I have been digging into the intriguing petanque culture for a bit and came up with this simple measurement tool.

You'll need this object and a piece of string (length depending how far you want to measure) and some tape/pearls.

Print out the object and place the string inside the hole in the center.
put some tape (or a small pearl) on every end so that it prevents from detaching.

When you come to the rather amusing occasional controversy ensues with regards to the assessment of distances between the boules and the cochonnet (but), simply pull out the string on top, put the object on top of the but, and start measuring the distances.