On April 30th Craig, Doug, Craig's brother, Tony and myself left to go to France for 8 days of ballooning! We managed to wake up late, we planned to leave at 5am but didn't wake up until 5:30am! But we did manage to get a ferry an hour earlier than we had planned :o).

After a bumpy Channel crossing we started our 600 mile journey. We stopped a few times to get Diesel. Soon after I woke up there was a very loud knocking noise from underneath the van, along with what felt like all four wheels were going to fall off! After a McDonalds break, we soon found out that if we drove faster (whilst crossing our fingers so that nothing fell off!), that the noise would disappear!!

We finally made it to our cottage and got some sleep for the night.

Thursday 1st May 2008

The next morning we decided to go to the local supermarket to get some food for the rest of the week - the supermarket was closed....along with everything else in France. Although, strangely, not the local bar which had a pool table! The local balloon rides company was also shut so Craig and Doug went off to find the only petrol station near by that had LPG whilst me and Tony got the fire started. Then Doug found a cat .....

Friday 2nd May 2008 AM

Craig thought it would be good to get up at 5am to get to our local launch site on a small island in the Loire River, after arriving we decided that it wasn't the best time! Although after a long wait, Craig and Doug managed to fly for an hour - I managed to get some photos. I also have some video of the flight from a small bullet camera which was mounted on a fuel tank and pointed over the basket (this will follow shortly and will be in the video section.

Click here to view the photos from Friday 2nd May AM flight


Friday 2nd May 2008 PM

After our morning flight we went up to the local balloon rides company to fill up our tanks, unfortunately there was no pump. They refill their tanks by gravity, takes a bit longer but not too bad. We asked them about the evening flight and they said that we could fly alongside them, we were told to meet up with them at their offices at 6pm.

After a big shopping spree with trés cheap alcohol and yet another game of Monopoly we went up to the rides company. They were busy fixing their Landrover's so said that we would meet up with them at 7pm instead, they offered us some coffee. Little did we know this was magic coffee, which made Craig unable to stop talking....and talking....and talking!!! (No more coffee for him!)

A total of 6 balloons took off from our little island on the river with Craig and Tony flying with Doug's envelope. Unfortunately some English bloke started talking to me, which meant I didn't manage to get a single photo of the flight! Thanks to Tony you can see some photos.

Click here to view the photos from Friday 2nd May PM flight


Saturday 3rd May 2008 AM

As usual, Doug was the last person to wake up! We decided to go to the same launch site as it seems to be good to use on any direction. This morning was my turn to fly and have a bit of training. It was a really nice flight and the direction took us towards lots of really huge open fields, which is great for doing some approaches and to fly really really low to practice my straight and level at about 3 feet above the ground. I managed to get a couple of photos but was too busy trying to fly the balloon! Again, thanks to Tony you are able to see a lot more.

After our flight we went to our local (the little café/bar with a pool table). We have been there too many times now and the owner knows our order every time that we go in! It's about 5 minutes drive from our cottage, serves alcohol and has a pool table, don't know what could be better.

Click here to view the photos from Saturday 3rd May AM Flight


Saturday 3rd May 2008 PM

This evening it was Doug's turn to fly from our usual launch site. It was REALLY hot this evening and I'm not one for the heat so was slowly dying! There were a lot of people that came out to watch the balloon take off and they gave a huge cheer and a round of applause as the balloon took off. I set up my bullet camera of the door of the van to do a retrieve video. Tony seemed to be the host so the camera soon went outside the window to see where we were going!

After going down roads that didn't exist on the map we caught up with the balloon just after it had landed. Celebrated with a beer then time to refuel....this was the fun bit! We went up to the rides balloon company but they weren't there so we came back to the cottage then waited until 11pm to go up there...still not up there. The only other option was to go to a petrol station just off the motorway - after going the wrong way down the motorway and going through 3 toll charges, we found the petrol station.

We tried to get the connector on to the tanks and eventually the bloke from the shop came walking over and told us that we weren't allowed to fill up our tank, it was for "automobiles only"! We did eventually find somewhere for fuel!

Click here to view the photos from Saturday 3rd May PM Flight


Sunday 4th May 2008 AM

After getting to bed at about 2am because of going all over France to try and get fuel for this morning's flight, Doug decided that he would have a lie in (no dedication you see!!). Me, Tony and Craig went on down to our launch site and the winds were really really slow and in the same direction that I flew on the morning before. We decided that me and Craig and myself would have a go at doing a splash and dash. For those that don't know, a splash and dash is when you just fly very low over water, then just put the bottom of the basket in the water and fly off.

