A game that doesn't go round in circles, but where you don't lose the boule.
For over 40 years now, the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer has played host to the World Square Boules Championships, a competition that started out as an informal discussion, but has since become a reality.
Over 30 years ago, members of the “Cercle des Amis” du Haut de Cagnes, an apolitical mutual aid association with its meeting room in the middle of the village's steep street, came up with the idea of organizing a square boules championship on the town's famous slope, since its steepness prevented any hope of playing with normal, round boules.
And so, in August 1980, for its first edition, the event became the World Square Boules Championship.
A competition which, from its very first frames, aroused the enthusiasm of the public and participants alike.
And what seemed a little zany has continued for the 42nd consecutive year: a new tradition has been born in the streets of the old town! So much so that every year, new villages with steep streets adopt the discipline and come to the World Championships in the town where it was born.
Every year since then, the Montée de la bourgade and adjacent streets have been closed to traffic to allow the competition to take place as normal... on gradients ranging from 10 to 18%.
Several hundred competitors take part in this competition, where the boules and “bouchin” are made of pinewood. A whole neighborhood gets in tune with a very strange ball: made of wood, it has six sides in a perfect square.
http://www.cagnes-tourisme.com/
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