A Well Kept Man

A few weeks ago we ventured back to the small town of Château D'Œx for the 31st International Festival of Balloons. The town is about an hour drive from our apartment, and is nestled in the pre-Alps. Our excitement peaked as we passed into the valley where the balloons were taking off. After parking, we quickly made our way into the area where the balloons were being inflated...it was amazing to see the myriad of colors and types of balloons, and in some cases, shapes.

There was a hen, rooster, turtle, and even a Scotsman (who never really inflated...too much air for the bagpipes I guess). As you can tell it was a sunny day, and we enjoyed it by sitting on a ledge of the town's main church on the hill. We packed our lunch (per usual) and watched as the many different balloons passed overhead. The festival lasted for a week, with various activities and contests such as balloon races, aerial demonstrations, passenger flights, and balloon chases.

This event reminded me of the Battle Creek, Michigan Balloon Festival, although one could argue this one in the Alps was a bit more picturesque due to the snow covered peaks and Alpine chalets (although the Tony the Tiger balloon does go a long way to making a close contest). I counted about forty different hot air balloons, although the program indicated more than fifty balloons. In the main launch area we saw many balloons fail to take off as the day progressed, most likely due to increasing winds that seemed to change the balloons direction during the day.

At one point sky-divers leaped from balloons and performed aerial acrobatics while parachuting back to Earth. I think you have to be a little bit nuts to jump out of anything that high in the air, but they compounded their craziness with purposely spinning themselves around and performing circus-like maneuvers. The event was a very relaxing one, as we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery and allowed our minds to float up into the sky with the balloons....