How many teams take part in the Chez Clément Pétanque?

The fifty-team figure is the result of years of calibration. Too small a field and the tournament finishes by lunch with no proper afternoon arc; too large and the timings stop working and the lunch service becomes a logistics problem rather than a pleasant moment. Fifty teams gives a satisfying knockout structure across morning and afternoon, room for a sit-down Pétanque lunch at midday, and a late-afternoon final that closes the day cleanly. With an average of three to four players per team, the on-site population sits comfortably inside the brasserie's broader capacity (230 seated, up to 250 in standing-cocktail configuration).

The field reflects the geographic catchment of the brasserie: long-standing regulars from Genval, La Hulpe, Rixensart and Wavre form the majority; visitors from the south-east of Brussels (Auderghem, Watermael-Boitsfort) and from Louvain-la-Neuve add the rest. A small but growing number of company teams now register each year, treating the tournament as a more relaxed alternative to the conventional business dinner, an interesting use of the venue, given its more typical role as a Sunday-lunch institution for families across the Walloon Brabant.

The fifty teams are absorbed by the brasserie's full set of resources: a kitchen led by Vincent Frédéric De Laloy (chef in place since 1996, brigade of thirty-two), the main dining room, the conservatory, the terrace in season, the bar (separate from the dining room, open continuously from noon until 1 a.m.), and the gigantic free car park directly opposite the brasserie, ten metres from the door. Parking for a couple of hundred supporters is genuinely not a problem, one of the practical advantages of the property's countryside-edge location on the Walloon side of the border with Hoeilaart and the Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soignes).

The brasserie was founded in 1858 by Henri and Sidonie Clément and has been run by the same family for five generations. The Pétanque Tournament has been running for several years and was kept on under Marie and Gilles Verleyen, the fifth-generation owners since 2021. The fifty-team figure is itself part of the tradition now.