TaxGalInCal

Took a lovely November trip to Barcelona and did a walk 'round the Sagrada Familia. Across the street by the reflecting pool was a small park where older men were playing a game with wooden pins that seemed like a cross between petanque and lawn bowling. Does anyone know the Spanish name of the game they were playing? Someone here thinks it is "bittle" in English.

Thanks!

mules

I have seen that there too. It is boules aka petanque.

Giggleswick

Are you thinking of bittles Catalanes?

TaxGalInCal

I have seen petanque played both in Marseilles and the US. It is usually played with metal balls similar to wooden bocce gear. It is possible the game is called bittles Catalanes. Thank you both for your input.

Melyssa

Petanque balls are hollow and made out of steel. Bocce balls are solid and made out of wood. Well… originally bocce balls were made of wood. Today they are typically made out of a hard epoxy resin, i.e. hard plastic.
Petanque balls are smaller than bocce balls, and, because they are hollow, are lighter than bocce balls. Petanque balls are about the size of an orange. Bocce balls are about the size of a grapefruit.
In bocce, the ball is rolled with an “open” hand. At the moment that the ball leaves the hand, the palm is up and the ball rolls off of the fingers onto the court. In petanque, the ball is thrown “back handed”. At the moment that the ball leaves the hand, the back of the hand is up, and the fingers are curled around the ball, holding it, then releasing it.
Because bocce is a rolling bowling game, it must be played on a relatively flat, smooth surface. Petanque, on the other hand, can be played almost anywhere, even on fairly rough ground.

mules

The beauty of Flyertalk is how much people know! I always learn something here.

LapLap

Just to note that the pins are called Bitlles in Catalan, not Bittles. Two "l"s make a "y" sound, so the game is pronounced Bityes.

JDiver

Bitlles catalanes is a traditional Catalan sport in which a bitllot (small wooden pin or bottle) is thrown against a stand of bitlles from a specfified distance with the goal of knocking them over. Bitlles catalanes is played by approximately 2,000 people in Catalunya. Link to Vikipèdia page in Catalan.

Listen for the proper Catalan pronunciation - a bit like BEEL-yas.



. . . . . 2:35 YouTube of Catalan championship bitlles catalanes tournament

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Foundation

TaxGalInCal

Great pictures. That is what we watched. I must have misread bitlles as bittles. Thank you for the correction.