UKC

We are going to Font as a family for Easter, staying in Grez-sur-Loing. I'm looking for a guide, or guides, that will serve us for the week. This will be my 2nd Font trip, but a first for the kids. My first trip (over 10 years ago) we did mostly circuits, and I expect we'll do the same, but with some off-piste classics if appropriate. Last time I was with very experienced climbers who brought several guides, so I didn't even have to think about it.

Climbing will be me, my son (15), and my daughter (tiny 13).  We climb at grades 5a through to 7a, though my son will probably be pushing his grade hard by the time we go, and he's the strongest of the 3 of us.

I've had a look at various review sites, and it seems like the best guides for us might be Fontainebleau Magique (Jingo Wobbly) and Fontainebleau Fun Bloc (Jingo Wobbly). I've found the first one 2nd hand on eBay, and it's not extortionate to consider if it's still a recommended guide.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for my specific needs?

The jingo wobbly guide books are brill.

There's enough routes and circuits in almost every area that should keep you all entertained. Get the books and have a look sit round together and pick a couple areas that interest you all.

There is an app, can't remember what it's called unfortunately that's meant to be really good as well 

You'll get every guide book recommended!

I'd go with Fontainebleau Climbs which replaced the old purple book.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/fontainebleau-climbs/jo-montchausse/franco...

and Fun Bloc (Jingo Wobbly) for the topos.

I also like Fontainebleau Magique (Jingo Wobbly) but Fontainebleau Climbs linked above probably better suits your needs.

use the app it's far better than the books and free

https://www.boolder.com/en

I'd forgotten about that app! It is nice.

Attentive view: the Jingo Wobbly books are terrible. Badly organised and deeply counter-intuitive in the way they present information. The Montchausse ones are far better and will cover everything you need. 

The boolder app is great, way better for navigating and identifying boulders than any guide I've used for font on a couple of previous trips. The ios version is better than the android version, or at least it was earlier this year.

I'm a big fan of the Jingo Wobbly books as well, spend a few minutes getting to know the picture and letter codes that describe routes and you don't need the Topo photos. I tend to use the books to browse, and for our last trip used Boolder for nav and orientation if we got tangled. I've also used Bleau.info to dig out some niche spots near our accomodation. 

Use bleau.info.   Free and most routes have videos if you want info 

I would go as far as to say that only the iOS version is worth having. The android version was barely functional at all (in September) and was missing most of the features that make the iOS version great. The android version is worse than 27 crags.

It's also worth noting that there are a lot of areas/crags that Boolder didn't cover yet. It covers far more than you'll need for your second trip, but if anyone has their sights on a specific crag/problem, it is worth checking that it is covered on boolder.

That is the 2012 edition. Has there been a more recent update? If not, trying to follow a lot of circuits is going to be very frustrating. So many have been repainted since 2012 and now contain completely different problems to those included when this was published.

It's a great book, but only if it's describing the circuit that is there now, not the one that was there 10 years ago.

After finding so many circuits had been rerouted on a previous trip, we didn't even bother taking Fontainebleau Climbs with us for our circuit days on our most recent trip.

I used Boolder on Android in November, and it worked just  perfect. It is still growing in coverage and regularly enhanced. It's reasonably up to date, as lots of circuit changed to some degree over the last few years.

To add the newest stuff and something not covered there, you may supplement it with https://sites.google.com/site/topobleau/ and bleau.info.

the Jingo Wobbly ones are a bit like marmite... personally, I hate them, but others think they are amazing. 

You may find, depending on the edition, that many of the circuits have been redrawn and don't fit the guide description anymore. You may be better off with something for named classics like the 5+ guide and just follow colours for circuits.

Thanks all, some great advice here. Looks like I might be getting a selection based on this thread!

Does anyone have any specific favourite areas to head for?

Use boolder. The books hardly came out of my bag this year.

I never understood why the jingo guides are so highly recommended. I mean, they're ok... I guess the information I'm after is in there somewhere, but I'm not sure why I need to be toting around a superfluous 1kg of insane unintelligible hieroglyphics and the authors' holiday snaps.

The bart van raaij guides are the clearest and best, but probably don't have the coverage you're after.

There's an entire article to be written about which guide to take to Font, and maybe I'll get around to writing it sometime, because it's a perennial question partly because Font is so popular and partly because there's no 'right' answer.

In my experience, the answer largely depends on your approach to the area. Is it circuits, is it random problems, or is it quite specific problems that you're looking to do? Each guidebook is better for one or the other, but none do it all. For instance, the Boolder App is absolutley amazing for finding your way around between problems/circuits; however, it's absolutely crap to browse through for inspiration. I'd definitely recommend downloading it, not least because it's free, but I'd also take a guidebook with you too.

