Le Poisson d’Avril (the fish of April) is the French version of April Fool's Day. School kids will typically tape/pin paper fish to each other's backs. There are plenty of chocolate fish in the stores to celebrate, of course.
Goofing around with a boar's head in Barbizon. Barbizon is a small artist's village near the forest of Fontainebleau, which inspired a generation of artists. Not many artists there these days, just tourists.
Nicole, Courtney, Gordian, and Ingar peering down the classic climb "L'Angle Parfait" at the Dame Jouanne area. Hiking around the back may be the only way to get to the top of this technical testpiece. On our second to last day in France, we were looking for dry rock, but the whole area was pretty wet.
Continuing our journey to find dry rock, we headed out to 95.2, a reliably fast drying area. While we got a little climbing in, one big shower drenched all our stuff and our hopes for more fun at the boulders. Conrad seemed to enjoy the drops on his face and slept right through the storm.
Since our chance for continued climbing seemed slim, we headed to Milly-la-Forêt to do some shopping. In the middle of town is this cool medieval market hall, built in 1479. Gordian and Paul had a good time geeking out over the roof supports.
We saw quite a few cool cars driving around town and parked in lots - this classic Citroën C2V was in Milly. I can imagine Thompson and Thompson (from Tintin) coming to a screeching halt in that thing.
We made in Fontainebleau to run some more errands and found the carousel running despite the terrible weather. So Lyn and Conrad jumped on for Conrad's first carousel ride! No one else was intrepid (foolish?) enough to brave the rain so they were the only two on the entire carousel.
Nora's sister Nicole (climbing) and her husband Gordian (spotting) joined us for our last few days of climbing. They live in Straßberg (or Stuttgart?), Germany and made the drive over. Here, Nicole is eyeing the crux move on La Marie Rose.
Gordion trying La Conque à Doigt at Bas Cuvier. For years we thought this classic climb was called La Clé, but it turns out we were wrong. French friend and Bleausard, Alain Thibault, explained that La Clé is actually the climb just to the left. Paul and Ingar found it to be not nearly as fun. Either way, this climb has the classic (i.e. blank) Fontainebleau top-out and is a must try if you are in Cuvier.
To celebrate Courtney's birthday and our last night in France, we ate at a relatively new restaurant in Fontainebleau. L'Axel is a fine dining, Japanese inspired establishment that just earned a Michelin star. It was kinda weird being there in my chalky climbing clothes, but the food was great. Pictured is the post-dessert, dessert. Yum!
We saw a well trained Belgian Malinois at the airport on the way home. She was assisting the airport security and making friends with travelers. This picture is mainly for our friend Patti, but it was a good reminder that we were about to be reunited with our Lucy!
Hey, I liked the name of this restaurant at the airport. It is hard to know if the French guy is saying, "no,no,no" or "you're # 1." I'll go with the latter.
Finally on the plane and on our way home. Conrad did just as well on this flight as he did on the flight out. The white noise created by the airplane pretty much just put him to sleep.
So that wraps things up for our 2013 trip to Fontainebleau. Signing off until our next trip!
-Raza
No comments:
Post a Comment