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Jeu de mail
Jeu de mail, in Anglo-Saxon literature called ‘pall mall’, was a one target game played with a wooden club with a cylindrical wooden head and a spherical wooden ball.
It is said that in the 15th century, the
game came from Italy into France. Originally people played it in the South of
France. The essence of the game was to reach a target in the
fewest number of strokes. It was an individual game, not a team game. In the
South of France, people played 'à la chicane': in the fosses, on the ramparts
and the sandy tracks around the towns. It caught the attention of kings and nobles; they
played the game on specially laid out narrow playing alleys (boulevards) of up
to a thousand meters in length. King François I introduced the game at
Fontainebleau in the first part of the 16th century. Soon, the
'noble' game was played in many French towns, followed by the principal towns of
Western Europe. The 'noble' game was played till the end of the 18th
century. The game à la chicane in the South of France survived until 1939 when
the last mail player in Montpellier stowed away his mail equipment in the attic
of his house. Publications on jeu de mail
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