Finale of Our Roman Holiday

Today was our last big day of sightseeing in Rome, and in fact for the rest of our trip. Tomorrow we fly from the Rome airport to Paris, then we have a half day in Paris before flying home on Monday.

A couple miles south of our hotel is a cluster of Roman ruins including the Colosseum. We got a cab to Palatine Hill, the least visited of the ancient sites, and spent at least 2 hours wandering through what used to be the massive home to the Roman emperors. The road leading by this massive structure, the Via Sacra, or the Sacred Way, is still intact around Palatino (as the Italians call it). We followed this path up to the top of the hill where the most intact bulk of the ruined palace lays. Probably the most noteworthy part of this tour is that the home of Augustus Caesar (aka Octavian), can be toured... or at least the surviving parts of it.

Vatican City

Today we visited Vatican City. We wisely took the advice of others and made a reservation to get in. The wait time when we arrived around 10am had to have been at least 3 hours, and the line continued to grow all the while. Conveniently, we were able to more or less walk right in (there was still madness to get through before actually entering, but we just stuck to the buddy system and made it through intact and together). If you have already figured it out, I will say it very clearly - the Vatican makes Disneyland look like a ghost town. I have never seen so much humanity crammed into such a small area. So if you don't like crowds and are not dying to see the Sistine Chapel or St. Peter's Basilica, this is something you may want to skip.

So once we accepted that we would be in a continuous crush the entire day, we set out to enjoy ourselves. There are basically three major things to do in the Vatican: the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We started out by first just viewing the architecture of the Vatican itself, aka the Apostolic Palace, where the pope both lives and conducts business. The palace is created in a very classical nature, with tall clean columns and statues overlooking the square below. These are actually statues of various saints (I had to explain to Ryan that no, not all the saints are up there - there's just not enough room for that!).

Rome!

On the morning of Ryan's birthday, we left Florence by high speed train and headed to Rome. It took about 2 hours and gave us a taste of some of the beautiful countryside Italy has to offer. Upon arriving in Rome, we snatched a taxi (there seemed to be no real organization in the taxi queue so we just flagged down the first one we saw milling about) and drove to our hotel, Hotel Concordia, which is conveniently located just around the corner from the Spanish Steps. We arrived around 1pm, so we had the whole afternoon to wander the city and familiarize ourselves.

Some first impressions: Rome is big, much bigger than Florence. Not just big in size, but in people, cars, Vespas, art, etc. The drivers are crazy, the kids on their mopeds are crazier, and the pedestrians are craziest. There does not seem to be a single rule of the road that cannot be broken. That being said, my second impression of the city is that it's gorgeous. There's this blending of ancient with sort of modern. I say sort of because there's a law in Rome that no building can taller than Saint Peter's Basilica, so no really modern buildings have been erected. Instead, the buildings all have a kind of 1950s chic about them, which I really like.

There is so much to do on in Rome that we decided to just get a feel for our neighborhood today, then the next day would be "Vatican Day," and Saturday, our last day, would be "Ancient Day." The massive Pantheon, the Roman Temple built in 126 A.D., is massive. Externally, the structure is entirely Roman, with an inscription to Agrippa, the Roman consul who designed it, still inscribed across the top. The inside, however, was made into a Catholic church in 609, which was a blessing since, although disappointing to not be able to see the temple in completely original form, nonetheless was the only reason the pagan temple was not completely destroyed.

The Pantheon is an amazing building, and whetted my appetite for more of the classical. We next walked to the Piazza Navona, which is the site of a former Roman stadium encircled by a Roman racetrack (a la Ben Hur) and which is now a public square. The racetrack still remains, but instead of surrounding gladiators it surrounds vendors selling Coach knockoffs. There are three huge fountains here down in the classical style dating back to the Renaissance. One, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, shows anthropomorphized figures of four major rivers representing the four known continents at the time (1600s): the Nile for Africa, the Danube for Europe, the Ganges for Asia, and the Rio de la Plata (apparently in Uruguay?) representing the Americas. The fountain also contains various animal life representing these continents - I still have not found the armadillo, but I know he's on there.

After enjoying some pizza and people watching in the piazza, we then headed out to the Campo de Fiori, another public square which was used as an execution site in Medieval Italy. This is where Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake as a heretic for expressing his belief that the sun, not the Earth, was actually at the center of the solar system - a statue of Bruno now stands in the center of the square, defiantly facing the Vatican, which you can just barely see peeking up over the skyline. After such a bloody history, it seems ironic that this is where a fish and vegetable market has been held every morning since 1869, but even more ironic is that originally the site was a meadow, and the name actually means "Field of Flowers."

