The game of boules is truly Provencal, and typifies the easy life in the warm sun with the smell of lavender and the sounds of clanking balls and glasses of pastis and the chatter of friends.
Little kids can get heavy plastic boules at the grocerie store before going on vacation.
The players, with three boules each and divided into two teams, then take turns throwing their heavy iron boules to land as close as possible to the cochonnet. The boules are polished steel, and each set of three is engraved with a pattern of concentric circles or squares for identification. A player from one team throws first, and then a player from the second team. After that, a player from the team that does not have the closest boule to the cochonnet throws. When all boules have been thrown, the team with the closest boule gets a point for every one of their boules closer to the cochonnet than the closest of the opposing team.