the game called, “feet planted” . . .

feet planted | pétanque | boule

a brief description of the game’s invention:

games where, a spherical object &/or ball | boule in french |, are played
on the ground have a very long history, dating back through the middle
ages to ancient rome, and before that to ancient greece and egypt . . .

in france in the second half of the 19th century, a form of boule known
as jeu provençal | or boule lyonnaise | was extremely popular. in this form
of the game, players rolled their ball or ran three steps before
throwing a ball . . .

pétanque originally developed as an offshoot or variant of jeu provençal,
near marseilles in la ciotat. ernest pitiot a local café owner and friend
of jules lenoir, developed a variant form of the game in which the length
of the pitch or field was reduced by roughly half . . .

most likely in order to accommodate lenoir who had trouble with forward
motion, they called the game, “pieds tanqués”, which paraphrases roughly to
english as feet planted | on the ground |, a name that eventually evolved
into the game’s current name, pétanque . . .

in 1910 the first pétanque tournament was organized by ernest pitiot, along
with his brother joseph pitiot, in la ciotat, in what is now called the jules lenoir boulodrome. the game spread quickly and soon became the most popular
form of boule in france . . .

pétanque: playing by the rules | the comprehensive
english-language source for the rules of pétanque . . .