When we got to the Campo de Fiori, the vendors were breaking down their stalls for the day. In the late afternoon, apparently the cafes put out chairs and tables or people to enjoy the view and an aperitif, then in the evening it's a popular meet up spot for locals and tourists. Hopefully we will catch the market on another morning!

We had walked a decent way by this point, so we headed back to the hotel for the siesta hour, doing some window shopping along the way. It's Rome, one of the fashion capitals of the world - do I need to tell you what we saw here? Well, let's just say certain sections of Rome make the ritzy section of South Coast Plaza look dowdy!

After relaxing for a bit, we headed to a restaurant that sounded pretty good, Osteria dell' Ingegno. Well thank you, Fodor's, for the recommend, because it was wonderful! Great ambience with colorful modern art that reminded me of Spain, wonderful service, and excellent food. To start, Ryan and I shared the nudi, which is "naked ravioli." Essentially, it was the filling of the ravioli (pesto and ricotta cheese) with a drizzling of olive oil - so good! Next I had a traditional Tuscan dish called mezze maniche, which is a noodle like penne, only shorter and fatter, with a light tomato sauce with...wait for it...bacon! Ryan had a Madras chicken curry which was also pretty tasty as well as a nice change of pace. All in all, quite good, pretty affordable, and great atmosphere! Not bad for our first night out in a city known for tourist trap restaurants!

After dinner we went back to the hotel via a path that would take us by the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Both are pretty amazing when all lit up against the night sky, both are huge, and both are crawling with people! I got a chance to throw a coin into the fountain, but Ryan didn't, so I guess that means I'm going back to Rome solo! We are going to try and do a sunrise walk one morning, so hopefully he will get his chance then!

 

Last Day in Florence

On our last day in Florence, we decided to take it somewhat easy. In the morning, after some croissants with Nutella (it's not vacation if I don't eat Nutella for breakfast), we headed to the Bargello, a museum of mostly statues. It houses my favorite statue, Donatello's David, as well as some other sculpture from Donatello and various other artists from the Renaissance.

It wasn't horribly busy when we got there, so we had plenty of time to admire the sculpture at our leisure. I love Donatello because he puts so much personality into his work - his cherubs look mischievous, his fauns look downright naughty, and his Bacchus looks drunkenly knowing. He actually has two David's there - one that looks younger but manly in a boyish kind of way with a hint of a lofty smirk on his face (Ryan's favorite), and the other, the one I refer to as the "floppy hat David" (he's actually wearing a wide brim helmet, but whatever), which is my personal favorite. This David is very androgynous, practically feminine, and has the look of quiet pride on his face. Personally, I think his face says, "Try to look humble, try to look humble!" while on the inside he knows he's a badass.

After exploring the rest of the Bargello (a few other interesting sections, like their collection of Persian treasures), we decided to visit the Santa Croce church, where there is more sculpture and paintings, including a Cimabue crucifix (he dates back to the 1200 and I believe is considered a precursor to Giotto and a few other medieval artists who eventually lead to the birth of the Renaissance). There are also some frescoes from Giotto, some paintings from Donatello, and various pieces of religious art. However, the main attraction of this church is the number of Renaissance stars who are buried here, such as Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo. Memorials for Da Vinci and Dante are also here, but they are both buried elsewhere. It's kind of sad here, because there are various crypts all along the floor of the church where everyone walks, so many have been worn down over time, thus erasing the intricate design these marble graves once portrayed.