I have been a passenger on a splash and dash once but never attempted one myself. After taking off and slowly drifting towards the river, I started to bring the balloon down but then over burnt so started to go back up again. The second time I came down again and got about an inch or so from touching the water but on the third attempt I got it right!! I managed to get Craig's feet soaked :o) But this was great fun and want to try it again.

I bet Doug wish he woke up this morning now!

As we knew we were going to do a splash and dash I didn't take my video camera or take any stills pictures, but once again, thanks to Tony I have some photos (and a video soon to be uploaded) to show you.

Click here to view the photos from Sunday 4th May 2008 AM

After we fueled up at the balloons rides company place, we asked them if they knew what the weather would be like for this evening. They said that it was going to start raining at 11pm so they weren't going to fly(!) We got back to our cottage and got a barbeque on the go we some nice cold beers and sat out in the blazing hot sunshine!

Click here to view photos of our cottage and barbeque!

Sunday 4th May 2008 PM

After our lovely barbeque we went down to the usual launch site let off a met balloon and it went in direction that we have been flying on all week. We got the balloon inflated then Craig and Tony took off, going the complete opposite direction to that of the met balloon! Me and Doug packed everything away and followed the balloon.

It wasn't until we got on top of the hill that we found out the reason why the balloon went off in the opposite direction - as Tony described it "a lovely big white fluffy cloud""! After 30 minutes of flight Craig landed the balloon and we eventually managed to get it out of the field after a farmer that didn't speak any French went off to go and get a key for us!

We knew that the morning wasn't going to be flyable so when we got back we had a few drinks and a nice lie in!

Click here to view the photos from Sunday 4th May 2008 PM


Monday 5th May 2008 AM

As we knew that it wasn't going to be flyable this morning we had planned a trip to the zoo! This zoo was HUUUGE! Thousands of animals and plenty of animal statues to sit on and ride! hehe.

Click here to see pictures from our trip to the zoo


Monday 5th May 2008 PM

This evening saw Craig's revenge on my one splash and dash, by doing two! Absolutely no wind on the surface meant that Tony and Craig could mess about over the river. Craig said the way he did it was how it was supposed to be done, but I told him that if you didn't get your feet wet then you didn't do the splash bit of the splash and dash!!

As usual, after the flight we went to a pub...but not our usual one! This one had a lovely sunset by it!

Click here to see pictures from Monday 5th May 2008 PM


Tuesday 6th May 2008 AM

This morning was my turn to fly again and it was a great flight. We went from doing 12 knots at 500ft to doing 0.1 knots at 1200ft! We ended up having a drag landing in the same field that I landed in on the two other times that I flew!

I didn't take any pictures on this flight but Tony did, these will be online shortly.


Tuesday 6th May 2008 PM

This evening saw the longest flight so far - an hour and a half. Ending up with what we thought was a farmer shooting at us, was actually someone shooting at birds! Phew!! After refueling we had a drink with the commercial rides company with them laughing a lot at the Bristol flying map! They gave us some invitations to go wine tasting as well so we plan to go there tomorrow.

Click here to see pictures from Tuesday 6th May 2008 PM


Wednesday 7th May 2008 AM

This was the last flight of our trip so we had to make sure it was a good one, and it was. An hour and 40 minutes of flight and not going very far at all. Me and Tony took more pictures of the scenery around us than of the balloon because it was going nowhere fast!

Click here to see pictures from Wednesday 7th May 2008 AM

As we planned we decided to go wine tasting. The wine that is made here is used by the commercial rides company and they told us that we would not be disappointed with the stuff they produce. They weren't wrong, really nice wines and they even had sparkling red wine - not to my taste though! Unfortunately we couldn't go on a tour of the production rooms as they were being restored but we had some free wine so weren't too bothered!

Click here to see a few pictures from wine tasting

After the wine tasting we went back to the cottage and burnt off the last dregs of fuel for our ride home and trying a bottle of the sparkling wine that we bought earlier.

Thanks to Craig, Tony and Doug for coming on the trip. And a big thank you to Montgolfieres d'Anjou, they let us refuel at their site, take off with them, let us borrow a fan and scared Craig with a huge dog!