Does anyone have any experience with any of the canopy (tree) ropes courses in southern Burgundy? I have seen websites for several of them, most of which don't have their pages in English. I speak and read a little French, but my husband does not, so even just getting the safety lecture and the rules would be difficult all in French. So I'd like to choose one with great variety in their obstacles, lots of zip lines, and with English spoken at least a little.
Posted by
Fontainebleau, France
893 posts
My experience with Accrobranches in France is that you are unlikely to find anyone to give instructions in English. However, if you have a patient instructor, you won't need to be able to understand French because it is such a visual thing. They also usually have an "initiation" type course where you hook and unhook your harness in front of the instructor. You may need to let everyone else go first and then go through last to get extra instruction, but it's not that hard to understand. (My first time through was before I had a good command of the language) And let me warn you - these things are more challenging (ie scarier!) than they appear. One minute everything is fine and the next you find a wire to walk on with only one wire above you to grab on and you spend the next 5 minutes praying you don't fall off and end up dangling by your harness several stories off the ground. The zip lines are fun, but it can be a lot of work to get to them. Be sure to take some Ibuprofen with you, because unless you are in fantastic shape, you will be sore aftewards!
Posted by
OP
Mustang, OK, USA
8 posts
We've done one of these courses once before in the US, so we won't need much more than a review of the safety rules. Our first time I found it to be a breeze but my husband tried to muscle up everything and really made himself sore.
Posted by
Fontainebleau, France
893 posts
Reading your response about "safety rules" made me laugh. The first time we went, we'd only been in France a couple months and my friend said that she'd made a reservation for only the kids. (In other words, I didn't harness up - and couldn't have, as the time slot was full) After maybe 15 minutes of demonstration and explanation, everyone was set loose. My 6yo (who barely understood any French at the time) was free to do the lowest level courses BY HERSELF! That meant hooking herself on to the zip lines and all other things. There isn't a single employee who walks around supervising at this place. Luckily we found one course where I could see her from the ground at every activity and make sure she was doing it correctly. Which meant my 8yo and 10yo were off on their own on the higher and harder stuff. So, yeah, "Safety rules" just makes me chuckle and shake my head. I think you'll be fine if you've done this type of thing before.