just 20 years ago, the idea of ​​the largest bowling alley in the world was launched

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If there is a building that has caused a lot of ink to flow since the idea of ​​its creation, put forward 20 years ago, it is theHenri-Salvador spacealso called Boulodrome 276.

Claude Vochelet, mayor of Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf at the time, was the main supporter of the idea of ​​a few, including Dominique Le Bots, the current president of the Boule pétanque saint-pierraise (BPSP).

Inaugurated in 2008

“I have been a member of the BPSP since 1975 and an international referee since 1980. At the time, we played in the parking lot of the village hall. I then thought about the possibility of building a indoor bowling alleycar if the petanque is a Provençal game, the weather is not,” laughs the enthusiast.

He continues: “Helped by several friends, including Jean-Yves Jaffrenou, we got together and designed this project, in the Pharaonic era: a covered bowling alley with 64 tracks. It was finally done and the inauguration took place on February 16, 2008. Unfortunately, Henri Salvador left us two days before, but his wife came. »

Once the world's largest bowling alley

For several years, the bowling alley in the Elbeuf area was the largest in the world before being beaten by China, then it remained the largest in Europe before being overtaken by Montluçon.

Since this inauguration, and while many were skeptical, attendance has continued to increase, to the point of reaching 45,000 visitors per year.

This weekend, for example, we welcomed nearly 3,000 players and had to turn away several triplets. Within two years, the bowling alley will become the full property of the five departments of Normandy. My next project is the creation of shade structures, which would allow the establishment of 200 covered slopes.

To date, the BPSP has 195 licensees, each happier than the other to be able to benefit from the flagship of Norman, or even national, pétanque.

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