Water jousting

As the two competing boats draw level with each other, each jouster, protected by their shield, uses their lance to push their opponent off the platform and into the water.

The Greeks introduced the practice into Sicily where the Latins, great lovers of all kinds of spectacle, immediately adopted it.

Some historians argue, however, for an introduction of the games from the foundation of Massilia, a Greek colony founded in 570 BC and later to become the French city of Marseille.

Documents both written and illustrated become more numerous in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, citing games in Sologne, in Toulon, and more generally throughout the Mediterranean coast.

In the Rhone-Alps region, it was reported 13 April 1507 that the fishermen of St Vincent (Lyon) jousted on the Saône at St. Jean to entertain Queen Anne of Brittany and her people.

The Union held the first jousting championship in France in 1901 on the Tête d'or Lake [fr] in Lyon, although this was somewhat rudimentary.

The sport is currently practised throughout France, notably in Languedoc, Provence, the Rhone Valley, around Paris and in Alsace.