We arrived in Nouméa save and sound, if not a bit late. Our driver, Manu, who collected us from l’aéroport de Tontouta and, after a 45 minute drive to our hotel ‘le Lagon’ at Anse Vata, I was in bed by 1am.  Unfortunately for us, our schedule for our first day Nouméa was very full, so I had to be up at 5.15am to ensure I was ready to say ‘Bonjour’ to Manu again at 6am!  My french, after only 4 hours sleep ‘ce n’est pas bon’,  let me assure you.

Day one included general conversation,  an introduction to New Caledonia (the  culture, some history etc) and lessons  in pétanque.

Katrina had arranged for a  local man, Dominique, to come and  explain the rules (les règles) and give us some instruction on how to play. Dominique was an absolutely delightful man and we all loved his company. Plus I understood most of what he said, which I was really happy about, because it can certainly be difficult at times, depending on the speed of delivery!

Pétanque  is a form of boules where the goal is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (literally “piglet”), while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground. The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, although we played ours on lawn. It was a lot of fun, if a bit dangerous in parts, since tactics can involve throwing the metal ball high into the air. Perhaps pétanque is the sound it makes when someone is hit on the head with the metal ball, instead?? Just a thought….

It’s extremely popular throughout both Nouméa and France and every afternoon many games were being played along Promenade Roger Laroque, Anse Vata. Don’t be mislead into thinking it is just a bit of fun though, because it is very competitive!