We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. Our hotel's tower bar opened up for the season that day, so I had a couple of glasses of prosecco and Ryan had some white wine, and we enjoyed the sunset with some of our fellow hotel guests. Once the sun finally disappeared, we decided to go back to Rose's Ristorante and American bar (www.roses.it) where we had that fabulous ossobucco. When we arrived, Rita, the at least trilingual waitress (she spoke fluent Italian, English, and French - I would not be surprised if she spoke Spanish and German too) who had taken care of us on our last visit, recognized us and gave us a couple of glasses of prosecco on the house. She then went on to make the rest of our meal the most memorable and wonderful one of the entire trip - not only because it was delicious (it was - it practically makes me want to cry knowing we will not have this restaurant to go to on a regular basis back home), but also because of her amazing service and friendliness. We ordered a bottle of rose (I prefer red wine while Ryan likes white, so we compromised on rose) - she brought out the bottle we ordered as well as a different bottle. She explained the other bottle was a rose from her hometown in Italy (the heel of the boot on the map of Italy) and she would recommend we try it - we took her word for it, and are so glad we did because it was the best rose we have ever had! Next we had the crispy ravioli as an appetizer again, followed by the ossobucco once more for Ryan and a duck a l'orange for me (have I mentioned how much I love duck?), and both were just the most amazing things either of us had yet to enjoy on this trip! Finally, on Rita's recommendation, we had a Chantilly cream in a chocolate cup with fruit and raspberry sauce for dessert. I really cannot emphasize enough the need for everyone who ever visits Florence to absolutely go to this restaurant! Ryan and I are already planning other trip just so we can eat here again!

Thursday we head to Rome, so after dinner we trekked up the stairs to the top of the tower for once last glimpse of the city under the stars. I'm sad to leave my new favorite city, but I'm excited to see the antiquities of Rome!

 

Art Walk of Florence

We decided to make Tuesday our big art day, since most of the galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday here. We started out at the Uffizi, which is apparently always a bitch to get into thanks to it housing some of the most famous art from the Renaissance. Luckily, we had the foresight to purchase the Florence Card, which gets you into almost every museum in the city AND let's you cut to the front of the line. Even with this, it was still kind of a cluster to get in. Once inside, it was clear from watching the masses where the famous Michelangelo and Botticelli paintings were, so we decided to start with the statues and work our way back to that particular area of the Renaissance artwork. I personally enjoy statues more than paintings anyway - they just seem to be a more accessible and humanistic.

There is a very thorough collection of art in the pre/early- Renaissance section - quite a few Giotto's showing the beginnings of perspective and shading. When we finally got to the room with the Botticelli's, surprisingly it was not The Birth of Venus that was mobbed, but The Coming of Spring. When it comes to Renaissance art, I am a big fan of the classical, so I was happy to view these even amongst the crowds. The next room had Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, but we moved through there pretty quickly since there were multiple tour groups just camped out in front.

One of the most interesting sections to me was the tapestry room - the amount of work that went into these woven masterpieces is astonishing! Unfortunately, many are in desperate need of restoration, but the process is very expensive, and the museum needs to often spend that money on the higher traffic areas, so who knows how much longer these will be of displayable quality! Overall I would say the Uffizi is worth going to once... but unlike the Louvre or the Getty or even the Academia, I for one will probably never repeat that visit - just too many people!

For lunch we found a little restaurant close to our hotel where Ryan ordered Tuscan chicken with bacon in a wine sauce and I got a risotto with mozzarella in a meat sauce - a heartier risotto than I am used to, but pretty tasty. The chicken, on the other hand, was phenomenal - both stuffed with bacon AND with a piece of bacon on top. We ended up sharing our food so that I could enjoy some of that bacon goodness too!

After lunch we strolled over to the Academia, famous for housing Michelangelo's David. This is pretty much considered the major (and for some, the only) draw to this museum, but Ryan quickly steered me over to some of Michelangelo's unfinished statues, know as the Prisoners. These half finished giants seem like they are trying to fight their way out of the marble. They are almost sad to behold - they were not coming to life how Michelangelo foresaw them, so they were abandoned to be ever encased in their stone tombs. Definitely a must see.

On the way back to the hotel from the Academia, we decided to pop into the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, yet another Medici Palace once inhabited from the Medici family until they got tired of it. This museum was pretty interesting. It had a special exhibit showcasing an eclectic collection of items from various individual dealers and afficianados. It was interesting to see their favorite Florentine pieces from their different collections. We also visited the treasury rooms, which housed the usual opulent religious paraphernalia and art from the peak of the Medicis reign of power.

We decided to go back to the Il Grotto Guelfa restaurant that we visited our first night here. Ryan was determined to get the risotto he had there 10+ years prior, and so he did. I settled for the gnocchi alla Gorgonzola, then for dessert we shared Tuscan creme and I enjoyed a delicious espresso (decaf, of course). We then returned to our hotel, climbed the rickety stairs to the tower balcony, and enjoyed Florence at night under the stars while listening to the locals scream, "ole, ole, ole, ole!" (I think there was a soccer match going on). All in all, a long but pleasant day!

