French Legation Pétanque History

Pétanque has been played at the French Legation since 1999. This is the story of how it got there — and the person most responsible for making it happen.

Jerome Potts and the Alliance Française

The story begins with a Frenchman, a park near some volleyball courts, and a problem with scheduling.

Jerome Potts moved to Austin from Pau, France in 1991, working as a contract programmer. He joined the Alliance Française d'Austin in 1997 and inherited something valuable: a Saturday morning pétanque game at Pease Park, near the volleyball courts, which had been organized by Didier Jumeau before Jerome took it over. Jerome moved the games to Saturday afternoons.

The problem was the volleyball courts. When they were in use, pétanque had nowhere to go. Other spots around the park didn't work. By December 1997, games had shifted to one Sunday a month, and Jerome relocated to Garrison Park in South Austin — pleasant enough, but too far south for most players.

He needed a better home.

A Conversation with the Director

Jerome approached the Director of the French Legation with a simple proposition: let the Alliance Française d'Austin play pétanque on the grounds regularly. The director agreed. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who managed the site, concurred.

In the fall of 1999, the Alliance Française began playing pétanque at the French Legation one Sunday a month. Attendance was modest at first — six to ten people — but it was a start, and the setting was exactly right. A French game, on the grounds of the old French diplomatic mission, in the capital of what had once been an independent republic. It fit.

Food, Wine, and a Growing Community

The games grew. And then, in 2001, something shifted.

Julia Bower started bringing bread, cheese, and a bottle of wine. Others followed. The food became more ambitious. Bert Piboin joined the group and brought dishes that raised the standard further. What had been a game became a gathering.

In March 2001, Elisabeth McKay, then president of the Alliance Française, persuaded Jerome to expand to two Sundays a month — the second and fourth Sundays — an arrangement that held for years.

Jerome continued organizing, hauling gear, and keeping the games going until August 2012, when he handed the reins to Ed Priest, who would go on to become the first president of the Legation Boules Club.

Merci beaucoup, Jerome.

Where Things Stand Today

The Legation Boules Club, founded in 2014, plays on Wednesdays and has extended the community Jerome built into something larger and more permanent.

None of it would exist without a Frenchman who moved to Austin, picked up someone else's game, and found it a home.

Origins of the LBC (links to that footer page)