Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a famous bouldering area in the south of Paris - some claim that bouldering was invented there. The promise of millions of sandstone blocks in a beautiful forest definitely got us hyped. Our journey to Fontainebleau started in Göttingen on the 3rd of April. We planned our trip with two major objectives in mind:
- climb hard and
- find the best canelés.
If you haven’t heard of canelés yet, it’s a highly underrated French patisserie! Every time we got our hands on one, we ate them too quickly so there’s no photo I can insert here.
Where we stayed
We rented an appartment in Fontaine-le-Port, which was located on the other side of the river Seine and about 15 min to Fontainebleau by car. The view from the rooftop terrace was amazing. The boulangerie was just a 2-minute-walk away. Luckily, the bakery offered the best canelés we could find :)
5/5 stars!
Crashpads
As we travelled by car and had no space for crashpads our only option was to borrow them there. The local climbing gym Karma provides Beal Crashpads which had the perfect size to put them on top of the car. Besides, Karma recommended us bleaumétéo on Instagram, where they post updates about the weather forecast regularly (both in French and in English).
5/5 boulder brushes!
After escaping the crocodile ourselves, we got it back from its mouth ;)
Where we climbed
Fontainebleau forrest is a huge area around the village Fontainebleau. We wanted to see as many different places as possible during our stay. Unfortunately, the hype for the boulders was too big to think about taking photos ;) The forrest is famous for its circuits - a bundle of boulders of a similar difficulty. We had bought two boulder guides in advance, one about the circuits. It turned out, that during the Corona confinement, many circuits experienced a makeover with new numbers. However, the off-pist boulder guide was slightly more helpful, but in the end, we combined the information and maps from 27crags, bleau.info (highly recommended! unfortunately, no maps) and the off-pist book.
Buying outdated books was a real bummer: -5/29 stars
Aprement Ouest
This was our first day in the forrest! We went for a red circuit, which was easily doable for Paul, more of a challenge for me. Still very nice climbing.
5/5 boulder brushes!
Bas Cuvier
This is the very famous area where you can find “Marie Rose” (6a), “Helicoptère” (7a) and “Biceps mou” (7b,7c) among many others. Therefore the area is quite crowded. We still caught a glimpse of “Marie Rose” from afar.
3/5 boulder brushes!
Franchard Isatis
Franchard Isatis is an area in the west of the Fontainebleau forrest. Some famous boulders such as “Crocodile” (6a) and the “Iceberg” (5+) are located there. Paul found himself a 6c boulder problem called Prairies endormies (6c).
We met a crocodile in the forrest and barely escaped its teeth.
5/5 boulder brushes!
What we did on rainy days
We wanted to go sightseeing, but Arkham city was in constant horror!
Sightseeing on off days
Fontainebleau
This beautiful city in the middle of the Fontainebleau forrest offers an idyllic scenery with an impressive palace.
Samois-sur-Seine
Our landlord recommended us to visit the riverbanks of Samois-sur-Seine, which was definitely worth the trip.
Where to eat
- Antica Trattoria, Fontainebleau - Italian restaurant run by an Italian family, the Pizza was amazing
- Frites-N-Bleau, Fontainebleau - delicious chips, the vegan fricadelle was a very good vegan sausage
- Glassico, Fontainebleau - delicious handmade ice cream
- Le K, Samois-sur-Seine - great atmosphere with a beautiful view of the riverbanks in Samois-sur-Seine, the Pizza was not the best though
- Papilles-enchantées, Fontaine-le-Port - the boulanger which offers the best canelés
