France, Snow, and McDonalds

We departed Tuesday at 6PM. Flight included a few bad movies but no sleep for either of us. We landed in Paris, picked up the car and the snow began to fall. We headed into the city to pick up a few climbing supplies. It was a lot of fun learning the french way of driving which involves making your own lanes and never stopping. The pedestrians don’t make it easy on you as they are always leaning out onto the road appearing as if they are about to start walking across at any moment.

It stopped snowing as we left Paris and headed down the road to Fontainebleau. The ground was wet when we arrived so we drove into town to see what it had to offer. Fontainebleau is much bigger than I expected with tall buildings and many locals wandering the streets at all hours. We stopped to eat our second ham sandwich of the trip which was both cheap and delicious. When we exited the restaurant it was snowing. By the time we arrived at the car it was a full on blizzard with heavy winds. What should have been a 25 minute jaunt home through the forest turned into an hour and a half adventure helping a dozen other people push their cars up an icy road. Did I mention home for our first night in Fontainebleau was a tent?

That is what we woke up to on Day 2 (it hasn’t stopped snowing as of 6PM). Luckily we had stayed up for 24 hours during our travel so I was mighty tired which kept me in my tent for a solid 13 hours. If you know Leslie, then you’ll know he was up well before 10AM since he is always psyched, even when there is three inches of snow on the ground! Today we made it into town for lunch and to scope out the internet scene. We found an internet cafe that was 2 euros per hour.. We decided to go look at some boulders even though it was 25 degrees and still snowing. We hiked around Bas Cuvier and marveled at the snow covered sandstone. On our way out we ran into some british climbers who, believe it or not, Leslie met three weeks ago in Hueco! They had come out to clean the snow off the top of boulders in hopes that we’ll have something to climb tomorrow or the next day. They gave us some clutch beta which sent us up the road to a McDonalds where we are currently sitting, enjoying free wifi. With a windchill of 15 degrees outside, we may never leave the warmth, free wifi, and easy access to food (not exactly a fresh baguet but who’s complaining?).

For more photos check out Leslie’s blog.