4-8 players, aged 5 and up, played indoors and outdoors.

The game of bowls is one which goes back to the days of ancient Greece and Rome. Although les Boules is played in many countries throughout the world, the French people have unofficially adopted it as their national pastime. The bowling alley, with which Canadians are most familiar, evolved from les boules.

Originally played with wooden or heavy steel balls, les boules may be played with any size of ball, from the modern lawn-bowling balls, to the size of a little marble.

There should be eight playing balls, four for each team, and a smaller ball, the jack.

The game begins with one team (2-4 players on each team) tossing the jack out onto the field, about 6-10 meters away. The same team then starts by bowling one ball as close as possible to the jack. The other team then tries to bowl one ball closer to the jack than the first ball. If it is closer, the first team may bowl again but if the ball is not closer, the second team must keep on bowling until they get closer, or until they have bowled all their balls. In such a case, the first team will have won automatically, and have the opportunity to run their score by placing balls closer than the oppositions.

The team with one or more balls closer to the jack than any balls from the opposition gains one or more points, depending on the number of balls. The winners of that round have the opportunity to start the next round with the toss of the jack.

The Italian version of bowls is called Bocce, and in Yugoslavia it is called Balinec. Les Boules is known as Petaque in Southern France.