Leaving Fontainbleau

    Living in the forest of
Fontainebleau over the past month
 has been  blissful. The autumn golds and
oranges, theblue skiesand low sun has 
illuminated the fern, moss and toadstalls of
forest floor and highlighted the sandy tones of
the boulders.
A magical setting for  
climbing.    Each ascent leading to a breathtaking elevated
view of  the forest. Lb's belly has kept us cozy as temperatures are reaching 0  degrees
at night with stunning clear skies twinkling with a blanket of stars. Over the past two weeks we have enjoyed staying in the forest  
at Isatis with Lewis and Miriam doing some of the classic circuits and  
off circuit climbs.  There is quite a sense of community with the  
other groups of climbers, most of whom sleep on their boulder mats in  
the open, they must have super warm sleeping bags!  One crisp morning  
we were awoken by a Bizzare riot of horses, hounds, bugles and a rather  
well-bred selection of locals in velvet waist coats.  After talking to  
them it became clear that there was a "chasse coeur" (a hunt), in this  
case for deer.  They later returned with the prize stag; a beautiful  
magestic creature with huge antlers.  A tension was built up in the  
forest as ceremonial bugels played which worked up an anticipation  
from the blood thirsty hounds, then as the signal was given a frenzy  
of sqirming and writhing as thirty plus blood hounds gorged on the  
carcass, a scene that is hard to forget. Having felt part of the  
forest for over the month, admiring its beautiful rhythm it felt sad  
that such a stunning creature was snapped from its magical world in  
such a brutal flurry of fear and adrenaline to then be publically  
mawled.  A tradition that has taken place in the forest between october  
and december for centuries.
 
 
La creperie has continued to serve at Roches aux Sabots and Grez sur  
Loin campsite at the weekends where we have had roaring fires for the  
hungry guests.  New crepe fillings are making it to the specials  
board: Friday night we saw the debut of 'la whiskey flambe'. On  
Saturday night as the temperature plummitted we had requests from  
campers for a 'winter warmer' crepe: honey, lemon and Ginger to heal  
the chills.
It really is time to move on now though. In zero degree temperatures  
it is a challenge to get washing dry and soon even big fires and  
delicious crepes won't be enough to keep campers outside.  Today we  
head south to perpignon for some sport climbing and to meet claire and  
Ali for some special birthday celebrations! Font has been great and  
has physically prepared us for the next stage of the trip. We  
announced to our regular customers at roches aux sabots including the  
shoe repair guy that the creperie will be back in full force next  
spring.  So after our final baguette rustique we drive south. good  
luck lewis
  and miriam with your van repair and aurevoir beautiful fontainbleue  
xx ....well we actually left the day after as there was a national  
shortage of diesel due to French lorry drivers striking. After queuing  
up 'en velo' with petrol cans we now have a full tank so southern skies  
here we come! X