Fontainebleau

Bouldering in Fontainebleau. The legendary area, and it earns the name. I did not keep a list of what we climbed, so this is more about the sandstone than about any particular problem.

Fontainebleau forest, Seine-et-Marne / sandstone boulders

Colour-coded circuits: yellow (easiest), then orange, blue, red, white and black (hardest) / single boulder problems / Fontainebleau sandstone

The forest lies roughly 60 km south of Paris, scattered with sandstone blocks and organised into colour-coded circuits: numbered problems painted on the rock, each circuit following one grade band and a logical loop through a sector. Yellow is the easy end, then orange, blue and red for intermediates, with white and black at the top.

I did not note which sectors or problems we touched, so I will not pretend to. What stays is the friction, the rounded holds, and how much technique the easy-looking lines demand.

Logistics

Approach

Sectors are reached on foot from forest car parks, most of the classic ones only a few minutes from the road.