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Saturday 27 October 2018

Fontainebleau Diary 2018 - Part 4

It's October - nearly November - and I am still writing this up 2 months on.  Truth be told I can't really remember the details any more so will have to cross reference photos, log books and other people's blogs to see what we got up to :)

Day 6 saw us go to Cul de Chien, where we last went in 2016.  It's a beautiful place, full of wide sandy clearings and interesting boulders with good landings.  Rumour has it the clearings were created by the German Army looking for supplies dropped in the forest by the Allies for the French Resistance (if you read Part 3 you'll know more about this).

We had chosen Cul de Chien today as it dries quickly - the weather was looking a bit threatening - and no sooner had we arrived than we bumped in to Patrick out on another of his runs.  He assured us it wasn;t going to rain, and then he was off again.  Before I had really had a chance to warm up however it rained, and I must admit I found this rather frustrating as I was ready to get stuck in and didn't want to sit around waiting for the rain to pass.

According to my log book I climbed a bunch of oranges, and then some 4 / 4+ problems from the Blue and Red circyuits, but I think I had a good day all in all. Later in the day Kelly was trying Verglas Fréquent in a full on session mode.   I tried it a few times and then decided to go and look for something else, and around the back of the same boulder was the 6a Pince sans Rire which looked tempting.  I thought I got it after several attempts, but looking back at how I did it I think that I used holds which can't be in at that grade, and didn't follow the line of the problem properly.  However, as I write this I realise that bleau.info has picked up my video of me climbing the problem so maybe I can count it :D

Day 7 then was our last day. We wanted to get up and out early to maximise the climbing and give us time to pack after and headed to Rocher Guichot which has the advantage of being right next to the car park.  Turn up, walk in, climb a few things, bump into Patrick..  We'd suspect him of stalking us, but he was as surprised as we were! I apparently climbed 3 things here before the rain came in, and while we were sheltering under an overhang I found a cave to explore behind it and camped out in there.

Once the rain stopped we explored a little further, and discovered an area which makes you walk in circles; after Jim mocked me for reappearing after saying I was heading back he managed to do exactly the same thing!  Sadly the rain returned even heavier, so we decided to go back to the gite and pack.  While the sun dried up the rain I headed over to the Aire where Lolly and Jim were staying to look at her van which wouldn't start that morning, I didn't manage to solve it but the French breakdown guy had it running in 5 minutes - a good dose of brake cleaner into the intake manifold!

It soon dried out again, and we decided to head to 91.1 - another revisit, this time only from last year, also on our last day.  Andy and I had a good day touring the area and trying various things, enjoying the last day of the holiday, while Jim was sessioning Le Flipper.  At the end of the day I found a really fun problem called Pégase which was very satisfying to climb as working out the sequence was an exercise in technique.  It was som much fun I think I made everyone have a go at it, and I was really pleased for Liz when she got it.  What an end to the holiday!



With that it was back to the gite to finish up the food and wine before the long long drive back to Sheffield - I was delighted when we got to Calais to hear them say "boarding in 10 minutes" as we had managed to catch the earlier ferry, and pretty much as soon as I was on board the ramp when up and the doors started closing - don't think that could have been much closer.

One more thing of note though - driving back up the M1 and I was really hitting tired and hungry, when I get a message from Andy suggesting we stop at a pub he'd found near Newport Pagnell (The Chester Arms in Chicheley).  I pull up in the car park, and who do I see but Patrick!  No, that didn't happen.  But it was a very nice pub and the accommodated us in a mezzanine.  After our meal we got chatting about how far we had driven and how far we had to go, and the waiter said "So are you guys on tour then?" and after being momentarily stumped I realised that yes, we probably do look like a band!