French culture festival offers food, wine — even bowling

More than 200 French expatriates and San Antonio (Texas) Francophiles gathered at the historic Willow Way estate Sunday afternoon to celebrate the art, culture, cuisine and wine of France.

The crowd took part in the San Antonio French Cultures Festival: Mois de la Francophonie 2011, patterned after festivals in Houston and Dallas. The event kicked off a monthlong celebration, which will feature French food, films and music at events across the city.

Scheduled events include a tour of Napoleonic artifacts, a contemporary French cinema festival and sampling a variety of champagnes.

Read more

VOMPC - Singles & Soup

VOMPC's season opener, "Singles & Soup" tournament has been moved to Sunday, February 27th due to inclement weather (to say the least).
If you are planning on partaking of the delicious, heart-warming soup prepared by Master Chef Narin Garrett, we need your reservation. There will be two soups, one of which will be vegetarian. The easiest way to reserve is to leave a message on the Club Hotline at (707) 343-9465. Easier still, you don't have to hunt down a partner to play!!!! Play starts @ 10:00 a.m. Be there or miss out!!!
Click on VOMPC for more club information

California Commemorative Cup

Sunday, March 13 ***Daylight savings starts***
Pierre Joske Courts - San Rafael (directions)

Select Doubles - 1 man + 1 woman
Concours - plus consolante if 16 teams or more.
Entry fee - $7 per person
Prizes:
1st Place - Plaques & Perpetual Trophy
2nd Place - Plaques

Registration ends at: 10:00 a.m. SHARP
Games start at 10:30 a.m.
Bring your own lunch
Apéritifs to be served after the tournament.

New Zealand Earthquake

LPM hopes that our friends belonging to the Christchurch and Papanui pétanque clubs in Christchurch, NZ were not affected adversely by the latest earthquake to hit their region. Our prayers and well wishes are with you, your families and loved ones during this difficult time.

Last week, LPM opened it's 2011 season with quite a well-attended tournament. The weather, although not from the onset, actually acquiesced and decided to cooperate with a sunny day after all. Twenty-two doubles teams from many parts of the bay area competed, and seemed to enjoy the competition present.

Click on here to view a slide show of the day's events.

The winners of the tournament were:
First Place: Gilles Karpowicz & Barbara Hall
Second Place: Jean-Claude Etallaz & Claudie Chourré
Third Place: Alain Gusela & Phim Nielsen
Fourth Place (Tie): John & Joss Kraurer
William Widmaier & Tiaré Ferrari

California Commemorative Cup

On Sunday March 13 the California Commemorative Cup will take place in San Rafael. Formerly know as the Northern California Commemorative Cup, the board of LPM decided that it was in more of a neighborly fashion to change the name so as to welcome any and all FPUSA registered pétanque players in the state of California. If you think you may be interested in playing, please contact LPM for ideas pertaining to lodging. As the format will be select doubles, start looking for your partner now. We hope to see you there.

Select Doubles - 1 man + 1 woman
Daylight savings starts
Registration ends at: 10:00 a.m.
Games start at 10:30 a.m.
Concours plus Consolante, if 16 Teams or more
Apéritifs.

New Sidebar Links

For the convenience of those traveling to compete in a pétanque event and not knowing what the weather may have in store for the day, you can now consult the weather for the four basic bay area pétanque locations, by clicking on the appropriate location under WEATHER in the sidebar on the right side of the blog.

Lamorinda Pétanque

Due to the unfortunate loss of Menlo Park's pétanque club, La Boule Joyeuse, Lamorinda Pétanque who has always had to share a Sunday with another Bay Area club in order to hold their competitions, has stepped into their own Sunday, being the third Sunday of every month.
The long standing tradition has given the first Sunday to San Francisco, the second to Marin, the third now goes to Lamorinda and the fourth has been Sonoma.
Since putting together a tournament consists of many people contributing of their time and efforts, please try and attend as many as you can so as to make each event a winner for every club.

This Sunday, Lamorina will host another Sunday Funday as described in the following flyer.

LPM - Season Opener

Join us in San Rafael this Sunday for our opening tournament of the 2011 season.
The format will be select doubles with cash prizes. Bring your own munchies

Tournament registration CLOSES at 10:00 am, and the games will commence at 10:30.

Click on weather for the latest conditions.