Arrondissement de Melun

We drove through the morning after an early landing in Roscoff at 7am and made straight for Fontainebleau to stay for the night and do a quick spot of bouldering . After stopping at the Hippodrome "bivouac site" to make toasties and consult the climbing guidebook, we headed for the Apremont bouldering area. Fontainebleau, once the private hunting grounds of a since expired French monarch, is a largely wooded area whose ground is sandy and strewn with large sandstone boulders, deposited by a passing ice sheet. This shady boulder field has become a mecca for climbers. You can't drive 100m without passing a car or van rammed with bouldering mats and the occupants awkwardly squeezed in around them. Our own bouldering mat on Bill's back, we headed out into the Fontainebleau labarynth of pleasant old growth forest and boulders and, as is tradition, promptly got lost. Having eventually found our way, Bill pulled on his climbing shoes and leapt on a few of the lower boulders, Jo chasing around under him with the mat. After three climbs Bill decided that he would not be thanked for breaking his ankle on the first night of the honeymoon, so we opted to head back to the bar chalet at the entrance to the woods. We're now parked up at the Hippodrome again having cooked and eaten a satay that was just the far side of too spicy, and are now sat out, cans in hand, watching the stars and judging oversized campervans.Read more