Boules  (4 of 26)

Aside from football, boules (also called petanque) is pretty much the national sport of France, at least among old men in parks. The play is much like bocce, curling, or lawn bowling...get your ball as close to the mark (in this case, a smaller ball) as you can and you win. The older guys in the game pictured...they were so good it didn't even seem like they were aiming when they threw. A quick flick of their wrists and their opponents' balls were send flying across the dirt.

This photo belongs to an album called Paris in April 2, 04/2005. Explore more photos on kottke.org.