Sébastien Bouin at Saussois, the birthplace of French sport climbing

This is undoubtedly one of the episodes that we enjoyed the most: during his Vintage Rock Tour Sébastien Bouin stops off at Le Saussois, the historic crag south-east of Paris, scene of the evolution of French free climbing.

The short and intense limestone walls host great classics such as L'échelle à poissons, the first 7a in France climbed in 1977 by Jean-Claude Droyer, L'ange, the first 7b in the country freed by Laurent Jacob in 1980, the famous 7c+ Chimpanzodrome freed by Jean-Pierre Bouvier in 1981 and also violent Le Bidule, the first 8a+ in France freed by Marc Le Menestrel in 1984.

It's fascinating to see how beautiful these walls and the climbing are, but also to witness Bouin - a 9b calibre climber - struggling to decipher the bouldery starting sequence of a route freed almost 40 years ago...