Life Lessons

Life is full of lessons. They are everywhere, sometimes you look for them, sometimes you don’t but whether you learn from them or not is completely up to you. This last week or so, we’ve learnt a lot. 

Lesson 1 - When someone invites you to their house around 2pm, don’t assume it’s for a traditional late french lunch and a light hearted-chat about climbing in Europe. We arrived at our new friend’s house after having done a bunch of errands that morning not necessarily sure what to expect but had stayed light on food in case they laid out a big spread. Luckily I had the foresight to feed both of us 4 dates before we left, just in case. Four hours of disjointed french/english conversation later we found ourselves walking back to our camp dazed and in complete silence. The first two hours had flown by as we were jacked up on the 3 coffees they provided and the sugar from these weird nutmeg biscuits that were the size of my thumb nail but delicious all the same. The next two however, seemed to take forever. The conversation was very interesting but at times, neither of us really had a clue what was going on and why we were still there. I like to think of everything as an experience and in this case was excited to gain some local and cultural knowledge. As we walked away though, we were dead. Mentally and physically drained to the point of almost being angry. After some food and a run through the peaks we were feeling a bit better, and nothing a glass of wine didn’t fix later on. 

Lesson 2 - After living in a forest for close to a month, the thought of a trip to Paris is wonderful - in theory. If you find yourself in a like situation, I suggest you steer clear of places like the metro or major tourist attractions as there is chance you may feel the urge to cause people harm. Seriously, I thought I hated crowds before we started this trip. I can not begin to tell you how much they frustrate me now. But in saying all that, we ha a lovely day Paris. My first cappucino in close to 2 months was awesome. We did some shopping and then I saw a traditional street crepe stall, which brings me to lesson 3.

Lesson 3 - When feeling the urge to release your inner fat kid and get super excited over the sight of nutella and banana crepes being made freshly in front of you, try to hold back your enthusism until you’ve at least crossed the street in order to not stack it and re-roll your already weak ankle. Yep, it was like train wreck in slow motion. “Rich, look they do crepes with nutella and banannnnnnn-ahhhhhhhh!” Whhhhooooossssahhhh, deep breaths, any breath at all. Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry! The pain almost made me spew a little and the only thing that stopped me from crying was a little old man that came running up and talking in the most concerned little old man voice but I couldn’t answer him as all I could hear in my head was my silent screaming. More than anything, I was angry at myself for being so silly. Add to that, it was only about 1pm and we hadn’t even started sightseeing yet. It was a long, long day of walking that ended with Pig Beer. And it was awesome.

Lesson 4 - Taking your children camping is a wonderful way to spend a family vacation. Children and wild camping however do not mix. France is one of the most camp friendly places I’ve been to and there are awesome campsites everywhere. Waking up to the blood curdling shriek of your 2 year old because you are bathing it in freezing cold water is not a pleasant way for one to rise. Perhaps you should have stayed at a campsite where they offer showers and warm water! Allowing your dirty, pantless toddler to do a bum slide over our boulder mat and yoga mat may have been forgivable, even funny if he was wearing pants. And not dirty. Cramming 2 adults and 2 children into a T4 along with all your gear is going to be a tight fit and clearly a recipe for a some tension between your 5 and 8 year olds. Just because you can turn that parent switch and tune out their constant bitching, whining and 6am bickering doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t planning their gruesome murders. Maybe something to think about. 

All in all, it has been a funny week. Fontainebleau is still amazing and as the temperature gets cooler it’s making for some awesome climbing conditions. Feet are getting itchy though, maybe time to plan our next adventure. 

Ramble On

I can not even try to put into words how much we are loving life right now. This last week has been amazing! Fontainebleau just keeps getting better. Every passing day we meet new people, climb new areas and are left feeling totally stoked with life. Rich is starting to crush his projects. It’s amazing how much strength a person can build in just 2 weeks of solid climbing. I have topped out on 2 more techy slabs which I have been super stoked on, today’s being a proper highball too. Just loving being able to eat, climb, sleep - repeat!

