Charlotte Darodes - Two-Time World Pétanque Champion | Player Profile

Charlotte Darodes - Quick Facts

France's Two-Time World Champion from the Gironde

Charlotte Darodes, born 2 August 1992, is one of the most decorated active players in French women's pétanque: a two-time World Champion, a two-time European Champion, and a three-time French national champion who has anchored France's women's teams for close to a decade. Right-handed and comfortable at every position on a triplette, she plays milieu when needed and is capable of stepping into either the pointer's or shooter's role. Away from the terrain, she works as an oyster farmer (ostréicultrice), a profession rooted in her home region along the Gironde estuary.

Career Overview

Pétanque runs in the family. Her father James Darodes, her brother Jérémy, and her grandfather were all competitive players before her, and she has said in interviews that her family is the only one in France where a father, a son, and a daughter have each been crowned French champion. She is in a relationship with fellow pétanque player Richard Feltain, with whom she won the French mixed doublette title in 2016 after two earlier semifinal exits in the same competition.

Darodes came up through Charente-Maritime clubs, representing Royan Pétanque until 2016 and then Oléron Pétanque Élite from 2017 to 2019. It was during that stretch that her career accelerated: she won the World Triplette title in 2017 alongside Anna Maillard, Angélique Colombet, and Caroline Bourriaud, playing for the French national team. The following year, at the 2018 European Championship in Palavas-les-Flots, she completed a rare double - winning gold in the triplette event (again with Maillard and Colombet, joined by Daisy Frigara) and then taking the precision shooting title as well, edging Israel's Sivan Siri 43-40 in a sudden-death shoot-off after both players had remained level through the closing rounds.

Her signature moment came at the 2019 World Championship, where she won the individual tête-à-tête title. In the final against Thailand's Phantipha Wongchuvej, she fell behind 0-7 - a deficit she has since described as one that left almost nobody expecting her to recover - before mounting a comeback to win 13-10. That same year she also took World Championship bronze in doublette alongside Angélique Colombet, and was a French national triplette finalist with Oléron teammates Sandrine Poinsot and Audrey Viaules.

From 2020 she moved to the Canuts de Lyon in the Rhône, and continued adding to her trophy case: French Triplette Champion in both 2021 and 2022, alongside Ludivine d'Isidoro and Mouna Béji, and a 2021 World Championship triplette silver medal with Cindy Peyrot, Emma Picard, and Anna Maillard. She also reached the 2019 Coupe de France des clubs final with Oléron Pétanque Élite, playing alongside Damien Hureau, Philippe Quintais, her brother Jérémy Darodes, and Richard Feltain.

By late 2024, the 600-kilometre round trip from her home in Gironde to play for a Rhône-based club had become impractical, and she left the Canuts de Lyon. She signed with La Boule Moulietsoise, near her home in Saugon, Gironde, effective 1 January 2025, joining a club that also fields her husband Richard Feltain. In July 2025 she captained a Grand Prix Féminin Paprec triplette at the Mondial La Marseillaise à Pétanque alongside Aurélie Bories and Florence Schopp, leading Cindy Peyrot's team 10-3 before a late Peyrot rally turned the final around for a 13-12 loss. Three months later she represented France 1 at the 2025 World Championship in Douai, playing triplette with Audrey Bandiera, Nelly Peyré, and Torea Tairo; the team lost in the round of 16 to Cambodia, 3-13.

Darodes returned to the European stage in 2026 at Lorca, Spain, this time partnering Aurélie Bories in the women's doublette. The pair led Switzerland's Yvonne Bless and Corinne Althaus 6-0 early in the semifinal before Switzerland fought back to win 13-6, sending France to the bronze-medal match, which they won for a bronze finish. In the mixed doublette event, Darodes paired with Yohan Cousin and cruised through qualifying with a perfect 5-0 record, only to fall 13-12 to Italy's Jacopo Gardella and Sara Ferrera in a final decided by a single point - a silver medal to close out the tournament.

Playing Style

Darodes' versatility is central to her game: she is comfortable pointing, playing milieu, or shooting depending on what her team needs, and her career has spanned individual, doublette, and triplette formats at both world and European level. Her most celebrated performance, the 0-7 comeback in the 2019 World tête-à-tête final, is a recurring reference point in her own interviews as proof of her composure under pressure.

Achievements and Honors

• World Champion: Women's Triplette (2017), Women's Tête-à-tête (2019)
• World Championship Silver: Women's Triplette (2021) | Bronze: Women's Doublette (2019)
• European Champion: Women's Triplette & Precision Shooting (Palavas-les-Flots, 2018)
• European Championship Silver: Women's Mixed Doublette | Bronze: Women's Doublette (Lorca, 2026)
• French Champion: Mixed Doublette (2016), Women's Triplette (2021, 2022)
• Trophée L'Équipe winner, Doublette (2019), with Cindy Peyrot
• Passion Pétanque Française winner, Triplette (2022)

Legacy

Charlotte Darodes has spent close to a decade as one of the most consistent names in French women's pétanque, collecting titles across every major format the sport offers - individual, doublette, triplette, and precision shooting - at club, national, European, and world level. With her move back home to Gironde in 2025 and a renewed European doublette partnership alongside Aurélie Bories, she remains one of the players most likely to keep adding to that collection.