Annot

We drove down to Annot today, on one of the worst travel days of the year in France (long weekend, and changeover for vacation rentals). We left early-ish, but still got stuck in quite a few mini traffic jams along the way. The first was caused by a car that had driven off the road, and the second was a car vs. motorcycle accident right before the Col de la Croix Haute. Then there was a traffic jam at every little town between Grenoble and Sisteron. Some wag had put up home made signs over the town signs in La Faurie and Aspres-sur-Buech, renaming them temporarily to St. Tropez and Aspres-sur-mer. There was a third town that had been renamed to Frejus, too. Eventually we made it to Annot and after dropping our things off, went to boulder at Requiem for Bloc for a while. There are some excellent problems there, and I'll definitely be going back. The highlight for me was a slopey mantle called "plus de cul". I hadn't been bouldering outside with friends for a while, and had forgotten how fun it can be. It also helps to be in the south of France, with warm summer breezes blowing over you while you relax in a chestnut forest.







After a few hours on the blocs, we headed back to the farm for apertifs (Cerdon, of course!), dinner and Petanque. Somehow I had never played it before, and Chloe, Zoe and I had a blast. Zoe is a little small still to be able to hurl the metal balls very far, but she did well.