Charleston, SC

Last weekend the Edwards clan made a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, to participate in the Alliance Francaise de Charleston’s petanque picnic and to also meet with Chris Strickland, Carolina Petanque’s newest member, and a few others that Kirk had been in contact with concerning petanque in the Charleston area.

“The trip was a huge success! We went down on Saturday and met Nico Romo, the owner and head chef at Fish restaurant. Nico is a great guy and plays petanque regularly with a few others in the Charleston area. However, he has been pretty busy with a new addition to the family, as well as business obligations, so would not be able to meet us on his only day off to play on this trip.” said Kirk.

The following day the Edwardses went into downtown and did a little shopping and exploring before meeting at Hampton Park to play. As an aside, Hampton Park was the site of a horse track in 1835, Union prisoner of war camp, a mass grave, site of the first Memorial Day ceremony in the USA in 1865, a SC Inter-State and West Indian Exposition 1902 (the original Bandstand is still there), redesigned park by Olmsted 1906, and zoo until 1975, as well as many other historical happenings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Park_(Charleston)

When they arrived at the park, they were met by Chris and his son Mason and were introduced to members of the Alliance. “Everyone was very friendly and interested that we had traveled so far to meet with them and play petanque.” After some snacks and refreshing drinks the group found a shady spot to play on one of the pathways under the trees that gave some relief from the heat. The kids organized into one group and they played most of the afternoon together and the adults organized into another group. Quickly everyone was playing in a friendly but competitive atmosphere with plenty of spectators who were going to the MOJA festival that was also happening in the park.

As evening approached and more people were coming to the park for the nights activities, the group started disbanding. Kirk did get to talk to Luc from the Alliance about the possibility of our organizations working together to promote petanque and French culture and he thought it was a great idea. More to come on this topic. “It was great to finally meet Chris, and he will be a wonderful ambassador of the sport and of Carolina Petanque in Charleston; we hope to play with him and Mason again very soon.”