AROUND THE WORLD
Pickleball
hat springs to mind when
you hear the South of
France? Sun, wine, cheese,
baguettes, old stone walls,
medieval villages, lavender
fields? The list is endless, and now there’s
one more reason to come to one of the most
picturesque places in Europe—an international
pickleball tournament!
The setting is just under an hour from Nice,
and about a half-hour from the shops and
beaches of Cannes. Three charming hilltop
villages clustered together in the canton of
Fayence—Montauroux, Callian and Fayence
Photo of Callian by
Deborah Sudul
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France
BY DEBORAH SUDUL
itself—is where Pickleball France will host
the first international French Open Pickleball
Championships Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
But first, a little background. It was in Callian,
in 2014, that Pierre Obozinski set up the first nets
and invited a small group of friends to try out the
game he had discovered while visiting Calgary,
Alberta, Canada. Tout de suite, people were
hooked!
From a humble start in a converted apple
grange with just enough space for two courts,
Pickleball France (PF) has become a national
federation and has grown to encompass
four satellite associations in various parts