 

Florence Day 2

We have spent the past two days trekking all over Florence to enjoy the art, architecture, and atmosphere of this awesome city. On Monday, we started out at the famous Duomo, the large domed church designed by Brunelleschi. The church itself has many sculptures and works of art, but the main draw is the beautifully painted frescos inside the dome. After admiring this, we wandered down to the crypt below, where various religious figures and knights (aka Crusaders) are buried. Then we headed over to the Campanile (the bell tower of the Duomo) to hike the ten thousand stairs (maybe not quite that many, but close) to the top for the best view of the entire city.

We debated going to the top of the Duomo instead, but the problem with going to the top of the Duomo is that, once up there, you can't see the Duomo itself, which is the most impressive thing on the cityscape! So we did the Campanile, which was tiring but absolutely worth it. My poor legs were shaking by the time we were done, so we quickly checked out the Duomo Museum, which has all of the different designs offered up by the various artists of the time as well as Brunelleschi's final designs and the changes he made to those plans over the decades it took to actually build.

By now it was absolutely time for lunch. We stopped at a restaurant right around the corner from our hotel and enjoyed the most amazing gnocchi with a cheese sauce and porcini mushrooms as well as a Margherita pizza. It was so good we plan on eating there again before moving on to Rome.

After lunch we headed to the Galileo History of Science museum. This museum covers everything from barometers to electrical current generators to chemistry sets dating back to the 1300s. My two favorite areas were the pharmaceuticals (not surprising that nearly half of the Florentine population died from the bubonic plague when you see what they were working with!) and the astronomy section. It's hard to believe that scientists from the 1500 and 1600s were able to deduce anything about the heavens when you look at the tiny telescopes they were working with! But everything has got to start somewhere, and even if you're not a science nerd, I would still recommend this museum just to be impressed with what they were able to come up with back then, and to see how far we have progressed!

Upon returning to our hotel, we enjoyed the sunset with some wine of the top of the tower garden - I still can't get over how much we lucked out, finding a hotel right in the heart of the city with such an amazing view! For dinner, we found a hip little restaurant called Rose's, where we had a truly amazing dinner! We started out with "crispy ravioli," which was really 2 puff pastries with pancetta and cheese, and a baked zucchini flan. Both were absolutely incredible. We were getting pretty full at that point, so we decided to share the ossobucco, something neither of us had ever been fans of before - probably because we'd never experienced it Florence before! It was falling off the bone tender, and the sauce it was served with - well, I just don't have the words to describe it. Another restaurant we definitely plan to return to!

 

Florence Photos

New album for Florence posted.

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Fontainebleau Gallery Posted

New photo journal posted.

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Hello Florence

What to say about my first experience of Florence? Well, first let me share the brief bus drive through the Tuscan landscape on our way to Florence from Pisa. A lot of movies romanticize Tuscany and show only it's most beautiful spots - and from my brief drive I can say there are lots of them to choose from! I am hoping we will have a day to rent a car so I can see more of the countryside... but I'm not sure if I will be willing to tear myself away from Florence! So far I love it here! It is very busy and bustling, but much cheerier than Paris. It actually reminds me a lot of Venice (Italy, not Beach). There are modern shops situated in historic buildings, there's a flea market where they sell amazing leather goods at reasonable prices, and the coffee!!! We arrived around 10:30, too early for the hotel to have our room ready, so we wandered the city while we waited. We found one of the many little walk up cafes where you enjoy your coffee at the counter. I ordered a cappuccino and Ryan a mocha, and oh my stars! I've been to Italy before, but I don't think I've ever had this excellent of quality of espresso! If I wasn't so sensitive to caffeine, I probably would have ordered five more!

After our little coffee break, we then wandered the streets some more and found... an H&M! Previous readers will know of my obsession with visiting an H&M in every city I find, so when I say I did not leave empty handed, there should be no surprise! To be fair, when we left for Europe, the weather forecast was showing rain everywhere - now it appears we are here in time for a slight heat wave (mid 70s) - so I was really not prepared clothing-wise for these warmer temps, and where better to rectify this problem than H&M? Followed by Zara, of course! :D

For lunch we hit a pizzaria Ryan had eaten at on one of his past trips to Florence - Ryan had a prosciutto pizza and I had a quattro stragione - artichoke, olive, prosciutto, and mushroom. They were pretty big pizzas, but so good we both cleaned our plates, and then got gelato (pistachio for me, chocolate hazelnut for Ryan).

