Climbing is fun, and climbing is hard.

It’s Tuesday evening, Asa is preparing a mushroom and pasta dish in the kitchen for dinner. We’ve just spent the past two days out at two different crags in the Fontainebleau forest. We’ve experienced some real highs and real lows, both physically and emotionally.

Starting with yesterday, we picked up our rental car. It’s about the size of a mid-size SUV, we need the extra room for the crash pad, which we also pick up. Just a slight delay with the rental car pickup, but otherwise both things went seamlessly.

We got our breakfast and lunch from the boulangerie down the street and headed to Le Calvaire crag, named for the Cross of Calvary nearby. This is where we explored the day before. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, in the 60s and getting up to the mid-70s in the afternoon. We each sent several routes and really enjoyed our several hours at the crag.

After several hours of climbing, we freshened up at the Airbnb and chose an Italian spot in the city center for dinner. I had a ravioli pasta, and Asa opted for a pizza, continuing to stay in theme of carbs and cheese. So delicious, we discussed why Denver really struggles with making a good pizza in the city of its size.

And finally, we have a mostly good night of sleep! The jet lag is wearing off.

Now, Tuesday decides to remind us we are mere mortals and not caught in a French vacation novel. We decide to take the car out and find parking to pick up breakfast. First off, we find a kind note on the car asking us to not park where we parked. You see, French alleys are so narrow, we learned you need to make sure you aren’t parked in front of driveway or across from a driveway. Okay, no problem, let’s move the car.

For the next 10 minutes, we are driving around the nearby three blocks searching for a single parking spot we think the car can fit into. Fontainebleau has a beautiful street side parking system, where they use trees to divide parking spots. It’s very beautiful really, but have you ever parallel parked in between two trees before? I haven’t. The stress meter is rising.

Around and around we go, until we land on trying to park in the alley again, just a different spot. So we pull in, and I reposition many times to get as close as I can to the right hand wall and sure enough – scraaape. Oh no. There’s now a slight scrape on the bumper. But really, that tracks. I’ve yet to make it driving in a foreign country where some incident doesn’t occur… Thailand was a scooter crash, New Zealand a speeding ticket, and now France, a scrape. Overall, I would say these are lessening in severity. But still, stress level rising.

Asa finishes parking the car, and by this time, it’s 10am. I start to really worry my lack of French parking skills have cost us some good crag time. We turn the corner and realize the corner boulangerie is closed today. When it rains, it pours. Except it’s quite a blue sky, 58-degree morning. We make a u-turn and find a different boulangerie up the street about four or five blocks. Now with breakfast and lunch secured, we can head to the crag for the day.

We went to Cuvier crag today, it’s one of the more famous crags and it’s easy to understand why. Right next to the parking lot is truly boulders upon boulders upon boulders.

Birds are chirping, welcoming us to day number two. Today is more of an opportunity for Asa to get on some harder routes – tall slabs, challenging grades, and even weaving around a couple of tree branches.

We climb through the late afternoon.This was a tougher day for me. I couldn’t climb as much as I thought I could, simply because the climbing was harder. The grades were rated a bit differently than the other crag, and climbing can be such a mental game. Asa had some really exciting gos though. We walk out with some raw skin on our hands and sore, sore toes. The climbs were a bit more exhilarating today, definitely taller routes than we saw yesterday. Also, since this was one of the more popular spots, we were battling some polished rock, where it’s turned quite waxy and slippery. Overall, we’re grateful we get to climb here, it’s nothing like we’ve seen in the States.

Our day has ended now with dinner and some Gamay wine to go with it. Tomorrow we head to Sancerre, a notable wine region to taste some wines and see a new part of France. Hopefully parking is easier there.