The boulderers if the MMC headed to France in what is now becoming something of a fixture in the MMC calendar. Unfortunately Easter was particularly early this year and was accompanied by a cold snap, this meant that the turnout was lower than in previous years but still a respectable 12 made their way down to the forests of Font. The journey down was uneventful for all but the self proclaimed fun car of Simon, Beatriz, Neville and Verity who managed to miss their ferry by a full 2 hours. For those of you who are thinking ah f*wit nomination, they set off as planned giving themselves 3 hours for an hour and a half journey but had unimaginably bad luck with bank holiday traffic and crashes, so it's not like they made a navigational error like going to the wrong port. Arriving at the ferry terminal they were told that they would have to wait 2 hours for a crossing landing them in France at 3am local time. Rather then drive to the camp site in time for breakfast a Formula 1 was located and the fun team rested there.

The fun car woke up to glorious blue skies over Saint Omer, this made Simon rather excitable and keen to get back on to road and down to the boulders as soon as possible. Beatriz well known to the club for her enthusiasm for early mornings and new ally Verity were less keen but the fun car was quickly back on track and heading South. A call to those that had made their ferry and thus the camp site revealed that the weather in Font wasn't so great and apart from a gap in the clouds allowing them to pitch tents the previous night it had been raining pretty much ever since, there were going to do a food shop and head to Roche aux Sabots. The fun car arrived at the boulders to find everyone else moping about and throwing pine cones at each other. Taking advantage of a break in the rain all were persuaded to try the bouldering which is why I think they went. A good selection of problems were climbed with all choosing to cherry pick fun looking problems rather than following circuits. A particular favourite involved laybacking and a particularly high step up as demonstrated by Sonia. The group then returned to the camp site for some slack lining shelter construction and food.

Saturday started like the previous day with the weather quite overcast. Rather uninspired the group overhead that the Brixton mob were going to walk to Cul de Chien. It was decided that this seemed like a reasonable plan and as so often happens in climbing circles their plan was adopted as our own. Arriving at the Cul de Chien the boulders were just about climbable and mats were scattered around the dogs head with numerous ascents being made up all the problems on it. Then came the first of the showers that would interrupt the fun throughout the day and the group took shelter in a large hollow boulder boarding up the doors with bouldering mats.

A further spell of sun lasted until a shower forced all to take shelter again under a big overhang. The wine and cheese were opened and heartily consumed. After lunch Simon felt like he might be able to get the Cul de Chien roof, a classic 7a that is always under siege by big groups. After a few unsuccessful efforts it was decided that it was too hard and the lunch overhang was climbed instead, this was somewhat easier but still had some very satisfying moves. As the afternoon went on it got colder and there were some flurries of snow, it was decided that some would head in to Milly for beer and shopping whilst the rest remained to try and get some more out of the day. This was proving to be a not entirely stupid idea until it "really" snowed, covering all the sand in the bowl of the Cul de Chien, whilst visually quite stunning this wasn't conducive to climbing and those that remained departed for the pub too. After warming up in the bar the group returned to camp under the makeshift shelter which was performing admirably to the surprise of many. Squeezing 12 and cooking equipment under 2 small pieces of tarp sounds like it should have ended in F*wit nominations for all but thanks to Nicks army like regimental organisation the food was soon simmering and all went to bed dry and well fed.

Sunday was the brightest day and Franchard Isatis was chosen as the bouldering venue for the day. This was the best days climbing of the whole trip with Simon keen to resume a red circuit he had started on a previous trip, he was accompanied by Neville, Nick and Sonia while Beatriz, Verity, Andy, Catherine, Riki, Mike and Petra made their way around a blue circuit. Despite a day of uninterrupted sunshine and climbing, the conditions of the previous night caused many to want to escape back to London rather than face another night camping. Nick, Mike Petra, Andy Sonia and Riki all bailled leaving those that remained to climb away the rest of the daylight. Down to 5 those that remained thought that a night out was called for and went in to Fontainebleau for food and drinks. Returning to the campsite in the rain but refusing to let the part end they all huddled in Simon's 2 man tent for a bottle of wine and a few rounds of charades.

Monday really wasn't worth sticking around for with the fun car taking a trip to Decathlon and Carrefour. This was followed by an uneventful drive back to London with no missed ferries.