Ropes Course

I got up bright & early Saturday morning to meet Ceci, Youri & everyone else at the train station at Montparnasse. OFCOURSE I overslept & ended up leaving the apt later than usual & I felt like the Metro couldn't go fast enough! I kept nervously looking at my watch and knew I was running seriously late. Ceci kept calling & saying "where are you now?" I thought once I got to the Montparnasse metro station that I'd find our meeting location...then reality hit in & I didn't even think of taking into account what a MONSTER metro stop that is! I got to Pomme de Pain 2 minutes after the train left, but Ceci said it was OK because there was a train 30 minutes later. I got a muffin & a large coffee while we were waiting. I met Ceci's boyfriend, Edouard, Mimi & Roman. We hopped on the train & read horoscopes from the previous day's news paper & were all so excited for our big adventure! We took the train to Saint Quentin & took a bus to the park. I thought there was only going to be the Ropes Course there. Wrong. There were walking paths, obstacle courses, workout stations, a sailing club, fishing, horse back riding...the works. We found the "you are here" indicator on the map & saw that we had to walk to the other side of the lake. No problem...except we didn't know that this lake was the biggest lake in I'le de Paris! IT TOOK US OVER AN HOUR TO GET TO THE ROPES COURSE! It started sprinkling & its just my luck that i left my umberella at work because I didnt think it would rain. I didn't even have a rain jacket! Luckily it cleared up after 5 minutes! After FINALLY reaching our destination, we signed in, paid then had a picnic by the lake. French people eat the weridest things-Youri had these tiny eggs with I don't even know (or want to know) what stuffed on the inside & Mimi brought straight up fake crab legs. They come individually wrapped & they had been in her backpack for like 2 hours so I'm assuming they were hot...sick. I stuck to my muffin & baguette!

Caroline was our instructor & after we got harnessed up, she went over the rules and how to attach yourself properly to the safety cords in the event that you trip & fall. Once she turned us loose, we soon realized that this is harder than it looks! i thought we were just zip lining, so I wore casual shoes & wished like crazy that I had my Nike's on!!!!! AaH! There are 4 levels, starting with blue and then advancing to green, red and then black. After getting used to walking across wooden planks and tiny wires, we opted to skip the green & go straight to the red. The first part of the red was to climb up a tree, attach yourself to the rope & literally swing from the ledge to a mesh fence like Tarzan...hence the name, Tarzan. It looks easy, then once you get way up high in the tree & look at how far youre going to drop, it's a little nerve wracking. I was like "JUST DO IT AMANDA" & hopped off! Youri couldnt latch onto the fence & I was determined to reach the other side & did! I didnt realize that this type of stuff was as strenuous as it is! We walked across tiny wires, we climbed up rock climbing walls, zip lined from one station to the other then went for the black level. YIKES! By far, the hardest obstacle was where you had to cross these vertical logs that were hung on ropes & those ropes were your support because there was no wire to grasp on to. Holy moly it was quite the ab workout. I was holding on for dear life...i think we werre 60 meters off the ground. The second part of the first obstacle looked like the ring shaped monkey bars & you had to put one foot in a ring at a time. There is a difference between feeling a rush of adrenaline & literally being afraid & I was somewhere in between the 2 of them! It was exciting, but it felt like the end kept getting farther & farther away! I was relieved when I had my feet on a tiny pedistal perched over 100 feet off the ground! I made sure I was securely latched before I did anything! The last part of the course was definitely the most fun because you zip lined from 1 side of the course to another. It was incredible. I felt like I was flying.

We took some pictures & were all so exhausted! We found a little restaurant by the lake & i saw people wind surfing & sailboats. We sat/rested for a bit then went off on a treck in search of a closer train station. We played with Roman's frisbee & nerf ball along our hike to help the time pass. A lady bug landed on the inside of my sunglasses, hopefully some more good luck will be coming my way! I fell asleep on the train, then went to le grand epecerie to get some dinner. i had the most delicious mix of low mein & chow mein with a chicken egg roll! I heard someone speaking english & ended up talking to this sweet family from Chicago! I went to eat in the park next to le Bon Marche & ran into them again!! The weather was perfect & I had such a fun day, but I was EXHAUSTED! I'm definitely going to sleep like a baby tonight!