For the 22nd consecutive year, the World Pilou Championships are being held in the village of the Paillon Valley, this Saturday, July 5th. The event is organized by Avanti Pilou with the support of the municipality of Coaraze.
What is pilou?
In fact, pilou is both a shuttlecock game and a juggling game.
These games are ancient practices, where in shuttlecock games, people throw a small ball fitted with a plume, often made of feathers, to one another. This was already found around the year 1000 BC in Asia. It’s from there that pilou originates; in the 12th century, during Marco Polo’s second voyage to China, a Venetian sailor learned and appreciated the game. During a stopover in Nice, he demonstrated it, and the people of Nice enjoyed it.
In France, at the beginning of the 20th century, a new currency appeared with pierced centime coins. A resident of Nice had the ingenious idea of fitting a shuttlecock inside and juggling with it. The game spread throughout the city, notably in schoolyards and in the streets.
After World War II, this game reached its peak in the 1950s, played solo or with others. There were even a few local tournaments, though nothing official. It was around this time that general rules were roughly defined. The most popular format is called “four circles,” played two against two.
It is mostly played in the working-class neighborhoods. In Nice, young people exchange pilous especially in Vieux-Nice, at Cours Saleya, on the Paillon esplanade, or at the port, but it is also played in the hinterland and throughout the entire county of Nice.
The streets and squares of the city are not yet too crowded with cars, and almost all are quickly covered with circles drawn in chalk.
