Fontainebleau 2003

Fontainebleau Trip Report May 2003. (Tam)

The club members ventured again to Fontainebleau for May bank holiday weekend.

The first and perhaps the hardest challenge of the weekend was the early morning rise to catch the 7.00am flight from Liverpool airport to Paris, Charles de Gaulle. This entailed most people getting up at 3.00am and then various 'pick ups' along the way; including mine in Bradford. As the cars careered through the early hours, despite being bleary eyed, we felt like intrepid adventurers embarking on the most infamous of the Harrogate climbing club trips, Fontainebleau.

We managed a quick half hour for brekky at the airport as everyone converged with rucksacks and climbing boots to board the Easyjet flight and then within barely an hour or so we were in Paris and meeting more of the Harrogate club (John, Winona and Amber). Simon sorted out the hire cars and allocated everyone to a vehicle according to driving and map reading skills and in no time at all the cars were speeding out of the interconnecting cats cradle of motorway fly overs and into rolling French countryside. Our car was driven masterfully by Jim and Ant and having arrived at the local town of Milly a little earlier than the others we all piled out and went for a wander around the quaint covered market place and then got some tasty snacks from the Boulangerie. We left the town rather less sedately than planned as Jim got confused at which way to turn at a junction and drove the car dramatically on to a verge, to park near to a surprised French man on a bicycle. The camp site was well worth the journey and boasted hot showers, fancy personal wash rooms and even a croissant man who came round in the mornings laden with sweet smelling pastries. After unpacking our tents and arranging sleeping bags we congregated excitedly around Simon, who seemed to be the most likely leader and then spent about half an hour disagreeing with each other about where to go climbing. Decision made we sped off to Apremont, a climbing area for a wide ability range in a leafy green forest. The keen climbers headed off to do blue routes whereas I, a Fontainebleau virgin, stayed with the 'B' team and did lots of interesting boulder routes surrounded by people who were ready to spot you and give you moral support when required. That evening we decided to hit Milly for food and alcohol, exhilarated by our first real climbing day in France and starving due to the early morning rise. The problem was the size of the group however and we wandered aimlessly round the town feeling tired and tetchy until Martin found an empty Pizzeria that was only too happy to feed us that night and also booked us in for the following evening as well.