To burn off some calories to make room for dinner later, we walked across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. The grounds here are very lovely and peaceful so we spent the majority of our time here viewing the gardens and the many statues throughout. We did spend a little time in the museum itself, which consisted mostly of china brought over during the Marco Polo era, and formerly used religious paraphernalia, like ivory incense burners and such. There were multiple tour groups being lead through while we were looking around, so we cut our visit short to head back to the hotel to relax before dinner.

Before dinner we went up to the top of our hotel, which has a tower balcony over looking the entire city. Not a bad place to watch the sun set, what with the Duomo and the Campanile and Gallileo's Observatory all clearly recognizable and so close it felt like we could touch them (we could not).

For dinner we visited another restaurant that Ryan had frequented on his past trip here. We ordered the mixed crostini antipasto - I ate the crostini with the mushrooms, tomatoes, white beans, and pâté, and Ryan kept it safe with the prosciutto and salami. I tried to get Ryan to try the pâté - he made a face and placed an infinitesimal amount on his fork and then, just before placing the fork in his mouth, wisely asked, "How is it?" My response, "Pretty good - smells and tastes kinda cat foody." He chose to skip it and I got to keep it to myself. And then I licked my paws and cleaned my face with them. After that, Ryan had ravioli in a tomato and ham sauce and I had truffle risotto. All in all, pretty good eats on our first day in Florence!

The Palazzo Vecchio, aka the old Medici palace, conveniently stays open til midnight on Sunday's, so we decided to visit around 9pm, after the tour groups had been bussed away for the day. Cosimo the First built it for his lovely wife, who said it wasn't grand or opulent enough for her, so poor Cosimo built the Pitti Palace instead and left the Palazzo Vecchio as a museum. It has beautifully painted ceilings as well as ornate furniture throughout. They even have a reliquary in their chapel (they found some bones buried under the altar when renovating, and though I don't think they know whose bones they are, they decided to keep them in the chapel as relics).

By far our favorite room was the cartography room - I never knew Ryan shared my love of staring at old maps and laughing at just how wrong they were. In all seriousness, I actually am really impressed with how much they did know then, considering their only means of transport to foreign lands would be by boat, and without refrigerators, modern bathrooms, or bottled water, that could not be an easy trip.

All in all, a very nice start in our home away from home for the next 4 days!

 

 

Last Day in Fontainebleau

Yesterday was our last day in Fontainebleau. We had the crash pad until 2pm and the rental car til 4, so we made the most of our morning with a few hours of climbing (see Ryan's post) followed by a visit to the chateau. After climbing, we were starving, so we decided to make our last meal in France really count... we got Chinese. I would say it was adequate but we did get a complimentary shot of sake before leaving :D That was not actually our last meal in France - we will be staying one more night in Paris before returning home, so we will worry about getting in a good last meal then!

We got to the chateau too late to actually see the inside, but we were more interested in touring the gardens anyway - it's a very pretty area, with multiple man-made lakes and pools (thank you, Napoleon) that kept the grounds nice and cool. Nice little spot for a picnic on a hot day.

We discovered last night that today was Europe's Daylight Saving switcheroo, so we ended up losing an hour of sleep, which was a bummer because we already had to be up and ready to go at 5am for our taxi to the Orly airport, from which we would be flying to Pisa to Florence. But we managed to get up and catch our flight in a timely manner - and now here we are in Florence!

Some last impressions of Fontainebleau before sharing my first impressions of Tuscany. Fontainebleau is a warm and friendly town, and it is cleaner and just as scenic in a woodsy way than Paris. There is some very good food with a wide variety of options, AND they have a store called Monoprix, which is like a French Target! I feel like there is something else special about Fontainebleau...Oh yeah! Did I mention that the climbing here is amazing? There is something for everyone, and even a coward like me can find fun stuff to get to the top of! The fact that we had beautiful weather the entire time we were here, when we were expecting rain, made it that much harder to leave, but then I got to Florence...With that cliff hanger, I bid you good night!

 

 

Font Photo Journal

I finally got around to posting a photo journal of most of the Fontainebleau climbing shots. I have more but they're stuck on the iPhone for now.

Direct Link Here

Or goto the photo journals page.

