It was a beautiful sunny weekend

Rocher du Potala

Moss

Hammock

Rocks at Franchard Cuisinere

It was a beautiful sunny weekend, so off we went... We spent 2 days climbing in the Fontainebleau forest. The weather was almost summer like. Highs around 26C, clear skies and just enough of a breeze to make napping in a hammock just perfect.

Cat Ba and Ha Long bay

Cat Ba

Cat Co2

Floating village

Limestone pillars

Fishing boat

After another night spent on the night train and 5 hours spent on busses and boats we made it to Cat Ba island. Although Cat Ba is not in the same district as Ha Long bay, it is part of the same geological phenomena. The bay is comprised of thousands of limestone pillars and islands of different sizes. One of the most remarkable things about the bay (besides the big rocks) is that it is dotted with small floating villages. The best way to visit the bay is by boat!

Bourgogne

Having four a four day weekend, and seeing that the weather was bad pretty much all over France, we decided to head down to Bourgogne. This region of France is known for its excellent wines, rolling hills, quaint country side, and some pretty good climbing. We headed down Wednesday evening to a village called Moroge (near Chalon-sur-Saôn).

Despite the high chance for rain, Thursday morning we decided to go climbing in an area called Cormot. The crag is really nice limestone, which overlooks the town of Nolay. We stayed there all day and climbed quite a few of the 30 m climbs. In the end the day turned out pretty good, it was cold but we did not see a drop of rain. The next day we headed out to another climbing spot, Remigny. This is a relatively new crag, and climbers have limited access to the site (no climbing during hunting season). The routes are really well equipped, and the climbing is just perfect. Even thought it rained a bit, it was a really good day of climbing and being outdoors.

On Saturday we decided to take a rest from climbing and explore the region by bicycle. Bourgogne is known for its wines, and what better excuse than a quaint bike ride in the country side to stop and taste some of the local wines. We headed out of Givry and took the voie vert towards Buxy and then up to Montagny. The voie vert is a bicycle path that has been laid out on an old rail road track. The path runs along the vines and fields, affording wonderful views of the hills and villages. During one of our wine tasting stops, I decided to buy some wine to take back to Paris with me.

Over all it only rained for a few minutes on Friday and Saturday and even though it was overcast, Bourgogne is a beautiful region worth visiting. I will definitely go back and spend more time there.

Fontainebleau

Despite bad weather predictions, last Saturday we decided to drive down to the Fontainebleau forest and go climbing. We decided to go to an area called Roche au Sabots, which is located near the town of Milly-la-Forêt (http://bleau.info/map/). So what better excuse than to stop at the boulangerie la pavé de la Halle in Milly first. In my opinion they have some of the best pain au chocolat around.

So after this small detour we head into the forest and climbed some blocs. Although the weather held up most of the afternoon, the sun never really came out and no pictures of climbing that day were taken. However, there are no lack of pictures of rocks and climbing at Roche aux Sabots on my computer. Just to show how nice the site can be in the sun I decide to post a picture that I took last year around the same time of year.

After an afternoon of climbing we head back to Paris, with another small detour at a big supermarket, and went to dinner at the Foyer des Etudiants Vietnamiens (this will be another post).