Vendée Palet

1. The lead plate (45 × 45 cm) lies 2.80 m from the throwing line. Each side has 6 palets (metal discs) in casual play, or 3 palets in the official one-on-one format (game to 13 points).
2. First toss the maître (the small white disc): it must stay on the plate. Two tries, then the other side tosses it.
3. The side that placed the maître throws the first palet. After that, the side that is not holding the point always plays, as long as it has palets left.
4. Only palets that stay on the plate count. You may knock an opponent’s palet away… or move the maître.
5. At the end of the round, the side closest to the maître scores 1 point per palet closer than the opponent’s best one.
6. If the maître leaves the plate, the round is replayed. The scoring side tosses the maître next round.
7. Games are played to 11 or 13 points.

To throw: move the target, press and hold (mouse or finger): the accuracy circle shrinks, then grows again. Release when it is smallest. The palet slides a little after landing, so aim slightly short!

Distant origins. Tossing discs at a target is a very old pastime: there are traces of it in Antiquity, and it probably became a true game of skill towards the end of the Middle Ages. People then played on bare ground, on stakes, on boards… even into wooden clogs! Travellers and pedlars later spread it across Europe.

Gargantua, the first player. In the 16th century, Rabelais had his giant Gargantua play palet. Several standing stones in France are still nicknamed “Gargantua’s palet”.

Vendée makes it its own. In the 1920s, palet contests became popular in Vendée and then throughout western France: a board, a few round cast-iron discs, and the game was on. Flatter brass palets arrived in the 1930s, replacing old coins that had been withdrawn from circulation.

The lead idea. In the 1960s, enthusiasts looked for a softer surface that would hold the palet and make play more precise. Lead, easy to work, sturdy and quiet, quickly won everyone over: the 45 cm square plate, weighing around 20 kg, became the hallmark of Vendée palet.

From pastime to sport. On 17 April 1987, the first clubs founded the French Federation of Palet Games, which set official rules and launched competitions. In 2000 it joined the National Federation for Rural Sports. The Pays de la Loire region now has more than fifty clubs, almost all of them in Vendée.

A living heritage. Palet on a lead plate, with cast-iron or brass discs, is listed in France’s national Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is still passed on the same way: experienced players teach the younger ones, around the plate.