One of my slabs

Rich crushing!

Just about every morning, an older gentleman comes jogging past our van as we are eating breakfast. One day he stopped for a quick chat and seemed to be pretty impressed with our set up and our plans in general. The next day he stopped again, this time explaining that he had been climbing here since he was 16, training for Alpine climbing but now enjoys running the circuits of the forest. He went on to tell us about all the epic climbing throughout France, different rocks and gave us some awesome Alpine areas to check out. 

On his next stop by, he showed us on the map where he runs everyday and suggested we should try one of the circuits as you get to 1000m in elevation overall and therefore it gives you a completely different view of Font as you are above the forest. The circuits are anywhere from 15km to about 26kms and can take from 2 to 6 hours. Now when I say gentleman, I mean that he must be pushing 70 if not older. Being that he runs everyday, we knew he must have been crazy fit but for some reason still went into the whole thing quite confident that it would be a pleasant day walking and jogging through the forest. A great way to spend our rest day. I even suggested we do it as morning cardio before breakfast. Thankfully Rich said that was a silly idea as four and half hours later we arrived back at the van completely wrecked. Quite possibly the most tired I have been in my entire life. 

This was no skip through the forest. It was all out carnage. We ran as much of the circuit as we could, stopping only for the wilderness style parkour and to momentarily pause in order to not vomit. It was running over and under boulders, crawling through caves, scrambling up sandy peaks and then all of a sudden pelting downhill through a sea of purple flowers. We found and ate wild apples, mmmmm so crunchy! Saw these crazy bright green lizards that looked like they should have been in a rain forest. It was the one of the most amazingly random and satisfying things we have done. Patrick was not kidding when he said it was breathtaking! 

We have decided that the first 1/4 of the circuit will be our daily cardio. After a 4 hour boulder session today, we fueled up on coffee and date loaf (this amazing brick of blended dates we have found at the super market for 2 euro a kilo - winning!) and headed out. We were setting a mean pace but after crushing 4 of the peaks then I came sliding off a rock and thought for sure I heard my ankle snap. After much sobbing, covered in dirt and sand, I brushed off and tried to weight it. Seemed ok so we continued on, albeit at a much slower pace. It seems ok now, a little bruised but think it should be fine. A nip of whiskey and off to bed!  

We are both feeling pretty great at the moment. The ridiculous amount of weight we both stacked on in Wales (thank you curry and cider) is starting to fall off and we are really enjoying being as healthy as we can be. The food you can get from the super markets here is amazing! Walking into the health food section for me was like a fat kid walking into Wonka Land! You can get every type of organic nut milk possible. All our favourite berries in fresh, dried or liquid form. Different sorts of seeded crackers, dehydrated bananas - you name it! And it’s all relatively cheap. Our breakfast is currently - pea protein, oats, bee pollen, flaxseeds, fresh dates, a mixed fruit and nut muesli and either rice, coconut or hazelnut milk. How do you not go out and crush with an uber food combo like that fueling you. Add to that seriously great coffee and I am one super happy girl! Yep, this is the life we were born to live, so darn happy we chose to live it! 

There is a quote by Will Gadd that sums up how we have been feeling this week:

“We all try to be busy instead of being alive, busy instead of getting out and breathing.

Busy sending useless texts instead of walking in the woods with our kids or introducing them to life’s joys. We move information instead of simply moving. I understand the ease, the convenience of it all, it’s tempting. But I’m way more proud of every single day I’ve spent outside, with my lungs burning, chest heaving, sucking for oxygen in life than I am of the times I drank too much, slept in, squandered time sending useless but somehow important emails, or whatever.”

http://vimeo.com/62101215

Still full of energy in our run

Fresh wild apples :)

Needing a refuel... date loaf!

Part of the track

My legs at the half way mark..

Rich's dirt socks at the end!!!