The playing field. Basic summary of Petanque. Simple summary of Petanque..... Pétanque is the French equivalent of the sport of Bocci except the balls are made of metal, and about the size of an orange; the playing surface is like a baseball infield (dirt, gravel, hard-packed sand) and may or may not have a boundary. The object is to stand in a circle drawn in the ground, and roll; lob; throw your ball as close as possible to a target ball. Only one team gets points per round, and the teams play as many rounds as it takes to arrive at 13 points. The first team to arrive at 13 points wins.