Fontainebleau on a Saturday
As I am missing the great outdoors, I decided to spend a day outside the city. I am usually hard to please when it comes to destinations around Paris, as the environment is flat, it’s great for a stroll but not really what you expect for a trek.
So I couldn’t be happier when I found that Fontainebleau has some of the hardest trails in the region, and is a perfect spot to prep for bigger mountain treks.
This 49,000-acre forest is one of the biggest in France, and on top of having a beautiful castle has amazing viewpoints.
It’s about an hour south of Paris and very easy to get to. I picked the “circuit des 25 bosses” a difficult one because why not. I didn’t tell Alfie about it at first, but he realized soon enough that it would be an intense outdoor workout.
It’s about 16 km up and down with a lot of rock climbing in between. Usually completed in 6 to 7 hours for the average hiker, 4 and half hour for the sporty one and the trail runners aim for 2 hours and 30 minutes. We went for the 4 hours options, little do we know that each viewpoint was amazing and had us stopped for some pictures.
Some paths can be a bit dangerous and require a good level of fitness as you will spend your day climbing up and down. Our bodies are still aching!
Finding the way was easy, you need to park at Sainte Croix, and from there look for the red marks on the trees and follow them all along the trail. Do not follow your intuition, just the red marks, as it can be easy to miss one. The total elevation gain is between 800 and 900 meters, the best you can find in the region.
I downloaded the app called visorando, so we were able to check in real time our position, it’s very convenient.
We underestimated the time and couldn’t finished it before the end of the day, we completed 13 out of the 16 km. We allowed ourselves some time for breaks, pictures and lunch. Next time we will start a bit earlier !
Definitely one of the greatest workout we have done, here’s some pictures that will hopefully make you want to try it.