The CragBaby

I moved to France on December 1st to spend 3 months working on my French.  My time here has completely exceeded my expectations!  My French is definitely improving, I’ve been able to do some climbing, plus have spent some quality time with friends here.  I did have to switch my flight home to an earlier date, cutting a month off of my trip, as I learned I got the job I was hoping for in Cape Town, South Africa.  Bummer about cutting my trip short, but excited for this upcoming opportunity in Africa.

I had planned on staying in Le Vaudoue, a small village near Fontainebleau, for the whole trip, but felt like it wasn’t an ideal place for a beginning French speaker.  I stayed there for 3 weeks and then moved down to Lyon.

I was living in my friend’s weekend home in Le Vaudoue.  I stayed there this past April, when him and his family still used it as their full time home.  I didn’t realize the level of isolation until I lived there by myself. The best was one day when the post woman came.  I think she said something about the house being hard to find.  I quickly explained that I didn’t speak very much French and she looked at me oddly, most likely wondering,  ”What the hell is this non-French speaking American girl doing at the end of this road?” Haha.

Looking towards the Le Vaudoue house from my neighbors house.  Yep… the house is down that road, all by itself in the forest.

Le Vaudoue “main street”.  It consists of a bar, market, pharmacie and a temporarily closed hair dresser.  I love the simplicity of this place.

Hiking through the Trois Pignon area with Guillaume and his family.

My mode of transportation.  I really liked when I would stop by the market on the way home, carrying fresh baguettes and wine in my bouldering pad.

Guillaume climbing at Cancier Mercier.

David came to visit Fontainebleau.  It was his very first time to be in Font… but it had recently snowed.  He still was psyched to try at least one problem, trying his luck on this slippery problem at Roche Aux Sabot.

Since I am learning French, I will start writing some French in parenthesis.  I wanted to start with this post, but it was going to take me forever.  So… I will start to slowly integrate.

Hope you readers are also doing well.

After my week in Lyon I picked up my rental car and made the four hour drive to Fontainebleau, France. David had introduced me to fellow climber Guillaume who graciously offered me the spare room in his La Vaudoue home and became a dear friend.

Fontainebleau (or simply Bleau) was by far my favorite destination on this trip (expect to see a couple posts about this destination). I didn’t send any new projects, but I loved this area because…

• Climbing was a family event. It was very common to see entire families out picnicking while the climber in the family would do a circuit.
• Climbers were of all ages. Everyone from little kids to 60-year-old+ crushers could be seen on the rock. One day I saw an older lady, I would guess late 50′s to 60′s, by herself and carrying a pad out of the forest. It made me smile and I went out of my way to say “Bonjour”.
• Everyday I met someone from a different  country and culture. Over my time in Bleau I climbed with the French, Germans, Dutch, Belgiums, Finnish, British and two Americans.
• The sloping rock sandstone was unique. Sure HorsePens40 looks similar, but HP40 doesn’t even come close to comparing to the quantity in Bleau.
• The quantity of boulders is mind boggling.
• The scene was perfect, with people simply enjoying the sun and having a good time. I only saw one person, a girl, get upset and throw a wobbler.  It was as if people remembered that climbing is a hobby.
• Paris was only an hour away!

Me using toe hook beta to top out a traverse problem at Le Diplodocus.

Jussi topping out ‘L’auriculaire – Toit aux frelons’ at La Roche aux Sabots.  Every problem on this boulder was excellent and tricky.

Me working into the crux of ‘Le Tiroir’ at La Roche aux Sabots.

Guillaume on an excellent traverse (Rouge 13) at Canche Aux Mercier.  The red circuit at this crag was fabulous.

Tuomo on a three star traverse (Rouge 22) at Franchard Isatis.

Juho trying to grab the crux hold on ‘Surplomb de la Coquille’.  The move looks so easy, but is amazingly tricky as it is necessary to make the move dynamically yet is hard to hold if going dynamically.

Me on classic line ‘La Marie Rose’.  The climb was so enjoyable, whereas the down climb was sheer agony.

Me on the start moves of ‘Druxmanie’ at Bas Cuvier.

One of my British friends on the ‘Cul de Chien Roof’.  This line was extremely excellent including a mono pocket and an extremely high, committing heel hook followed by an extremely long reach.

Emiel trying to catch the crux hold on ‘Jet Set’ at Roche aux Sabots.

Svilen on ‘L’helicoptre’.  I really loved this problem, but the dynamic move, which Svilen is getting ready to do, is high up and often results on the climber flying off spinning.  We padded the landing with 10+ pads in all directions because every climber would fall in a different location.

Me working into the dual underclings on another great sloper problem at Franchard Isatis.

Jussi so incredibly close to sticking Vin Rouge, a 7a dyno.

Guillaume at 91.1.  I was so exhausted by this day, as this was our sixth consecutive day of climbing and my bicep was throbbing, that I just took pictures of Guillaume all day long. =)

Svilen on ‘Holey Moley’ at Bas Cuvier. This was on the Bicep Mou boulder and housed at least 5 good lines.  ‘Holey Moley’ included a long reach, double toe jams (like Svilen is doing), a swing and a heel hook.

Me on ‘Graviton’ at Roche aux Sabot. Another fabulous line with yet another fabulously hard sloping top-out.

After my time in Bishop, I stopped in Salt Lake City for a week (Week 34) to quickly visit friends, pack up my belongings, and drop CB at the dogsitter’s house.  By week 35 I had taken the direct Salt Lake City to Paris flight followed by a train to Lyon.  Lyon was a bit of a hard destination for me, but (of course) there were still plenty of positive aspects.  The city truly was amazing with fabulous architecture and excellent food (I tried my first snails and frog legs, loving both of them immensely). And the stop in Lyon forced me to take a week break from climbing, a much needed rest period.

I stopped by Lyon because it was a mere couple hours from Fontainebleau and wanted to visit my friend, David, who I had meet in the Red River Gorge.  Here is David on the day I arrived.  We stopped by his favorite bar for a couple drinks prior to catching a fabulous meal at a neighboring restaurant.

I hadn’t visited Europe since 2003.  I truly love Europe… with it’s history, architecture, culture and wide spread use of bikes. =)

This building, La Fresque Des Lyonnais, was fabulous.  I saw this painting on a walk during the day, but completely missed the other side of the building, the side that holds the main beauty.  David was actually excited I had missed it so that he could personally take me there that evening.  The whole building was painted from top to bottom with a popular figures from Lyon history either walking down the street or peering out each window.  On my last evening in Lyon I spent a good amount of time simply enjoying this piece of artwork as the sun set.

The bridge over the Saone river at night.

We ended up playing a lot of cards in Lyon.  Pierre, on the left, really loved Texas Hold ‘Em.  I actually love the game as well, but hadn’t played for years.  One night we watched the football game (soccer for us Americans) at Pierre’s house while playing poker and drinking wine and champagne.  It was one of my best nights in Lyon.

Surprisingly, my favorite thing about Lyon was the graffiti.  I loved it! It seems most of the graffiti I have seen in the States are scribbled letters.  But the graffiti in Lyon were mainly of characters, simply etched on the wall… almost adding to the atmosphere.

I really liked this character, exclaiming his love for Lyon while marching on the bridge.

And yet another one.  I seriously have more pictures of graffiti than anything else in Lyon. =)  I spent a lot of time walking around and simply enjoyed stumbling across the vivid paintings.