January 22, 2022 - Alone with me.

It was a long time ago that I went to Franchard, so I was surprised to see that the parking of Franchard Isatis was closed. I'm not sure if it was just for today or, in the worst case, permanent. It meant that I was up for a longer walk, but on the other hand, it just increased my chances of being alone in the forest, especially as I had planned to go to the less popular Franchard Basses Plaines.
I had hoped for better conditions instead of damp boulders, but being out there in the forest with no-one around made it all good.
I chose Basses Plaines, as I was hoping to do the isolated "Longbow". Last time I tried it, I found a possible method for the first part of the problem after watching a video of Jason Kester. As I am not as tall as he is, I only needed to fine tune one move.
Despite the fact that my fingers were quickly getting dirty with green grainy moss, I was able to fine tune the moves and make a fairly quick ascent.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Longbow 7B

Up next was "Le Marquis (assis)", of which I did the standing start almost two years ago. The slopey arete was also damp though and the lower part felt almost impossible at first. Luckily, the friction got better with each attempt, but the higher untouched slopers were quite slippery and I kept sliding off the mantle. On one of attempts, I accidently grabbed one of the bigger further left, but decided to top out anyway. Apparently, I had just done the sitstart of "Le Moo Cow", which all in all, did feel like a soft 7A.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Le Moo Cow (assis) 6C+(7A)

The exit in without the bigger holds on the left was quite a battle and I even cam close to giving up and had already started packing, until I decided to try the standing start for a while, hoping that the friction would get better on the high slopers. To my surprise, I was able to mantle into the slab again almost immediately, so I decided to stay and try from the sitstart again. It didn't go without a fight, but in the end I won the battle. The last part in the slab was a bit sketchy on slippery slopers, but I got there.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Le Marquis (assis) 7B