Font (or Bleau, if you’re French) is climber-speak for an area of unusual geology around Fontainebleau, in which huge boulders of hard sandstone are dotted about on sandy ground. Ideal for ‘bouldering’, and for wondering abut how the landscape was formed.
The Forest of Fontainebleau,
Is where climbers a-bouldering go
To seek out the thrills of applying their skills
Without ropes – just a crash-pad below!
The boulders which scatter the land
Started life as concretions of sand
Which formed when the lime from an earlier time
Infiltrated the grains. Understand?
Of the next step, there seems little doubt:
Erosion from streams round about
Left sandstones projecting and nothing protecting
The sands underneath, which washed out.
The sandstone then broke off in blocks
And fell to the ground as rough rocks
With lots of good grips for bouldering trips
For the Forest of Fontainebleau flocks!