Well here we go with another tale of orienteering on the continent- this one in France. R and I have just started our 4 week vacation visiting various parts of France with the ultimate aim of some autumnal warmth in the Cote D’Azur in Southern Provence. For the moment and as a short stop on the way we are holed up in an apartment in Le Mans ( within a stones throw of that racing circuit) on the eve of Day 1 of this short event- tomorrow consists( if our ropey French translation skills are accurate enough) two individual urban sprints- one in the afternoon then another later in the evening in different venues in the city. Day2 on Sunday features a classic long distance forest event in a national park area just outside Le Mans…… if you’re a FFCO registered orienteer( FFCO is the French equivalent to our BOF)
So as visiting non registered orienteers we have been pushed towards the chase les balises course which translates as ‘hunt the beacons’ - we think this means this is a linear course with lots of controls - my chosen course is claimed to be 9km with 36 controls, R has 5km and 24
Other than that it will be a voyage of discovery as details on the French only website are pathetically brief. I will provide an update tomorrow after the two sprint events when we hope to find out more about the Sunday format
Andy
Day#1, event#1……fail#1!
So a very pleasantly sunny afternoon for the first event only 15 minutes drive from our apartment- friendly volunteers all rather low key but easy pre start sorting- apart from the slight shock of being told we had to pay €8 each per day to get temporary race licenses under ffco regulations ( insurance etc) which we wouldn’t have needed had we opted to do the ‘open’ loisirs courses instead ( same but non comp)
The start was a few minutes walk away and started in a deep wooded gully with path up it- this quickly led out into bulk standard low traffic residential urban streets with a few technical bits here and there- fast for sure but too fast for me as I managed to miss a very short leg out by not concentrating enough so a big fat mispunch on download☹️
Rosie enjoyed a slightly shorter course and was first ( of two) on download.
We’re now waiting for darkness before this evening’s night sprint when I hope to fare better….
My course below ( note colour coded courses are different in France than Uk- orange was the longest and hardest course offered)
I missed#16
I thought the rule was whoever has the best run does the write-up?
Day#1, event2……… Deja vu
The evening event which didn’t start until full darkness so ran to quite late- my start time just before 9pm. Picking up the map ( two sided for my course) it was obviously very different urban terrain from the day event in suburbia- this was in and around a modern high density housing complex with lots of near identical apartment buildings and complex interconnecting footpaths, recreational areas and patches of forest/woodland which presumably covered the area originally- all set to a moonless night so very dark away from the streetlights- to be fair it was really enjoyable but concentration was paramount to avoid getting things wrong in the complex areas- I managed these areas more or less perfectly barr one leg and got back to download in about 25 mins… to find I had mispunched #1 on a tree in a patch of forest with undergrowth- my control was also a tree, but not this one- mine was about 25m further 
So two events and two failures- what next? We still didn’t fully understand the format for day#2 but I was by now really hoping to actually get a finish no matter what was required
My map side#1- wrong tree in the dark at #1
Day#2, event#3…… finally on the results list
So it turned out to be a mass start linear event with courses based on 72, 66, 48, 36 or 24 controls with course lengths commensurate to the number chosen- I opted for the 36 with nominal 9km and Rosie the 24 and 5km.
At the mass start maps were laid out in rows upside down according to the controls count- the 72s at the front, then the 66s etc down to the 24s at the back- maps were individually marked on the back with each runners unique race number. All in all I would say there were about 100-120 runners in total across the courses. At precisely 10.00am the mass start of the 72 and 66 runners started then 10 mins later the same for the rest of us- on picking up the map it was obvious that the reason for the unique personalised maps was that the courses were gaffled and also featured butterfly loops to prevent following. On my course there were 3 distinct butterfly loop sections so many controls were visited effectively multiple times. It was all fast and furious initially but once the various gaffing loops came into play the numbers of runners typically going to the same controls rapidly diminished and you could settle into your course without distractions. The forest was a delight with extensive path network and clean forest sections of variable run ability with only the merest of snaggly undergrowth in a few places- mostly there was a thin covering of easily traversed short heather. I finally got a valid result but was down around the half way position due to one ( very) poor leg where it all went horribly wrong due to me losing count of where I was on the controls list during one of the gaffled loops- a thoroughly enjoyable event though, friendly helpful organisation despite the minor language issues and glorious sunshine to boot. my actual run distance was just under 13km
That’s it then for the Sarth O Tour- our next event during this trip is just before we head home from Calais in about 3weeks time when we will be hopping over the border into Belgium to take part in the North Sea Trophy on the coastal dunes for a three day event- this may or not be the subject of a separate report to follow
Andy
Wow - 72 controls on one course!
They had an A3 map at 7500 just so the controls could be shown clearly without overlapping each other and nominal distance 15km