NW Regional Mixed Triples @ La Boule d'Or, SF

Hong Kong Pétanque

Petanque Tournament

Les Boules Cafe Petanque is honoured to invite you on Sunday 5th June 2011 at 11 am until 8.30 pm to a petanque championship (3 persons per team), for beginners as well as experts.

The winning and the second team will get three bottles of champagne each (one bottle per person), offered by Frenchy Cellar, www.frenchy-cellar.com

FEE FOR THIS YEAR' S TOURNAMENT

MEMBER OF LES BOULES: HK$ 90 per person with a free standard drink until Sunday May 29, 2011.
Late enrolment fee is HK$ 140, after Sunday May 29, 2011.

NON-MEMBER: HK$ 150 per person with a free standard drink until Sunday May 29, 2010.
Late enrolment fee is HK$ 200, after Sunday May 29, 2011.

Bring your friends and familly as well looking foward to some good games.

You can contact me from now to book your place or for any question.

Come with your friends, drink, listen to music.

Les Boules Cafe Petanque details

Address

18 Woo Hop St, Shek Tong Tsui

Area Sheung Wan

Open 11am - 8pm

Visit website

View events at Les Boules Cafe Petanque

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Hotelier transforms quaint Shelter Island inn

After a deal to buy a bigger, more visible hotel on Shelter Island fell through, an international hotelier and his local partner invested in refurbishing the Olde Country Inn.
Scotland native Alistair MacLean and John Sieni, a lifelong Shelter Island resident, in January bought the Olde Country Inn and renamed it “La Maison Blanche.” Since then, the duo has transformed the 19th century structure into an upscale hotel with a French flair – a complete makeover that involved replacing old-fashioned net curtains with sleek shades, repainting peach walls a chic white and installing courts for Pétanque, a version of bocce ball.
MacLean, who also runs The Smyth in Tribeca and formerly managed hotels in Saint-Tropez, did not disclose how much he invested in the hotel. Last year, he put an offer a Shelter Island landmark, the Chequit Inn, but the deal collapsed over a dispute on a parking easement.
The hotel business on the 12.1-square-mile Island, which only has a year-round population of 2,300, is booming, according to local real estate agents. Economic strain has pushed Island visitors who would normally rent a home for the season into the Island’s hotels, explained Georgiana Ketcham. Ketcham owns Georgiana B. Ketcham Real Estate in Shelter Island and has worked as a broker for 40 years.
“People are doing a lot of weekend vacations rather than whole seasons,” Ketcham said.
The Chequit, which greets visitors to the Island who arrive on the North Ferry, is currently on the market for $4.75 million, according to Brandon Tarpey, a broker from Manhattan-based Massey Knakal who is handling the transaction. Since the real estate firm took over selling the 35-room hotel in March, it has received inquiries from as far afield as the West Coast, Tarpey said.
The Chequit also comes with the Ram’s Head Inn, a 250-seat restaurant overlooking Dering Harbor.
La Maison Blanche’s location on the Island is more secluded, quiet and closer to the beach, advantages in MacLean’s eyes when he looked into buying it and making it into a year-round destination. MacLean had a sense of the real estate market from his eight years of experience running Sunset Beach, another hotel with a sophisticated feel on Shelter Island.
On weekends since April, the hotel’s restaurant has recorded more than 100 covers per night. MacLean hopes a deal recently inked with a Manhattan-based seaplane company can attract more customers.
Helicopters, the preferred mode of transportation for many East End visitors, are forbidden on Shelter Island, MacLean noted.
Penelope Moore, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group in Shelter Island, said that the year-round businesses on Shelter Island that do best cater to both the locals and the out-of-towners. From what she’s seen of the new hotel so far – such as its takeout window, lunch menu and restaurant – it has a chance of succeeding.
“They have a lot of goodwill to begin with, and it seems like they want to appeal to everybody, both year-rounders and vacationers,” Moore said.

Benicia to Host French Marketplace

Benicia Main Street on June 11 will bring its third annual Marché Benicia, an outdoor marketplace with a French flair, to downtown Benicia's scenic shoreline promenade.

