The Event
Hot air Balloons in the Ardéchois sky
: 24/08/2006
Each year, at the end of August, the hot air balloons come back to their source, to where they were born from the imagination and the knowledge of the Montgolfier brothers. Meet at Annonay in Ardeche to see the hot air balloon Championship of France and the performances in flight of these strange machines which go up high in the sky of the Vivarais.
Each summer, hot air balloons are part of the spectacle in the mountains and everywhere where the holidays are at their max, because balloons are even more attractive to see and to practise than planes.
But if it is a place where the hot air balloons feel at home, it is really in Annonay, fatherland of the Montgolfier brothers, paper industrialists in the 18th century and inventors of the aircraft to which they gave their name. These famous brothers, brains and clever engineers even before the function was invented. They were 16 at home and they helped evolve the family paper mill to an industrial stage, but both of them developed a passion for the conquest of the air.
One day of November, Joseph, the most lunar of them, who often had his head in the clouds, so much as to forget his wife and his horse in various inns, observes paper going up in the chimney under the influence of the hot air. He has just imagined his invention and informs at once Etienne, his brother, the realistic one, a student of Soufflot, the great architect. Hot air balloons have just found a destiny. It is logical then, that the birthplace of the inventors celebrates the hot air balloon with 52 crews from all over Europe. To win, they have to prove the highest degree of accuracy through a dozen tests with the referee embarked in the nacelle. The Montgolfier brothers would have adored piloting their invention with the GPS device.
During the manifestation, theatre, concerts, animations and first flights will take place. It is the festival of the inhabited balloons and it is not to be missed.
Practical
The 32th Hot Air Balloon Championship of France takes place in Annonay in Ardèche from August 22nd to 27th 2006.
To know the full programme:
Annonay Montgolfières 2006
32, rue Boissy d'Anglas
07100 Annonay Tel.: 00 33 (0)4 75 34 17 40
To know everything on the adventure of the Montgolfier brothers and the take-off of the first hot air balloon:
About thirty Fiesta balloons will take off from the Déomas Park in Annonay and offer first flights (150€). Reservation to be made at the association.
Documentation
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