The Playing Court

• The playing court is 14’ wide, 40’ long  (twice the minimum throwing distance) and bounded by landscape timber. The playing surface is filled a sand/shell mix or other material such as finely crushed bluestone. The filling material should be as non-abrasive as possible. Most boules are chrome plated and an abrasive surface will rapidly destroy the finish.
  
  
• The filler material can vary but it's characteristics are fairly important. It should NOT be loose sand. The boules are heavy steel and will bury themselves in soft material when thrown. Be wary of bluestone, in some  areas, it is not very pure and mixed with very hard materials such as quartz. Unfortunately I couldn't find either crushed shell or quality bluestone for my home court so I used "washed sand" often used as fill under pavement. It is unfortunately more abrasive than I would desire but it is what I have found so far.
  
  
• The best example of sand/shell courts I've played on is at Cypress Cove Resort in Florida. Shell is easy to get down there.
  
  
• The best example of a bluestone court I've played on is at Avalon in West Virginia. They have very pure bluestone which is almost "soapy" to the touch. Certainly easy on the boules! For the trivia folks, there is blue stone and bluestone. True bluestone isn't just a blue colored rock, it is a very fine grained sandstone and is soft as rocks go.
  
  
• A concrete, flagstone or similar 18" x 18" "throwing" pad is placed on each end. It is centered on the end and placed against the landscape timber.
  
  
• The landscape timbers have pre painted markings to expedite measuring.
  
  
• Markers are placed on each side, at the center of the court and 8’ from the end of the court. The center markers represent an approximate cochonnet minimum throwing distance of 6 meters and the end ones represent an approximate maximum throwing distance of 10 meters. The 8 feet of court beyond the far markers allows for reasonable play without contacting the timber.
  
  
• Markers are placed on each end, 20" in from the side. These markers are used to judge the distance of the initial toss of the cochonnet such that it is not too near the sides for reasonable play.
  
  
• A score keeping device (for two teams) capable of scoring to 13 is desirable
  
  
• Two boule racks at each end of the court are desirable. One side of the court is "red" and another is "blue"
  
  
• A tape measure must be available to determine the boule closest to the cochonnet when it is not obvious.

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