Annot

Last thursday was a national holiday. Never ones to miss an opportunity to slack off, we went to Annot with friends from the lab. Earlier in the week, Meteo France had predicted rain every day, but as usual, the forecast was wrong. Despite a little bit of snow frosting the mountains near the Col de la Croix Haut, we had 4 beautiful and sunny fall days:
(photo by mark).

On thursday, we sprinted out to the lower sector to get some exercise after a full day in the car, and gave sandy, dave, amy and mark an introduction to Annot bouldering. Unfortunately, on the way down, I felt somthing strange in the steering, and mark generously offered to drive us up the next day. It turned out to have been a wise choice, as the mechanic told us that some part of the assembly that links the wheel to the suspension (CV joint? I couldnt really figure out what it was) was mostly destroyed, which meant that it could have become decoupled. Add that to a mountain road with a precipice on one side... or an autoroute at high speed, and you have a dangerous situation! Needless to say, we had him fix it, despite the need to get parts by train the next morning. When the mechanic (also named max!) told us that our wheel could have come off, chloe let out a frightened little squeek, since wheel-ejection was apparently one of her car-phobias.

We stayed at the hotel/restaurant La Cigale, and enjoyed a different and excellent meal after every day of bouldering. The first day she served us a terrine, followed by lamb and some unexceptional desserts. We took a gamble on the Vin du Pays, but it wasnt particularly good either. The second day we had small somosa (??? de Champsaur) as appetizers, and then baked Perch on a bed of leeks, with a local A.O.C. white. On the last night, she served us quiche followed by rabbit in a provencale sauce. Still gunshy from the first wine, we ordered the failsafe cote du Rhone. I had the generic "Carte d'or" fig ice cream for dessert.


Here are some of the bouldering photos.. taken with mark and amys EOS 300D:

Mark on a problem in "La Crete"

Amy on the same problem, evidently enjoying it a bit more!




Me on "Le toit du cul du loup"
(photo by mark).

Dave on "Le toit du cul du loup"
(photo by mark).


On the last day, we were soaking the rays and serenity of the blocs in the Crete sector, when a troop of hunters came by. It was a little surreal watching them walk by with a deer tied to a stick!:




strangely, they weren't chanting, "lord of the flies" style.

here are Chloe and I giving "Le toit du cul du loup" roof a few last tries
(photo by mark).
(photo by mark).

It was a great weekend, and I think everyone had fun. Amazingly, three nights at the hotel+three meals+breakfast+wine for two people cost only 200 euro.