Adventure Park

Elizabeth and I put the lack of French tort law to a test this weekend at the Aventure Sainte Assise adventure park, just outside of Paris. Someone recommended it as something Elizabeth would like. I understood it to be a park with trails that had some athletic activities on them, kind of like an obstacle course. I booked us a 3-hour time slot and we went. Boy, were we in for a big surprise!

First of all, in typical French fashion, we got off at the designated train station (1 hour outside of Paris) and found that we were in the middle of nowhere with no signs. The directions on the website said to cross the Seine river and then walk a couple hundred meters and take a right. After wandering a bit and finding a subterranean passage under the train tracks, we came out on the other side on a road leading to a rotary. We crossed the rotary (a little scary as pedestrians!) and found a bridge over the Seine on the other side. Long story short, we kept walking up the road, veered onto a bike path, exited the bike path and found a gated driveway, walked to the end of that and found a little, tiny sign on the edge of a dirt parking lot with the symbol of the adventure park on it. We found a hiking trail off the edge of the parking lot, followed that, and finally found the park at the end of that. That was just the beginning of our adventure.

Walking to the Adventure Park

They gave us a 10-minute orientation before we were allowed to embark on a trail. The guide gave us each a harness and showed us how to attach our safety clips to the lines on the sides of ladders. We had two ropes, about 1 ½ - 2 feet long, with clips on the ends of them to attach to safety lines. We were told to always have one clipped while we moved the other one so we were never left unclipped. The guide climbed a 4-foot ladder up to a small wooden platform on a tree, and clipped his safety clips to a line running between two trees. Then he walked across a tightrope holding onto the line with the clips on it, dragging them along and holding on for balance. He got to the next tree and showed us how to attach our zip line wheels to the zip line. Our zip line wheels were attached to our harness. We had to clip a safety clip on the line, then our zip wheels, then the other safety clip, then … jump. No problem. Our turn.  We were about 4 feet up. A little complicated but not that hard.  Got it. Ready to go on our adventure.

We chose the trail labeled “Family” as recommended by our orientation guide, who left us on our own at the close of the orientation. It was a green trail (like skiing) for beginners, but more advanced than the “Discovery” green trail for little kids. It started out similarly to the orientation trail, about 4 feet up. Okay, it looks like these are tree-to-tree adventure trails, not exactly what I was expecting, but it should be fun. I expected some hiking, climbing, and a zip line at the end, but, hey, I can be fun too. But, as a parent, should I go first and help Elizabeth up after me or let her go first and follow behind to make sure she’s attached and alright? Too late! She’s off and running.

The Beginning: Swinging Logs

Safety Clips

T


The trail—rephrase—still don’t know what to call it except adventure course—started out with 4-foot long logs, end to end, in sequence, each log hanging from two pairs of ropes, one at each end. In other words, the logs swung around and you had to step from one swinging log to another. There was a safety line at about chest level you attached your clips to that you could hold onto for balance—a necessary action to take. At the end, you step onto a tiny round wooden platform built around a tree, hooked onto lines on the tree for safety, and climb around (underneath lines) to the other side of the tree for the next adventure.

The adventures included tightropes, rope swings, more swinging logs but further apart, narrow nets, platforms to jump between, zip lines, and barrels to climb through, among other things. The catch is that the course rapidly escalated to 20 feet high. I just had to have faith. My daughter was zooming ahead, hopefully attaching herself correctly, climbing tightropes, jumping across platforms, and zipping at about 20 mph while I tried to keep up. Meanwhile, I’m scared to death, trying to remember how to clip myself correctly, wondering if I can, indeed, carry my full body weight on a rope swing with just my arms as I swing between two trees, 20 feet up, having faith that my clips will hold me if I fall. Yes, it was an adrenaline filled afternoon. And we made it with only a scrape and a bruise and a few mosquito bites (“the least of our worries,” according to Elizabeth as we were scaling between trees).

Tight Rope

More Advanced Swinging Logs

Swinging Logs from Below

Barrels to Climb Through

Close Up of Barrels: Notice Gaps (I could only fit through on my hands and knees, including climbing from the second barrel to the platform.)

 

Mounting the Zip Line

Riding the Zip Line

The End of the Zip Line ("Make sure to grab the yellow handle [as you smash into the green mat] or you will go backwards on the zip line and have to pull yourself back.")  Also, a Tight Rope and Rope Swing.

Jump Between Platforms Holding onto the Rope (hanging on the right)