Jingo Wobby tends to divide opinion. They're certainly not perfect, but I like them, and despite being weirdly un-user friendly in a great many ways they're actually the most conventional guide to the area - insofar as if you've used a Rockfax guidebook, you can probably get your head around Jingo Wobbly, and that counts for quite a lot. They're also filled with action shots and topos, which many others aren't, and I think people like that, partly so they know what they're climbing and partly for inspiration. As a result, I'd say that they're perfect for the Font first-timer, although I'd equally say there's a mountain of stuff in there for people, including myself, who've been many times before. 

The 5+6 and 7+8s guides are cult classics which a great many people rave about, but they too have their limitations. Initially I found them extremely frustrating to use as you've got to look at the back for the maps, then the front for the problems, and I found myself flipping between the two all too frequently; however, in time I got used to this and grew to like them. In recent years they've become quite confused by the various circuits throughout the forest being updated/re-painted, which means that a lot of the information within them is out of date, although the various new editions do resolve that my concern is that the same will happen again, and given that there's no pictures of the problems it's very hard to figure out what's what when you're main reference point to where the problems are is whether or not they're close to Blue 5 or Red 6. Overall I'd say that the 5+6 and 7+8 guides are more popular amongst the devotees.

Bleau.info is a great resource, but is best suited towards those looking to climb/research individual areas/problems. It's a great place to get beta too, if you're in need. I've used the App, but not paid for it, although I'd find it hard to justify the expense knowing how good Boolder is.

The Baton Wicks guidebooks (old purple, new white) are no longer worth purchasing due to the fact that half the circuits within them have changed. Save yourself the money, because they're basically defunct.

Flip side I can never understand why people hate them so much. They're a bit bigger than the white / purple books but fundamentally they all do the same job to about the same level - enable you to find a bunch of boulders that are suitable for the conditions and for your ability and tolerance for heights and then help you somewhat in following a circuit. If you don't care about the weird symbols you can just ignore them. IIRC I've used the purple and white books plus the JW Fun Bloc, Magique and Top Secret guides and I don't think I've ever had a day spoilt by using the wrong guidebook.

I'm yet to meet someone who just feels mildly indifferent about them - it's all or nothing 😂

I agree. I think Rob is wrong for once and most climbers happily use what they have and a few noisy people make the 'negative' issues seem more prominent than they actually are. As someone mainly doing easier circuits (like the majority), until recently I preferred the two JWs as paper guide books (I have 7 to choose from on my bookshelves now) but the Aps are way better these days, especially for mixed ability groups (and are more up to date).

I'm confused, as it sounds like we're in complete agreement, or are we both wrong?! 😂

The order in the JW books is completely opaque to me, organised thematically rather than geographically and they make finding a suitable day out a page turning, head scratching nightmare. Plus the symbols - it’s like learning a new language to go on holiday. Sod all that!

The old On the Edge guide was excellent but it’s long receded into the mists of time. 

Thanks for further thoughts on this. I've downloaded Boolder (on Android) and I'll spend some time with it before I go. The Mrs is looking for a book to get me for Christmas, so I've asked for Fun Bloc as it seems to be the most popular of the JW guides. I think my friend has both the 5+6 and 7+8 guides, so I'll see if I can borrow those. He may also have the Mistique; if so, with that little lot, I'm sure we'll have everything we need.

Thanks for raising this, as it's a question that gets asked time and time again, and this recent post  has encouraged me to write an article off the back of it. Now I just need to find the time to do it...

Sorry if I misunderstood... I thought you implied JW guides were either regarded as good or rubbish, whereas I see it as shades of grey with most broadly OK with them... the critics here always seem to be the same few people and the books seem to have sold as well as others from what you see in use in situ. Forums and social media always amplify the views of the biggest fans and critics at the expense of those in between.

It’s a good point about using guides for inspiration and boolder for getting around. I’ve still got and use the Godoffe guides, the ‘off-piste’ guide I like very much, then use the app. Plus his book Fontainebleau 100 ans. If we are just having a circuits day, we still use the app to find the start, then go old school and try to follow the arrows. We often lose the circuit, end up on something else, but the climbing is always so brilliant, who cares.

I’ve had JW guides for most areas at some time and sold them all. Are they self-published? There’s a core of something really excellent, but it’s lost in noise for me. A good publishing editor/graphic designer could have made them much more user friendly.