WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The French bowling game pétanque is one of the few games you can play with a glass of wine in your hand.

Jean Francois Pellet, a winemaker at Pepper Bridge Winery, grew up playing the game in Switzerland.

"It's a very social game, as you can see," he said as a dozen people clustered around a large rectangular gravel playing field in Lavant Woolfe's backyard recently tossing multi-sized steel balls at small wooden targets.

"You have a glass of wine and a little chatter," he said.

Nearby was a table with several bottles of wine and a variety of food.

"Having good food, good wine and good conversation is a big part of the game," said Woolfe, president of the Walla Walla Pétanque Club.

Woolfe estimated there were about 25 people in Walla Walla who played frequently, but there are about 90 on the group's mailing list.

Pétanque (pronounced "pay-tahank") -- a deceptively easy French bowling game -- is similar to Italian bocce and British lawn bowling. In all three games large balls are tossed at a smaller target with the goal of getting the ball closest to the target.

"It's a game almost anyone can play and have fun at with very elementary skills," said Aaron Burgess, an artist with homes in the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla.

It's something anyone can do, agreed Sally Wood, who picked up the game about five years ago after seeing it played in Seattle. She and her husband continued playing when they moved to Walla Walla.

During the summer she and her husband try to play at least twice a week, she said.

"The vagaries (of the game) are such that everybody can be a winner," said Al Roberts of Walla Walla.

It is addictive enough that most of the players at Woolfe's house had built terrains in their backyards including the Woods. The terrains vary in size but are generally flatted gravel fields with a border around the edge to keep the boules in the playing area.

In pétanque, the variously sized steel "boules" are tossed underhand at a small wooden target called a cochonnet, or "piglet" in French.

The game can be played in singles, doubles or triples, Woolfe said. At his house people were playing two to a team.

The target is tossed about 15 to 30 feet from the players who stand in a throwing circle. The first player, standing still with feet together, tosses out a boule -- each person gets three -- then the other team tosses until it has the closest boule to the target, either by throwing at the target or trying to knock out another player's boule.

"It's a little like chess," Woolfe said.

There can be a lot of walking around and studying the terrain and how the boules are arranged, especially at the higher levels of play, he said.

When everyone has tossed their boules, the team with the boule closest to the target wins the round. They get one point for each boule closer to the target than the other team's boules. The game is played to 13 points.

Unlike lawn bowling, which is played on groomed grass, or bocce, which is played on regulation courts, pétanque terrains can vary in size and the surface can vary in slope and can include obstacles like tree roots.

That is part of the challenge, Woolfe said.

While the measuring tapes came out a few time for close calls, the conversation was as important as the throw during the game at Woolfe's house.

He and others are hoping to get permission to build a terrain in one of Walla Walla's parks so more people can see the game played and get involved. There are five private terrains in Walla Walla currently, he said.

Grant Godard, a house painter from Walla Walla, started playing about a year ago. Part of the game's attraction is the concentration it takes when tossing the boule and it is not too physical.

"It's fun to get into and it kind of takes your mind off things," he said.

Several other people said they found the game relaxing to play.

"It's a very addictive game," Burgess said.