Canadian Experience

Family holiday in France

9 days of orienteering, lots of training, tons of food, wine and beer

As usual our family holiday turned out to be a training camp with lots of practices and orienteering races. We like it that way

We started our stay in Fontainbleau which is a beautiful small city just below Paris. There are awesome rocky terrains and that's the reason why we came there – to run. We always planned our training to be for example for 60', but something went wrong and it turned out to be 90'. This happened to us almost every practice, but it was fun. In the afternoon we usually went for a swim (swim up and then float back) to the river Seine which was surprisingly absolutely clean. We brought many cans of beer, but the beer was kinda warm because of the hot weather. Therefore, we "walked the beer" in the river. However, we didn't have a net and by the time we got it we run out of the beer. In fact we bought a cheap plastic ball (surprisingly turned out not to be made in China) which was sold in the right "beer net" for the walking purposes. In the late afternoon we had one more practice, then ate lots of great French food (cheese, fresh baguettes, nutella, wine, sausages, ... mmmm ..... definitely could go on a "French diet") and then slept like little babies.

After 4 days in Fontainbleau we moved on to Clermont-Ferrand for 3 days of orienteering. This part of France is famous for its volcanoes, so we did some trips after the races. This is always happening to us in France: It's sunny before we start hiking, but by the time we reach the top of the volcano the mist and clouds come, so we can hardly see. Finally, when we return to our car .... guess what ... sunny again! Despite that the volcanoes are really beautiful. We even found a huge cave system!

The 3 days of orienteering started like this: We went to the "check in". We didn't pay for the competition in advance because of some crazy money transfer fees from Czech crown to euro bank accounts, so we had to give them the money on the spot. However, they didn't even look like they wanted the payment, so we asked the lady:
"Where should we pay?"
"You guys didn't pay?"
"No, we've got to pay here."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, we haven't paid yet."
"Oh really?"
I wonder who come the French economy is running.

The first day started funny/scary (funny now/scary at the time). The sprint (means the winner's time should be somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes) was held at a flat top of a volcano. However, a huge thunderstorm came at the very same time as the first runner started to run. Thus, we asked to organizers if they were going to postpone the start times. The lightnings were hitting the ground all around us and we were at the highest point in the country, so obviously we were scared. However, the French organizers replied: "Don't worry, it's safe. We can hide in a tent, so nothing can happen to us." Yeah right ... looks like somebody didn't take Physics at school. Nobody got hit, though. We were all lucky.

We also met 3 Canadian orienteerers there – was totally impossible to miss the Canadian O tops. Well ... I said Canadians ... but it kinda turned out that one is actually Czech, the other one Swedish and just one of them was born in Canada. Was really nice to meet someone from Canada again – and also to hear "eh". Furthermore, although they live in Vancouver, they know lots of the orienteerers from Winnipeg.

We really enjoyed the area there – lots of volcanoes, interesting terrains for orienteering (just with the exception of the last day's course – the terrain had lots of details, but the wood was thick like crazy and the course was sooooo long) and nice campground with a lake that you can swim in. However, the French organization is kind of vague ... we've learned a French word here – "La Bordel"

Continuing on, we drove closer to the sea for 6 days of orienteering. The competitions took place on an awesome limestone rocky plateau. It was an open terrain (well, just beware of the undergrowth – tried to jump over a stone wall covered in undergrowth and kinda didn't "fly through") with big rocky areas – the rocks were sometimes going up and resembled towers or were located in depressions and then formed crevasses, little canyons or caves. Since it was really hot, we usually went for a swim to a lake or a river. The best was a visit to a steep rocky canyon with a beautiful clean and cold river. There were stones in it and it was possible to jump from them to the water. In this part of France one can found lots of old towns and villages. There is no need to follow a tourist guide – one just drives and stops wherever and the nice old buildings are always there.

We decided to go to the sea on the free day. It was rainy and cloudy only once during our stay in this part of France ... guess on which day was it. In fact, it turned out to be an advantage since the beach was almost empty and we didn't get burned. And then we got some sunshine in the afternoon.

To be continued ...