 

 

Font Day 5: Bois Rond

Weekends in Fontinebleau are known to get a little crowded, so for our last day I decided to head to a less populated area called Bois Rond. This area is known for lowball boulders and high quality traverses, and most importantly-- no crowds. It also sports a very difficult Red circuit (up to 7a), a purportedly high quality Orange circuit, and what the guide book says is a disapointing Blue circuit. This is exactly what I'm looking for on my fifth day on straight.

One thing I should mention about Fontainebleau is that the climbing is divided into major geological areas. Within those areas, clusters of boulders are further defined, and each major cluster of rock usually has between 100 - 200+ different boulder problems! Realize that you're never more than about 20 minute drive from the furthest area (and there are dozens of areas with as many as 5 or 6 sub areas), and you begin to understand just how much bouldering there is in a very small proximity. For the Orange County climber this is like driving to the beach from Fountain Valley or Huntington Beach! An insane amount of climbing right in your backyard.

Font and Food

I realize we have been neglecting the foodies out there with our recent climbing only posts, so here's a brief post to fill you all in on what you've been missing out on. :p

Since we have spent all day climbing pretty hard for the past 4 days, we've been brown bagging our breakfasts and lunches. For dinner, we've been pretty tired, so one night we ate at the little Indian restaurant (for the second time!), then another night we did the Belgian brasserie (for the second time!). However, these meals were definitely not throw always! I'm actually really amazed at how good the Indian restaurant is - we got an appetizer that we had never had at any other Indian restaurant we had been to before. They were essentially ground chicken beignets with some super tasty Indian seasoning. Then I had chicken korma and Ryan had the chicken tikka masala. The flavor was really good, but one thing I have noticed about getting "ethnic" food in other Western countries - they are afraid of spice. It's a shame, but I get it. Not everyone grew up with spicy Mexican food as a staple in their diet. I'm just impressed that France allows other countries to share their food with the French public!

Font Day 4: Éléphant Area

We were told that the area called Elephant was an area not to miss, so on our fourth day we decided to pay a visit. Being sore from the previous day, I keep swearing to Rachel that I won't be climbing much today, and especially not anything hard. She never believes this...

Once again, as soon as we get to the climbing area I'm a kid in a candy store. We warm up on a couple Blue climbs (like 4a-5a-ish) and the then I turn a corner and see sangri-la! Crazy-rad 45-degree overhang walls all over the place. I can barely restrain myself long enough to drag the pad over to the sit starts.

Font Day 3: Franchard Isatis

After the high volume of low grade climbing from the day before I was ready to try my hands at some of the harder stuff. The night before I put together a list of 6a through 6c climbs I'd like to try at Franchard Isatis, which by the way I only got on a single one. Instead I mostly just let my ADD take me where ever I saw a fun looking route, and at this place that's all over! I'm like a cat with a laser pointer in these forests. I jump from climb to climb as soon as a new one enters my peripheral.

After warming up on the first several blue circuit climbs I saw a Bleausard (a local Font climber) waltz up an amazing looking prow with perfect technique. When he got off he started explaining his beta (in French) to another climber nearby. I picked up enough to give it a try. The climb is called Le Statique 6b. It follows a severely overhanging line with a throw to a jug hold, however the crux is pressing off the jug to find a hidden sloper to mantle up on. It took me a couple tries to figure out where the hidden hold was, but on my third I managed to pull over the top.

Font Day 2: Roche Fin Climbing

On our second day in Font we managed to rent a pad, so we headed to an Roche Fin in the Trois Pignons area. We were recommended an orange circuit by the Scottish couple we met at Cuvier that they said they really enjoyed because it had a lot of variation in techniques and most of the problems weren't too high off the ground. That sounded just like what we were after.

In Fontainebleau, many of the boulder problems are organized into circuits of varying difficulty. Yellow circuits are easy and have climbs completely in the easier VB grades (2a-3a). Orange circuits are a bit harder but still fall into the VB to maybe v0 range (3a-4a)... in theory. (In reality, many of the problems felt like they were much harder than this!) It keeps going up: blue, red, black, white, etc. The circuits consist of numerous problems that are to be done in a specific order. The routes are marked with little arrows painted onto the rock in the color of the circuit your doing. Often dots will indicate where your foot level should be for a traverse, and other arrows will indicate the top-out direction.