The marketplace, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the foot of First Street overlooking the Carquinez Straits, is an ideal setting for a day of food and wine, arts and crafts, and delightful entertainment, organizers say.

Entertainment includes French barrel organist Michel Saga and French singer Isabelle Magidson, pétanque (a French game of boules) offered by the Lamorinda and Marin Pétanque Clubs, can-can dancing by Susie Harper's School of Dance and face-painting, among other activities.

Eventgoers can stroll, shop and relax while listening to the songs and music that bring the ambiance of Paris to the shores of Benicia. Admission is free.

For more information, contact Benicia Main Street at 745-9791 or visit beniciamainstreet.com

LPM - Steak Picnic

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Steak Picnic and Panaché Tournament

Open to all – bring guests and friends

Tournament Fee $7.00

Tournament Registration ends @ 11:00 - Games begin after lunch

No Cash Prizes

Prizes awarded for 1^st 2^nd & 3^rd Place / wins + score

Plus Wine by raffle

*** Menu ***

Steak, carrots and peas, salad, brie & bread

(Bring your own plate and utensils)

Picnic Cost $13.00 per person

**Please Note**

**Reservations are Required for Lunch**

If you reserve by email, please leave the names of each person you are reserving for. If you are reserving by phone, please speak clearly – and leave a phone number in case of questions.

Reserve by Thursday, June 9

Alain Efron email: lutecemeister@gmail.com or phone (415) 479-5820

For up-to-date tournament information check

www.cochonnetmarin.com or www.petanque-marin.blogspot.com

La Boule d'Or, San Francisco

This coming Sunday, our friends in San Francisco, La Boule d'Or, will host a mixed doubles tournament at their beautiful courts in Golden Gate Park. Entry fee is $7.- with cash prizes.
Registration ends at 9:30 and games start at 10:00
contact: alain gusella for more information: 1.209. 251.9157

2012 New Zealand International Open

click on image to enlarge

Pétanque America Open 2011

Click on the banner for more info

Please spread the word!

The Registration is now Open for the Pétanque America Open 2011

November 12th and 13th 2011.

Petanque America
1438-A East Oak St
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
Phone: 800-682-2557 or 904-491-1190
Fax: 904-491-1189
www.petanque-america.com

Marin parks visionary Pierre Joske dies at 82

Pierre Joske, a brilliant civic leader who spearheaded formation of the Marin County Open Space District and launched a string of regional parks during his 17 years as Marin's parks and recreation chief, has died at 83.

Mr. Joske died Sunday after suffering from prostate cancer.

Mr. Joske, who left county government in 1983 to set up an eyeglass business in Novato, was widely regarded as one of the most talented administrators of the era.

"He is one of our most important department heads ... one of the principal architects of the Open Space District," Supervisor Gary Giacomini said at the time. "He will be terribly missed," the late Gloria Duncan, then head of the Marin Conservation League, observed about his departure from county government. "He was a one-of-a-kind person."

Mr. Joske, who worked as chief of parks and planning for Los Angeles County before taking the $14,000-a-year top parks job at Marin Civic Center in 1966, promptly scrapped a parks master plan that failed to provide for recreational hubs near population centers along Highway 101.

He launched Stafford Lake, McInnis, McNears Beach and Bay Front parks, talked the state into acquiring China Camp and Rancho Olompali, urged acquisition of 6,000 acres on Mount Tamalpais, and promoted the Open Space District. He boosted a growing system of bicycle, riding and hiking trails, as well as preservation of Bolinas Lagoon.

Mr. Joske moved the county fair from the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross to the Civic Center grounds during a storied career in which he also headed Marin Center operations. The outspoken parks advocate fought back plans in 1973 to merge his department with the planning and public works departments, calling the efficiency proposal by County Administrator John Barrows "a step backward."

Barrows this week recalled Mr. Joske as an administrator who performed well, doing "a good job" with a focus on preserving parkland. "He was certainly dedicated to the county park system, improving and adding to it where he could," Barrows said.

