Aurélie Bories - Two-Time European Pétanque Champion | Player Profile

Aurélie Bories - Quick Facts

France's Double European Champion from Aveyron

Aurélie Bories is one of French pétanque's most decorated current women's players, known in her home region simply as "La Millavoise." In June 2024, she swept both women's individual and doublette titles at the European Championship in Martigny, Switzerland - the first time a player from Aveyron had ever won a European pétanque title. She followed that up in 2023 by becoming the first woman in the history of French pétanque to win a national Precision Shooting championship, and has remained a fixture of the French national team ever since, medaling again at the 2026 European Championship in Lorca, Spain.

Career Overview

Bories comes from a genuine pétanque family in Creissels, near Millau: her grandfather Bernard Rouquayrol built one of the finest playing records in Aveyron, and both her parents, Nicolas Bories and Valérie Rouquayrol, are multiple departmental champions. She took up the sport around age eight and was winning senior departmental and regional titles as a junior, earning her first France national team cap at the World Championship in Millau before she turned 18. Along the way, a friendly match against Belgium's Claudy Weibel helped shape her shooting technique.

Her breakthrough came in July 2023 at Flamanville, in the Manche, where the FFPJP held the first-ever French Women's Precision Shooting Championship. Competing against 17 other finalists after qualifying through Millau, Rodez, and Auch, Bories won the inaugural title - a result she later called less prestigious than a team championship but one she was "very happy and proud" to have earned.

The 2024 season delivered her career-defining moment. At the European Championship in Martigny, Switzerland (19-23 June), Bories entered both the women's tête-à-tête and doublette. She and teammate Charlotte Darodes beat Belgium 13-2 in the doublette final, and in the individual final she rallied from 1-7 down against Monaco's Laura Vierjon to claim the tête-à-tête title as well - a double no Aveyron woman had ever achieved. She credited months of physical, technical, and mental preparation, including sophrology work with her coach, David Ledantec, for helping her stay calm under pressure.

Bories continued winning through 2025, taking the tête-à-tête title at the international tournament in Palavas and, a few hours after the international at Espalion, learning she had been selected - alongside teammates Émilie Vignères, Caroline Bourriaud, and Sandrine Poinsot, under national coach Ludovic Pereira - to represent France in triples at the 2025 World Championship in Douai. France survived a nailbiting round of 16 against Madagascar before their campaign ended in the quarterfinals with a 13-3 loss to Belgium; Bories said afterward that the squad had "completely missed" that match but stood by her teammates regardless.

In 2026, Bories won the Grand Prix Féminin Paprec - the women's competition at the Mondial La Marseillaise à Pétanque - with teammate Nadège Baussian, beating the Lovet team 13-8 in the final. A month later at the European Championship in Lorca, Spain, she returned as defending tête-à-tête champion but lost the final 13-9 to Sweden's Jessica Johansson, taking silver. Paired again with Charlotte Darodes in the doublette, she led Switzerland's Yvonne Bless and Corinne Althaus 6-0 early in the semifinal before Switzerland fought back to win 13-6, sending the French pair to bronze instead of a title defense.

Playing Style

Bories is a versatile competitor who has reached the podium across the sport's full range of formats - individual tête-à-tête, doublette, triples, and precision shooting - rather than specializing in one discipline. Her 2023 shooting title came despite her own admission that she trains far less for that specialty than for team play, and her signature moments have come through composure under pressure, most notably the comeback from 1-7 down in the 2024 European final.

Achievements and Honors

• European Champion: Women's Tête-à-tête & Doublette (Martigny, 2024)
• European Championship Silver & Bronze: Women's Tête-à-tête & Doublette (Lorca, 2026)
• France's first Women's Precision Shooting Champion (Flamanville, 2023)
• Grand Prix Féminin Paprec champion, Mondial La Marseillaise à Pétanque (2026)
• 12-time Aveyron departmental champion, 2-time Midi-Pyrénées league champion, 1-time Occitanie league champion
• 10+ selections to the France national team

Legacy

Aurélie Bories has turned a family passion in a small corner of Aveyron into one of the more complete résumés in current French women's pétanque - a double European champion who also holds a piece of history as the first woman to win a French national Precision Shooting title. Financing much of her own season out of pocket, she has continued to represent France at the World and European level year after year, and remains one of the players most likely to add to Aveyron's still-short list of continental champions.