The orange circuit we chose had 40 problems in total, and many of them felt a bit harder than VB. A couple could easily have been V2 or V3 in bishop. This circuit was definitely more technical than powerful, which was nice. It forced a number of interesting moves like mantles and highsteps, and a number of problems got high enough off the ground that good concentration was a necessity.

I managed to complete the whole thing with no falls (*) and spent the rest of our time working on some red circuit routes in the 5b range. I also got on a roof problem called Mémoire d'Outre Tombe 7a+. I got to the crux past the roof, but couldn't pull the move. I also jumped on some really hard sit start overhang, but I couldn't find it on any maps.

* Truth be told, I had to down climb one route that I got off-route on, but I sent it the very next go. So my flash probably doesn't count by local standards!

 

 

Font Day 1: Bas Cuvier Bouldering

For our first day climbing in Fontainebleau I wanted to go to the area with a reputation for being the hardest- Cuvier. I figured that getting my ass kicked the first day out will make every other day feel easier by comparison. Also, I couldn't track down a pad so I wanted to go somewhere I thought might be busy enough to bum pads off people, but that didn't really happen. The one time I was offered a pad by someone it was a really nice Scottish guy, but I thought he was offering me "maps" and not "mats". Oh well...

We started out on some really challenging slabs. The first one I tried I got pretty easily but the next three problems shut me down. I had no idea what climbs or grades I was on- I was just out for fun and exploration. Bas Cuvier is a very popular and old area where most of the foot holds have been polished glass-smooth. The natural rock color is grey, so since the polished rock turns a light color, my approach has been to avoid those areas for feet. This works pretty good some times but definitely not on all problems.

After this introduction to the area, I started looking for some harder stuff. I learned later (via Bleau.info) what I was actually climbing. I tried a cool little sit start roof problem that took me a few tries to get but I couldn't figure out its name. Then at the recommendation of a Scottish couple we were talking to I jumped on a couple blue circuit problems both rated 4a or so. After trying and failing at a few 7a's, I jumped on Fissure Morin 4a which was a very fun problem. Between Fissure Morin and the Helicopter boulder there was a cool little 6a problem with a steep sit start on pockets and a slopey mantle on rock features the Scottish guy was calling "Dragon Back". After a few attempts (and scoping out the holds from above) I managed to get up it.

These were all fairly challenging for the grade but not unlike what I've grown accustom to in the US, grade-wise. The Font grading system covers more grades below V0 than just VB, so everything below about 4a is suppose to be in the VB range. 4a - 4c is suppose the be V0. 5abc is V1-3. 6abc is V4-6, and 7a meets up with our V7. I've found that the lower grades can be really challenging, and many that should be VBs or V0s (3a - 4a) often feel like V2 or V3. This seems to be a common observation with the area. 7a definitely seems to be the grade that I really have to work hard on, and success would take multiple sessions, which was my expectation.

Here are a few othe problems I tried and failed at: Cortomaltese 7a (I came really close!), L'Hélicoptere 7a, Holey Moley 7a, Le Carnage 7b+, and Charcuterie 7a. Other than Cortomaltese, I wasn't even close on the others.

[Note: Bad WiFi means pictures will have come later. Included links show soe of the climbs though.]

 

 

First Days in Fontainebleau

Yesterday morning, we packed our bags and departed from Paris and headed 1 hour south by train to the little village of Fontainebleau. Actually, I envisioned it to be a little village, similar to Bishop in Central California, dedicated entirely to climbing. I was wrong. It is a fairly cosmopolitan town, not very big, but with lots of shops and a decent number of eateries. If State Street in Santa Barbara was an entire town, that town would be very similar to Fontainebleau.

Upon arriving at our hotel here, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Chateau de Fontainebleau, which is a French palace comparable to Versailles, only less visited, is literally across the street from us. We walk out of our hotel and there it is. We have not visited it yet, but we did check out the surrounding park, which is massive. We were also pleasantly surprised by our room - very spacious and gorgeous!

After settling in, we explored the town on foot before picking up the rental car (a Renault - it seems the French only drive French or German cars here...and you never see Peugeots or Renaults anywhere but France!). We decided to try the Indian restaurant for lunch and the Japanese restaurant for dinner, with a brief stroll in aforementioned park in between.

On Teusday we set out to do some climbing - which Ryan managed to accomplish. He chose the hardest area in Fontainebleau, Bas Cuvier, to be our initiation to the area - without a crash pad. Being the coward that I am, I only tried the low hanging baby climbs, but Ryan got up some pretty cool climbs. We managed to find some one to rent a crash pad from, so hopefully tomorrow we (read: I) will be able to get some more climbing in. But along the way today we met some really friendly Scots, Finns, and Brits.

