Le biberon

Biberon. The kiss.

When your boule finishes its run touching the cochonnet — not near it, touching it — the French call that a biberon. A baby’s bottle. Because the boule is nursing.

It is the prettiest thing in the game and the most annoying, depending on whose boule it is.

A biberon is worth exactly one point, same as any boule that holds. But it changes the mène. The other team can’t push it away without moving the cochonnet too, and moving the cochonnet is a gamble — it can roll anywhere, including somewhere worse. So they usually try to shoot it. Shooting a biberon is like trying to swat a fly off a champagne glass. Possible. Unwise.

Old players aim for the biberon on purpose. They don’t throw at the cochonnet; they throw to die next to it, soft, the way you’d set down a full glass. Young players throw past it by a meter and wonder why the old guys smile.

Kiss the cochonnet. The French gave the sweetest shot in the game the sweetest name.