As much fun as a wet week-end

Rain patters on leaves,
sheltered under, we are dry -
wind blows then drops fall.


When we booked our gite in Noisy-sur-École, we knew that we had to vacate for a previous booking on the Pentecost long week-end, so Friday saw us pack up the panniers, this time with the addition of the bouldering crash pad and head off. Not far away was our destination, in fact less than 30 minutes of cycling brought us to La Musardiere camp ground. Quite a large place, when we arrived we were given a map with directions to the camping corner.


We cycled down past the 145 emplacements with electricity, past the second 'bloc sanitaire' and into a quiet corner sheltered by tall pines, oaks and chestnuts. There were probably 10 tents already there, well spaced. Dappled sunlight meandered down between the leaves and as we set up our new tent we could hear the susurrus of leaves overhead.

Our new tent - with fly. It looks a bit like it's about to take off...

After an hour or so, just after we had set up and settled down to lunch, the rain returned (it had been raining quite steadily earlier in the morning). So we got to test out the new tent properly. Well, it kept the rain off and gave us plenty of room to relax, stretched out comfortably in our camping arm chairs. At the same time, there was enough room in each of the vestibules for all of our gear. One of the things we really like about this tent is that it has two doors, so if someone needs to attend to a call of nature at 3am, it doesn't necessarily involve clambering over the other to get out of the tent.

Plenty of room for reading and relaxing.

Even comfortable for Neil's lanky frame.

The rain eased so we made ourselves comfortable outside again, protected from occasional light showers by the canopy of leaves overhead. As the afternoon progressed, a few more tents popped up around the place.

Peaceful afternoon.

Preparing fresh fava beans for dinner - using the crash pad as a table.

As afternoon turned into evening the slow trickle of new tents increased and by Saturday morning they were popping up like mushrooms. We went for a climb Saturday morning, early, before most people had finished breakfast, then came back early and watched the tide of tents come in. By dark, just about every spare space was covered by some form of tenting. Look at the photo above then add another 11 tents just in this little corner and you have an idea. We were too busy people watching to take photos.

Every conceivable style, shape and colour of tent was on display. There must have been well over one hundred tents. With almost as many languages being spoken. We heard British accents, Scottish, American, lots of German, Dutch, Belgian, Kiwi, Swedish and even some French. Between tents, where there was room, hammocks and slack lines (think tightrope but not tight, and not too high, for practising balance) were strung between trees. Lounge chairs made of crash pads were prevalent. Family groups, young students, old friends, squealing kids - we have never seen so many climbers in one place before. All sorts of food was being cooked, from two minute noodles on tiny camp stoves to elaborate production lines using a bank of gas stoves, as well as wood-fired barbeques that filled the woods with smoke and turned the sunset a deep blood red.

Sunday we only went for a little amble in the forest because unfortunately what had started as a bit of a headache on Saturday, turned into a full-blown migraine which rendered me a gibbering mess. So, while I chilled in the tent with a wet face cloth over my eyes, Neil sat and watched the show.

A couple of guys turned up with a unicycle and before long were exchanging rides of the unicycle with turns on the Swedish girls' slack line. An older climber showed some younger ones how to use their slack line and multiple bottles of beer and wine were consumed with gusto. Some English guys set up a crepe stall and invited everybody along. One of the Swedish girls had a lovely singing voice, even though we couldn't understand what she was singing about...it was all happening in climberville.

Then the rain came down again. It poured through Sunday night and into Monday morning. The rain cleared late morning, and so did the camp ground. Dry patches among the leaves showed where tents had been as we too packed up to return to the gite for our last couple of weeks here. Headache calmed down, thankfully.

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words by Gabby, pics by Neil and Gabby.