Bonjour again!

Since it's been a little while since the last meat and potatoes thread I am going to post a few excerpts from the log I have been keeping of our adventure.

Paris was less exciting for us than you might expect so here is a brief summary. Big city. Lots of people, dirty bathrooms that open up and have dudes who forgot to put their junk away in them. Big touristy stuff to look at. Noisy. A bit smelly. Some nice streets. Some not so nice streets. Expensive food. Some cheap food. Lots of french people. And one really nice family who Emilie knew about 8 - 10 years ago. They put us up for the night.

And now the journal bit:

9:13pm May 11, 2007

After spending several hours preparing Lucy for future life Emilie and I got down to the business of preparing for dinner. Dinner this evening was a fillet of duck. It turned out to be extremely tasty, prepared as it was on the stoves in Lucy. We cooked some pre-cooked potatoes (1.58E for 500g) in the duck juices (read fat). It was extremely tasty. This trip has so far been about 90% about eating and only 10% about climbing so far. That should change in the next couple of days.

Saturday May 12, 2007

So this morning Emilie and I awoke to find that Taz, Paolo and Dave had not arrived during the night. The original plan was for them to arrive during the night and get the camp passes from us. We were sleeping in a parking lot away from the campsite. After spending an hour getting ready, I believe there were eggs for breakfast, Emilie and I set off looking for a computer where we could check to see what had become of our lost friends. Of course we couldn't find one. As you know, whenever you need a internet cafe you can never find one and when you don't need them they are everywhere. After our fruitless search, we headed back to the parking area figuring that since that is where they knew we would be they would head there if and when they arrived.

At this point Emilie and I set off into the forest known as Fontainebleau. In our excitment we forgot 1st our camara and after retrieving that 2nd I forgot to change into my climbing clothing. So on our third foray into the forest we found the Orange Traverse. A 6.5 km circuit that wound itself through the forest. 6.5 km of bouldering/scrambling on mostly contiguous boulders seems like alot. And it is. To give you a feel for the size of Fontainebleau you have to realize that there are 200 of these circuits. Not all are as long but that is still an immense about of rock to be climbed. Emilie and I decided to set off on our 6.5 km adventure. Before sending off though we decided to grab lunch from the van. As we looked back we saw the Yellow Kango in the parking lot ("The Best Car In The World") So down we went to see Paolo and Taz and their friendly dog Scappi. Dave and Farris were several minutes behind.

What followed was as expected a day of somewhat typical bouldering for me. The majority of the problems were too hard and those that weren't didn't last long enough. I guess that I just don't have the boulderers mentality to pound a bouldering problem into submission. Regardless, Emilie and I had a good day with some fantastic companions (the weather turned out to be sublime considering the forcast).

Later in the evening the whole group took off for a pizzaria in the town of fontainebleau. The wine flowed freely and the pizza was fantastic. Taz introduced us to the game of baguette counting. In France Baguettes are so cheap that everybody has them and carries them in the street. Essentially, the game is a competition to see who can count the most baguettes. Each baguette can only be counted once. I'm pretty sure I won because I counted 27. I never really did a final score check with Taz so it's possible that she won. But doubtful. After dinner several more bottles of wine were consumed before heading back to Lucy for a good nights sleep.

Sunday May 13, 2007

A sharp rap on the window awoke Emilie and I from our slumber. Taz & co were heading to the nearby town fo Milli La Foret to grab breakfast. Emilie and I both grabbed a coffee and un pain eau chocolat. It was at this point we discovered that Emilie is getting sick of pain eau chocolat. Uh oh... what will she eat for the next six weeks in France and Corsica?

Following breakfast our eager guides brought us to a different region of bleau. Here there was a blue circuit of "Moderate" difficulty. This is where I really discovered the strength of fontainebleau. I will never be a boulderer. But I loved the idea of these circuits. Originally disigned as training for real climbing in the mountains, the circuits are long sequences of bouldering problems and down climbs with the idea being that you avoid spending anytime on the ground. They are endurance nightmares as even the shortest have 25 - 50 problems and downclimbs. he blue one that was chosen did turn out to be more difficult than anticipated but each problem was doable. Unfortunately, after about 10 problems in the 50 problem circuit my shoulder gave out and I had to call it a day lest I damage it more before la Gorge d'Verdon. Emilie carried on and climbed about 20 problems. Shortly there after the threat of rain sent us packing and we bid adieu to our friends who were still trying to rush through the circuit. The driplets started just as lucy came into view. A short jog ensured that neither Emilie or I got wet.

The storm that followed made me somewhat concerned for the safety of our friends. The wind and rain was short lasted but vicious and we had to avoid at least three large trees at various parts of the road.

The rest of the evening was spent driving toward Montelimar were we are to meet thomas. While driving though, we passed the Grotes D'Arcy. 300,000 year old caves with caveman graffeti. Emilie and I thought it was cool enough to spend the night in a nearby parking area and go on a tour in the morning. (The tour was less cool than anticipated, as they didn't allow photos (which I took anyway much to Emilie's chagrin) and the tour was filled with a gaggle of kindergarten students. It was still pretty cool though.) While looking for a place to sleep we came across a short hike to a old Gallo-Roman fort called Camp Cora. The hike turned out to be slightly longer than expected but we did get there eventually. The stone wall was pretty cool to behold.

--End of Excerpt--

As this is probably long and Thomas will be home shortly, I will sumarize Lyon for you: Cool city with some really nice touristy things to look at. An interesting Gallo-Roman Museam and some Roman Theatres. It used to be the Roman city Lugdunium. Very quiet and pretty at night. Certaintaly ranks at the top of the cities that we have seen so far. We slept in a parking lot about 5 minutes from downtown. Ah lucy rocks.

The next three days will be spent climbing with Thomas. Our wonderful French friend who will be showing us the climbing in southern france. We'll upload more photos in the next few days. (Sorry Lockie, I know you can't picture anything I wrote but you'll have to wait)

PS: If you had one tape (10 songs) to pick that would be the only music you listened to for a 4 month road trip, which would it be?