{"id":29194,"date":"2018-06-02T18:14:26","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T17:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=29194"},"modified":"2019-04-11T16:14:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T15:14:58","slug":"serene-flight-in-colour-at-the-annonay-hot-air-balloon-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/serene-flight-in-colour-at-the-annonay-hot-air-balloon-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Serene Flight in Colour at the Annonay Hot Air Balloon Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome’s lit up by a hot, bright sun, in the motorhome aire at Beausemblant in the Rh\u00f4ne Valley (N45.21826, E4.83309<\/a>). To the east of us runs the A7, the Autoroute du Soleil (Motorway of the Sun), while the Rh\u00f4ne River runs a few km to the west. Both lead the way south to Provence. I’ve so far not been out to look around the village, as I’m still half asleep after a 5:30am start SAY<\/i> WHHHAAATTTT???<\/i> yep, 5:30am start this morning for Team Zagan. The reason? The annual Annonay Balloon Festival was in town.<\/p>\n

\"The

The free motorhome aire in Beausemblant<\/p><\/div>\n

Back up at the Boulieu les Annonay aire, a British-registered van pulled in. Our curtains twitched and our ears stood up, someone to talk to! We’ve learned over time not to trust reg plates, having met a South African couple in a German van, a few Australians and New Zealanders in British or Dutch vans, and British couples in French vans. Never have we met a French couple in a British van though, until yesterday. Ju popped over and got chatting, as it turned out said couple, Cyrielle and Gildas (and their beautiful girls Kate and Tha\u00efs) are all bi-lingual, having moved from Paris to Norwich eight years back. They’re on the road for a couple of years (check ’em out, here: 1cat4bees.com<\/a>), and in conversation let on there’s a hot air balloon festival (a balloon being a montgolfi\u00e8re<\/i> here in France) in Annonay the first weekend of June, which was roughly the next day! Once again our utter lack of planning has paid dividends and landed us somewhere interesting, woo hoo!<\/p>\n

After leaving them alone for their evening meal, we read up a little. 235 years ago the Montgolfier brothers, who lived near Annonay and made paper, effectively invented and publicly demonstrated the hot air balloon. No-one quite knew how it worked, or whether flying into the air might mangle our delicate human bodies, so things were understandably a bit excitable at the time (can you imagine the media frenzy these days?). The King of France got a look-see during a demo in Paris, but in fear of damaging his tax payers, decreed only convicted criminals would take part in the inaugural manned flight. Once a few farmyard animals survived a flight unharmed though, he changed his mind, allowing one of the brothers to be the first human to take to the air.<\/p>\n

So, these momentous events were being commemorated in a park in Annonay, a couple of kilometres away, with a mass balloon take off at 6:30am. Sensing we might not be popular firing up Zagan at 5:30am, we opted to decamp and join the other seven motorhomes in the car park of the Intermarch\u00e9 supermarket, a few metres from the park entrance. Parked in an area set out for festival traffic, Ju did our laundry in the on-site machines, gave something back by doing some shopping, and we then got a great night’s sleep (these are the co-ords, but overnight parking was probably only tolerated due to the festival: N45.25721, E4.67201<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Thanks

Thanks to Intermarche Annonay for being so tolerant of motorhomes.<\/p><\/div>\n

This morning we were in the park right about the time the balloon pilots were arriving and being briefed. Under a pure blue sky, we and hundreds of others stood and watched as 30-odd brightly-coloured balloons were slowly inflated, jostling together for space, and then with a roar drifting upwards in ones and twos, joining the docile herd above. It was a lovely, vibrant yet serene sight.<\/p>\n

\"A

A montgolfiere arriving! They all came in surprisingly small 4×4-trailer rigs<\/p><\/div>\n

\"So

So many balloons, so little space!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Off

Off they go! Into the sky above Annonay.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I

I love this shot. 166 years after the Montgolfier flight, the first commercial airliner flew.<\/p><\/div>\n