Playing international pétanque

“Gut gespielt!” '“Well played!” my German boules partner tells me. Germans seem to take boules or pétanque very seriously. I am paired with an experienced player and we are aiming for the cup. This is no ordinary competition; it is an inter-village affair in the French region of Saône-et-Loire and it has taken on something of an international status. The pitch is no dedicated boulodrome, but rather a patch of rutted gravel indented with dry rivulets from recent rainfall.

I have possibly drunk too much wine to have even the remotest chance of getting one of my boules anywhere near the little cochonnet, but my partner is an expert – and much to the surprise of the local French ladies’ teams and a Dutch expat pair, we win this ‘international’ competition, get presented with a ridiculously gaudy cup and six bottles of wine. There is no ill feeling amongst the locals who are just impressed at our apparent skill, even though I know my winning shot was guided by pinot noir rather than any innate ability.

I am a visiting player from a neighbouring village in this area of southern Burgundy, a region of Charolais cattle and Mâconnais vin blanc. Although very French, the village has a mix of nationalities in its midst. The landscape compares with Herefordshire; undulating and rural, with mellow stone houses. There is very little new building and the village is surrounded by flower-filled unimproved pasture and huge tracts of mixed woodland; a wildlife-rich landscape preserved by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – and as a conservationist, I will drink to that.

Villages such as this are a symbol of postwar European co-operation: Europeans living together, bringing their own cultural idiosyncrasies, but living in a spirit of co-operation and shared values. With all that is happening in Britain today, I do hope my international boule career will continue.