And then we had dinner...oh, dinner! We randomly chose the Brussels brasserie (there must be a lot of ex-pats here - there are Irish, Australian, and Belgium bars, Mexican and Indian restaurants, and British hotel owners all over the place!) that was just a 5 minute walk from the hotel. I decided to have the duck (confit de canard) with fried potatoes and...bacon! Ryan had smoked ham with fries. I had a delicious Bordeaux and Ryan chose a French Chardonnay. In sum, I will eat at this brasserie ever single day we have left here if I have a choice. The waiter was even friendly, and spoke enough English to help us get through the meal with ease. An overall lovely evening, and the best meal I have had on this trip yet!

[Ryan's note: WiFi is really sketchy at the hotel so I'm having trouble uploading pictures. Once I figure something out I'll post some for this entry as well as publish a gallery of climbing shots.]

Lazy Art Day

Today was our last full day in Paris, and after 2 days of hard walking, we decided to be lazy. After sleeping in, we had a leisurely breakfast of croissants, rolls, cheese, coffee, and hot chocolate. I have to say, it is pretty amazing what the French can do with even the simplest of foods!

After taking our time over break-lunch, we headed over to the D'Orsay. We were clever this time and purchased our tickets in advance from our hotel, so we didn't have to wait in the hours long line in the rain. Because it was raining. I am a big fan of rain in general, and it really seems to romanticize the atmosphere in Paris even more - makes it easier to imagine Degas or Hugo at their work. Sunshine in Paris is for the Renoir fans - I want to see depressed ballerinas in Paris, not boating parties!

Second Paris Photo Journal

I posted another album of shots from around Paris. I'll probably add a few more to it since we've got another half day here, but I thought I'd put these up anyway.

Here's a direct link to the photos.

 

 

A Movable Feast

Today we spent our first full day in Paris. We started out the morning with a pre-sunrise stroll. Paris is pretty awesome before everyone wakes up and realizes they have important things to do and see. It was a bit gloomy too, so it made viewing Notre Dame feel much more Victor Hugo-esque than it does midday in the bright sunlight.

Surviving Jet-lag in Paris

After a fairly uneventful 10 hour flight, we arrived in Paris. Customs was a breeze, then after an adventurous cab ride to the hotel (think Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), we set out to explore the city in a desperate attempt to not give in to jet lag.

Our hotel is situated just minutes from both the Latin Quarter, Notre Dame, and the Pont Neuf, so we decided to wander around all of these landmarks. We also walked along the Pont des Artes, aka the Art Bridge, which, on our last visit here, had artists making and selling their creations to the public. This time, the chain link running along the bridge was covered with locks. We've seen this in the Cinque Terra in Italy where each lock was supposed to represent a couple's undying love. Needless to say, Ryan and I did not hang one, as we already are the perfect couple and don't need to rub everyone's faces in it anymore than we already do.

After a few hours of wandering the city, we finally came back to the hotel to discover a delightful surprise - we can see the top of the Eiffel Tower from our room, and as soon as it gets dark, they put on a light show. So we watched that just before succombing to jet lag.

 

Rive Gauche Photo Journal

Check the Photo Journals page for a new collection (top page nav).

These are from our first bleary eyed day in Paris. We woke up early this morning and took a walk in the early morning light before everyone was awake. I got a few decent shots in.

 

Preparing for Take Off!

In just a few minutes, we will be heading to the lovely LAX before flying in Air France style to Europe where we will begin our trip!  Our itinerary includes:

• Paris
• Fontainebleau
• Florence and Tuscany
• Rome

In Paris, we will be enjoying crepes, wine, bread and cheese for a couple of nights, then we will head an hour south to Fontainebleau, a world reknowned climbing mecca.  We will be there for a few nights, honing our bouldering skills and visiting the local chateau, which is said to rival Versailles in style and flair.  In Tuscany we will get our fill of art, architecture, and delicious rustic Italian food (hopefully not in that order!) for a few nights before taking the high speed train to Rome to finish our trip there amongst the antiquities and the hustle and bustle of the modern Romans.  It's going to be rough, but some how we will make it through...

Check in regularly since we will be posting updates and pictures daily (or as often as we can get good Wi-Fi).