Mr. Joske was born in Germany, the son of a Jewish lawyer, and fled to France with his family to avoid Nazi persecution. He wandered Europe as a refugee after being separated from his family for a time, then worked as an estate gardener and fruit farm manager. He served in both the French and U.S. armies and attended college in France, New York and California, earning a degree in horticulture and landscape architecture. He was a landscape construction foreman before joining the Los Angeles County engineer's office in 1956.

He lived in Novato for many years, and moved to the city of Sonoma two decades ago, where he built a family home on an acre lot. He traveled and was an active member of the Petanque Club in recent years.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Maryse, of Sonoma; two sons, Mark, of Davis, and Alain, of Rohnert Park; a daughter, Marianne, of Sonoma; five grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Plans for a celebration of his life in July are pending. For more information, query arjoske@pacbell.net.

Donations in his memory may be made to the open space districts in Marin or Sonoma counties.

Pierre was also a great friend of many of the members of La Pétanque Marinière and was the person responsible for the county granting conservatorship to our newly formed club in 1972 for the land on which our beautiful courts are located. He was a North West Regional counselor for the FPUSA and one of the Founders of The Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club in Sonoma.

An interview with Pierre Joske, the first general manager of the Marin County Open Space District; hosted by Martin Rosen, former president of the Trust for Public Land can be seen by clicking on the following links:

Pierre Joske Interview; 1 0f 2

Pierre Joske Interview; 2 0f 2

Guerrilla Pétanque in Lamorinda

This coming weekend there is a lot of serious Petanque happening in the area, notably the National Doubles Tournament in Fresno. Get there if you can!

For those who really cannot get to Fresno but are looking for another way to get some excitement on this coming Sunday the 15 th. we will be having another Guerrilla Petanque Tournament at the Lamorinda Petanque Club courts.

It really is a crazy idea because the Weather Man says we have a 70% chance of rain, and I believe him. He's been right more often than not. But so what? It is Guerrilla Petanque after all, and what's a little rain between petanquers? Bring your umbrella, rain gear, scuba gear, or whatever and come and meet the challenge. Also bring a little picnic and some drinks. We will have a couple of gazebos set up for shelter so that you can at least be in the dry when you have lunch.

We play our Guerrilla Petanque on a set course of 13 pitches. We will play doublette and if you arrive with a partner you will play together for the entire match. If you arrive alone we will organise a good partner for you.

There will be a nominal entry fee of $5.00 per person. You don't have to pay. Crazy? No! You see, there will be cash prizes awarded but only those who have paid will be eligible for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place based on your final team score after 2 rounds of play. That means twice around the 13 pitches..

100% of any money paid for entry fees will be divided fairly between 1st 2nd and 3rd place.

It is really just for fun, but it is pretty challenging as well. Come along.

Etienne

Visit our blog at lamorindapetanque.blogspot.com

LPM Tête á Tête Tournament 2011

Everyone seemed to have a nice time at yesterday's tête á tête (singles) tournament. There were an even number of competitors on both sides as twelve men and twelve women competed. After the dust had settled the victorious were:

1^st Place Men’s: Paul Kos $38 + ribbon w/ crepe & brioche sac

1^st Place Women’s: Verena Rytter $38 + ribbon w/ crepe & brioche sac

2^nd Place Men’s: Jacques Lecouturier $22 + ribbon

2^nd Place Women’s: Peggy Matsuda $22 + ribbon /

3^rd Place Men’s: Patrick Vaslet $15 + ribbon /

3^rd Place Women’s: Tie Sabine Mattei $7.50 + ribbon / Carolina Jones $7.50

La Boule d'Or, San Francisco

San Francisco's own La Boule d'Or pétanque club, now has their very own website. Click here to visit the site

Tête á Tête Tournament

Saturday, May 7
Men's & Women's Tête à Tête (Singles) Tournament
$7.00 Entry Fee

Registration ends at: 10:00 a.m. Games start at 10:30 a.m.
Men’s Tournament / Woman’s Tournament
Cash Prizes for the first three places in each tournament

Registration and cut-off, and tournament start times will be honored.

Be on time!