Jeu de paume was originally a French precursor of tennis played without racquets. The players hit the ball with their hands, as in palla, volleyball, or certain varieties of pelota. Jeu de paume literally means: game of the palm (of the hand). Tennis is a racquet sport played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Player(s) use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball over a net into the opponents court. ... Squash racquet and ball Racquetball racquet and ball Real tennis racquets and balls A racquet or racket is a sports implement consisting of a handled frame with an open hoop across which a network of cord is stretched. ... Palla (Italian for ball) is a traditional Tuscan ball game played in towns between Siena and Grosseto. ... Volleyball is a popular sport where teams separated by a high net hit a ball back and forth between the teams. ... Pelota (in Basque and Catalan, pilota; in French pelote, from Latin pila) is a name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using ones hand, a racket, a wooden bat (pala), or a basket propulsor, against a wall (frontón in Spanish, frontoi in Basque, front...

The term is used in France today to denote real tennis or a court in which the ancient or modern game might be played. The indoor version is sometimes called jeu de courte paume or just courte paume (short palm) to distinguish it from the outdoor version, longue paume, played on a longer court. Real tennis is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. ... Longue paume was an outdoor version of jeu de paume. ...

Some important buildings in France are known by the name jeu de paume, in general because of their proximity to tennis courts or to sites on which courts once stood. Several works of art also bear this name, including the famous serment du jeu de paume ('the Tennis Court Oath') in the Palace of Versailles. It depicts the formal announcement of the French revolution made in the Royal Tennis Court there on 20 June 1789. Sketch by Jacques-Louis David of the Tennis Court Oath. ... Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour dhonneur, later copied all over Europe The Château de Versailles — often called the Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles — is a royal château, outside the gates of which the village of Versailles, France, has... The period of the French Revolution in the history of France covers the years between 1789 and 1799, in which democrats and republicans overthrew the absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ... June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

See also

• Jeu de paume at the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
• Le Jeu de Paume is a moral ode published in 1791 by André Chénier

At the 1908 Summer Olympics, one Jeu de paume event wes contested. ... The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume is a museum of contemporary art in the north-west corner of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. ... André Chénier André Chénier (October 30, 1762 - July 25, 1794) was a French poet, associated with the events of the French Revolution. ...

External links

• Historical Picture: A Jeu de Paume Before a Country Palace (http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/objects/oz839.html)
• Today: Jeu de Paume, Anyone? (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/jan00/tennis.html)
• Jeu de paume - De Nederlandse Real Tennis Bond (http://www.real-tennis.nl/Jeudepaume.htm)