Gorges du Houx and more Cuvier

On Tuesday we headed to our 21st area of the trip, Gorges du Houx, and met up with Grégoire and Kevin. After some quick warming up (nobody bothered to do my ultra-classic problem, Poisson d'Avril), we headed over to Gartantoit and good progress was made by all.


Afterwards, Kevin took us to Écaille de Lune, a nice little roof with some powerful moves.



Today we headed into Fontainebleau for a relaxing morning of shopping/getting and a pretty decadent lunch at the Cassel tea room. Afterwards, we headed out for an evening session at Cuvier -- the conditions were quite nice. La Balance still is withstanding my attempts, although I have new beta, and Andrew is *really* close to Corto. We still have a few days, so we will be headed back to Cuvier before long.

More climbing

On Thursday, we went and checked out a few areas that we hadn't been to yet. Rocher du Duc / Nainville is an area in the far north with a classic problem, L'Étrave à Sucre, a beautiful prow.


Afterwards, we headed to Roche qui Tourne, explored and climbed and climbed a few boulders, then rushed back to try and catch to the mythical pizza truck in La Chapelle. Does anyone know the schedule of the truck? We heard it was Thursday and Saturday nights, but so far, no luck.


Saturday was Tim's last day here, so we hit four different areas in an effort to cram some of the classics in. After Cuvier, we headed to Rocher Canon, Petit Bois, and Elephant. Tim did a bunch of classics and then some.




Yesterday was a rest day for me. After some lounging around and computer geekery, we headed out for an afternoon session at Apremont. Patti and Andrew circuited, I looked for morels, and Nora did boat poses. Clin d'Oeil was the last problem of the day before we rushed off to Carrefour to try and catch the ice cream counter before it closed at 20h. In classic French fashion, there was nobody there at 7:45.

Success!

Today, Nora finally completed a multi-year project of ours in France. Every year, we look for morels, to no avail. This morning, while out on a walk with Patti, she spotted this magnificent specimen!


Sauteed with some garlic and onion, it was made for a delicious topping for some penne tonight. One serving only, however.

Rest Days

Rest days here are awesome, because basically, you just hang out and eat. The bread and pastries are so good and so cheap, you feel like you're missing out if you don't have a bunch of fresh baked goods every day.


The picture above is "Brioche Feuilletée", which is this crazy buttery layered brioche, which I haven't seen in Bay Area. It's pretty awesome.


Above is a example of a daily power-pack that we pick up before we head out to the crag. There is a classic french apple tart in there (about 7€), a brioche and some pain épi.

Slugs

Since we have been pretty bad about posting about climbing, how about slugs? We ran into these cool slugs out at Roche qui Tourne, a beautiful, quiet, untouched area near Coquibus. From my brief internet research, I came up with the European Red Slug, Arion rufus.


Apparently very common, we haven't run into these guys in our previous trips. Perhaps the timing of our trip this year (well into spring) has something to do with these slugs. In these photos, we scared the slugs so they are in their defensive blobs, with their mantles pulled over their tentacles.


Another first on this trip, we've seen the Chenille Processionaire that we've heard so much about.

Breaking News!

A few days ago, we had a slight accident. On a climb at Apremont, aptly named, 'Marginal', the padding coverage was, shall we say, marginal at best. Nora blew off of a high right heel hook, putting her in a crazy spin, with her left hand taking the brunt of the rotation on a rock that you can see in the background of the first picture (with the shoe on it). She ended up fracturing her radius. The hospital in Melun was quite nice, and they took care of everything in a very French manner.

Nora is in good spirits, she's coming out to Canche aux Merciers today with the crew, but she will be in her full-arm cast for 6 weeks.

Week 1

Well, I've heard rumors that *some* people have gotten quite upset that we haven't been updating the blog every day. To tell you the truth, this is the first break I've had that was more than a few minutes. Coming to Fontainebleau this late in the year allows us to climb to past 9pm every night! After dinner (plus dessert), we crash out at about 2am and wake up to another crazy day full of climbing.

With luck, and with this post, hopefully Nora and others will get more psyched to update on a more regular basis. A brief recap:

We flew Air France for the first time, which was AWESOME. Not only was the direct flight to Paris a bonus, but I have to admit that the service was kilometers above what we have seen from the American carriers. The food was better, the prices were better, there were no hassles about checking in bouldering pads. Hopefully the American airlines can catch up in the service department, or else we'll be sticking to Air France from now on.


Day 1 - Isatis
The other crazy thing about this trip... no jetlag? I did an experiment and stayed up until 3am the night before our flight. In addition, on the advice of some other European travelers, we tried out the melatonin supplements. Truly amazing if you haven't done it.

We headed out to Isatis to meet up with Courtney, and to get reacquianted with the sandstone. After a bunch of circuit problems, and I had a smashing time on Buerre Marga. And by smashing I mean my face -- I don't really remember that problem being *that* slick.

Day 2 - Rocher aux Sabots
Tim and Patti were arriving in the afternoon, so we headed out to Sabot to kill time until they showed up. It was uncrowded, sticky rock, just like we like.


Orange, blue and red circuit problems were the basic menu for the afternoon, and Tim started his sendfest of the classics by easily dispatching with Graviton.


Day 3 - Tim's Day
In an attempt to avoid the crowds on the weekends, we again headed to a relatively popular area during mid-week, in the hopes that the crowds would be supressed. So far, there has been a distinct lack of Americans in the climbing areas, and from talking to Stef, the global economic crisis has definitely hit rural France. However, it makes for some nice climbing.



Tim's sendfest hit a high point at Bas Cuvier, with quick sends of Le Clé, Duroxmanie, Holey Moley, Corto Maltese, and of course, La Marie Rose.

Alain was out at Cuvier with us, it was educational, to say the least, to have him around. Who knew that Holey Moley didn't use heel hooks or the the huge hold that has all the chalk on it? Or that Biceps Mou doesn't use the intermediate on the way to the sidepull, or the jug that everyone goes to further out left? It was fun to try all the old classics with the original beta.

Other people were climbing today also.

Day 4 - Cuisiniere

For MK and Jasper's first day out, we hit the reliable Franchard Cuisiniere. Beautiful day, no crowds, what could be better...

There was a three-way Wrench Science T-shirt collision.

Of course, Jasper wanted to immediately get on Karma. He did really well; hopefully he'll get back on it and send.

Day 4 - Isatis

Sunday crowds greeted us at Isatis, but with our large group we were just as much a menace. Courtney started off the day by sending Surplomb Gauche with good style, followed by several other quick ascents, including Tim in his five-tennies. Courtney's day continued, with her very swift send of Iceberg Assis, despite the warm weather. She was so quick that we were too late to capture it on film.

The group deliberates on beta for Le Coup de Pompe


After the warm-up circuit, Jasper got to the serious climbing on Alta.

And at the end of the day, a return to the red-circuit problems produced the "send of the day"--8 year old Dylan's flash of the problem shown above (which was somewhat more difficult for the adults).

And with the sun setting, everyone cooled down with some slacklining, thanks to the Germans.