Pétanque anyone?

French teacher Jill Capozzoli
Photo by Jon Ann Cruver

Bonjour! The following article is a summary of a class activity from the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center's French teacher, Jill Capozzoli.

The class meets every Thursday at 10am to 11:30am in the Center. Jill is a very experienced teacher, as well as creative, just one of the many dedicated instructors who teach classes at the Center. 

Anyone wishing to join her class needs to have a pretty good knowledge of French as the class has been together for some time. However, new members are welcome.

“My intermediate French conversation and reading class at the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center is composed of a dozen senior citizens.” One of the stories read by the class was about one of France’s national pastimes: pétanque.

Many of the students had watched games of pétanque when they visited France, but only a couple had actually played the game.

Michelle Martin, president of the Edmonds Pétanque Club in Edmonds invited the class to play with the Club at the newly expanded Edmonds Civic Playfield which includes three special pétanque courts.

After a review of the French vocabulary and rules of the game, a great afternoon was enjoyed by members of both the Pétanque Club and French Class. It’s fun to note that the oldest student, the doyenne, turned out to be a better player than the youngest player, the teacher!

Playing pétanque in Edmonds turned out to be a great experience for the class. It provided a perfect occasion for the French language and culture to be combined while bringing students and members of the community together for a pleasant time.

See more about the classes offered at Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center at their website.

Read about pétanque at Wikipedia