Many people dream about spending a week or two abroad, living in the country, breathing in the fresh air, not having to worry about the struggles of everyday life. I was just fortunate enough to live out everyone’s dreams simultaneously two years ago, as my family was fortunate enough to stay in a quaint home in Eastern France, the family home of one of my father’s colleagues. While I myself and much more a fan of the rolling yellowed hills that dominate central Italy, it was hard not to admire the almost instinctual the French seem to exude from every inch of the country.
We stayed for three nights in a small town near Lyon, and while we were there we had the chance to learn a very odd lawn game the originated in Finland. It is called Mölkky, and it is essentially a cross between bowling and bocce, with a rather barbaric twist. the object of the game is to collect 50 points from knocking down all of the pins, but in order to do that, you have to be careful of which ones you decide to go for. See, there are 12 pins on the “court,” all numbered. If you hit one down, you get the amount of points on the pin. If you hit multiple pins down, you only get the numbers of pins you slayed. Naturally, we decided to play this game right next to a vineyard, overlooking verdant fields, sunshine, and a nice crisp breeze. Needless to say, we were nothing next to our French hosts, but we put up a good fight.
The beauty of this game is that it is easy enough to learn and enjoy without any real hunger for competition, although if you are competitive by nature, you can certainly get your fill. My family has gotten into the habit of playing it every time we get together at our house or my grandparents’ house. Fortunately on Father’s Day weekend when I played my brother and father, I performed better than the Ukraine did this year in the Euro Cup, winning two games out of three.
The trick with this game, however, is that when you knock down pins, you must stand them up where they fall, meaning the pin you might need the most could be halfway to the Seine by the time it's your turn again. Despite this, we actually didn't end up launching any pins particularly far, which if you asked me was a blessing in disguise.
