.html

I don't hang around place Dauphine and don't intend to start. That article said the residents living there don't like it, they are very wealthy. I suppose I wouldn't either if some people were playing games outside my windows until late at night and attracting a lot of tourists who were making noise with loud voices. The sound of those balls clanking would drive me nuts, actually.

That is not an official petanque play area, just custom for them to play there but it is unusual if they've been doing it 100 years to stop it. There are plenty of places in Paris where they play that is in an official park and there is a particular area intentionally for boules, like in Luxembourg gardens. They even have signs saying it is reserved for petanque. In fact, that area (place Dauphine) is sort of ugly for a parc being only dirt, but grass would probably get trampled with so many tourists around there anyway. Seems like you would kind of know what you are getting into if you bought a place there, though.

It sounds like the tourist hotspot is a poor headline, that the complaint was from the residents, not the tourists. Actually, I'd never want to live in that location due to the tourists myself. I don't even understand the headline.

Plenty of people play petanque who are not elderly, actually, it's become almost trendy. If you really want to watch people play it, there are many places in Paris where you can.

That's ugly?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7623266287099/

As for the noise, it's more a click than a clank.

Must be rather the pastis than pétanque that is disturbing neighbors ;-) I'll try to find an article in French I distrust daily mail when it comes to pétanque in france !

Sacre bleu, the Daily Mail is one of the least trustworthy of British sensation-seeking newspapers. Far from a tourist hotspot, Place Dauphine is hidden down a short and narrow laneway and distinguished mostly by its chestnut trees. The biggest "neighbour" is the massive law courts cutting off the eastern end of the place. However, a striking statue of Henri IV stands guard over the hidden entrance, astride an equally fine horse, and between the two parts of Pont Neuf. He named the square for his son, the "Dauphine". I believe the much-loved, if pretty crummy cheap hotel Henri IV was closed some years ago (there's another with that name on the Left Bank.)

la place <b>Dauphine</b>, mais le <b>dauphin</b>.

There are so many places to play pétanque in Paris that are not directly below residential windows that it really appears that it must have been a very slow news day for the Daily Mail.

On a humorous but factual note, the word pétanque comes from the rule that the player must keep his feet still and together, side-by-side, which - in French - is "pieds tanqués". Tanquer is a regional verb, probably from the South of France, meaning "to keep still or immobile".

And do you know the biggest rival to France in the world championships every year? Thailand!

That is amazing. Former colonies like Madagascar and Tahiti are no surprise, but Thailand, alors ça c'est le comble!

What's the Thai word for cochonnet (the "piglet", the target ball)?

>> it must have been a very slow news day for the Daily Mail.<<

Exhausted themselves playing Vyshinsky:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...b029063d351410

#Sacre bleu!#
No French under 200 y/0 uses that expression. The journalist must have learned French in The Three Musketeers.