Whether at the Coaraze World Championship or on the little square of Saint Roch on a Sunday late afternoon, a game of Pilou, called Pilo in Niçois dialect, undeniably remains a moment filled with a multitude of symbols and traditions. This is what the grand tournament organized in Old Nice proposes for the upcoming weekend.
In every sport, it’s necessary to have adequate equipment (football, basketball, pétanque), and sometimes even expensive (skiing, tennis, golf), whereas to play this sport, seemingly born in Nice in the 1940s, you only need to be “wealthy” with a pierced 25-centime piece of old Francs (diameter: 24mm – hole diameter: 6mm – thickness: 1.5mm) and a piece of paper.
There’s no point in looking elsewhere for traces of this Niçois practice; neither Cannes, Antibes, nor even less Saint Tropez have succumbed to the appeal of this game, tinged with skill and finesse.
Some quotes from our local personalities about Pilou:
André Barthe (Deputy for Culture – Nice City Hall) – “I’d like to have the contact information of the legislator who abolished the pierced coins.”
Philippe Jérome (Journalist) – “The Pilo, it’s my grandmother rummaging with her twisted fingers in her big black wallet.”
Richard Cairashi (Humorist) – “Now you find the Pilous with numismatists. The Pilo has become numismatic.”
