I recently spent a week along the Loire Valley. During that week, I decided to take a hot air balloon ride. I had initially planned to do this in the early morning, but got a call from the organising company telling me that the weather forecast was no good and that they suggested I go the evening before, to make sure I did get a chance.
I was at the appointed place for the meeting at 19:30 when the caravan of France-Montgolfières arrived with all the equipment. The first vehicle obviously carries the basket while the second carries the balloon in that red bag that looks like an overgrown tomato – we will see more of that later…
I discovered that there were 12 passengers for this flight and that they could take as many as 16 in this basket. They have a smalled basket in case they have 8 or less passengers… This is more popular than I thought.
We loaded up into the two vehicles and set off for the departure point. It is determined by the wind direction so that we leave upwind of where we want to go.
We unloaded the basket and set it on its side so that we could attach the balloon. This is where we will be spending 1 hour in the air – there will be three of us into each corner section of the basket with the ‘pilot’ in the middle.
The balloon is rather large and tall when it is spread along the ground.
The fans will be used to inflate the balloon before it can be heated up with the gas burners. Once everything was setup, we waited. Thierry, our pilot with the blue shirt below, was concerned about regular gusts of wind which would have made the balloon difficult to handle. Several times they released a small black helium balloon to see the wind direction and speed at higher elevation. It was very consistent at all levels.
And we waited as the wind just would not die down.
And we waited some more …
We waited about 45 minutes and we were all concerned that it would be too late to set out. The pilot had told us that he would have to make a decision within the next five minutes or call the whole thing off. There was a rival company also setting up their balloon less than 500 meters from where we were and the pilots had a last conference (on the phone). Thierry came back to us with a smile and indicated that we were Go to prepare the balloon. It all went very fast after that.
The fans were turned on and air forced into the balloon.
The monster comes alive! There is work to be done inside the balloon to insure that the vent hole at the top is well secured. That is a job for the pilot who looks so tiny on this inside of the huge space…
He is in there – here is a better view.
Before he could start heating up the balloon, he requested six of us to already go into the basket as ‘dead’ weight (I was hoping this did not mean anything particular) and I volunteered – it meant I could not take any more pictures of the final stage of preparation.
As we finally set off, we noticed that the competition was far behind. Our team did a fantastic job at take-off!
There are actually two balloons behind us. This will be a parade! As we continue to climb, we can see that they are now also ready to leave.
But the view is up front! We are clearing the trees and just beyond them is the most wonderful sight I can imagine.
Who can guess? Don’t move forward too fast as I will want you to see it the way we did, little by little!
If you have been there, you should recognise the Gardens of Dianne to the left. Actually, you should already have had a clue from the title of this post – yes, go back to it if you did not pay attention! The river you can see is the Cher and the castle is Chenonceau!
It is only in a hot air balloon that you can get this kind of view. There is not a soul as the castle has been closed to visitors for several hours. It feels like we own the place!
The wind is so calm that the reflections of the castle in the water are almost perfect.
Unfortunately, there are renovations going on , but this is not unusual – I do not think I have seen a single castle that was not being worked on! Still a fantastic view.
The gardens of Dianne as you can rarely see them.
The unrelenting wind is pushing us right over the top and soon we can see the other facade of the castle.
What more is there to say?
But we keep moving and it is time to look forward and see what is next on the itinerary…
an old bridge over the Cher
Thierry is keeping an eye on things – he is in touch with the other balloons and with the ground crew trying desperately to guess where we will be landing so they can meet us. We go straight, but they have to follow roads, not an easy matter.
We are flying over a campground at dinner time. We are so low that we can actually converse with the people below. We did get a few invitations for drinks, but could not stop!
There are disused locks along he river, but I like this picture because of the reflection of the clouds in the water.
I took a short video (with sound) while we were along the way. Click on the link below to watch it.
It may take a while to load as I have made the file as large as I could get away with (10 Mb)
There are mansions everywhere in this area, most of them unnoticed by tourists only interested in the ‘top’ castles and attractions.
Behind us, the other two balloons have taken off, but they have chosen to fly a lot higher, not as much fun as what we are doing.
We can still see Chenonceau behind us, peaking through the trees…
In a stunning move, considering that we are all dependent on the same winds, the red balloon has actually passed us and is now ahead.
We are approaching Montrichard and there is another castle ahead and to the left – it is now a luxury hotel.
It is more obvious once you get closer as there is a large swimming pool right in front of it – not something that would have been built in the 17th or 18th century!
There is a beautiful little church that goes almost unnoticed..
Here you can see the swimming pool just appearing to the right. This is the Chateau de Chissay
Our ground team keeps a good eye on us…
A general view of Montrichard with the ancient fortress in the middle of town.
As we approach further, we get a better view of the former castle, needs some restoration.
But it is time to think about landing as the sun is setting and we still have a few things to do after landing – like pack the balloon!
In this general view, you can see what will be our landing spot in the middle (and enhanced in the inset) – we did not know that at the time I took this picture … what we also did not know is that the field in front of the trees is full of cows – boy did they get a surprise when we arrived from above!
The landing was very ‘interesting’. I did not know that you could land a hot air balloon on a single lane road, between two rows of trees!
I could not take pictures for a while as there was too much going on and we all participate in the packing of the balloon – this is the end, when it is already returned to it bag. If you have ever packed a sleeping bag into its original bag, and you say to yourself: “This will never work”, well, this is the same only 100 times bigger – and just like the sleeping bag, it works every time.
The basket is already on the other trailer – there is an electric winch to help with that!
All that is left to do is celebrate our adventure with a little bit of local bubbly! As you can see, the sun is down and it is quickly getting dark. We arrived just in time.
Here are a few screen prints from Google Maps to show what we did – a toal of 11 km in a little less than 1 hour of flying.
Our starting point, very close to Chenonceau
Our landing spot – I was surprised that given how often he has done flights in this area, Thierry indicated that he very rarely lands on the same place twice.
And here is our complete track
For references, if you are interested in doing the same thing:
I went with FRANCE MONTGOLFIERES who do this in several different spots in France.
Web Site: www.france-montgolfieres.com
E-Mail or info: reservations@france-montgolfieres.com or through their web site
I found the whole process of booking very easy, even though a little strange that you have to buy the ticket before you can book the day (and therefore do not know if there is a flight on the day that you want, or it is already fully booked, but ehy have so many flights that you should be able to find what you want.
I obviously had a great experience. Thierry and his crew were professional and fun at the same time.
I would certainly recommend them to anybody interested
(1474 Page Views)
I did this in Melbourne 1.5 years ago in the Yarra Valley and it was truly breath taking. Money well spent. I am home now. Thanks for sharing.
What an awesome ride! Now you understand why Chenonceaux is my fav castle. She’s a beaut. I’m glad you included Montrichard. Most people just skip over the surroundings and focus on the castles only.
Pierre, a hot air balloon flight over the Loire sounds decadent, but maybe worth seeing places that are otherwise closed. I might have seen Chenonceau as a high school student circa 1974, when it presumably was open for tourists.