1/ & 2/Montgolfieres floating above and in the valley below Le Refuge
It's hot air balloon-a-rama here in Les Carroz this week! There is a hot-air balloon ("montgolfiere") festival going on and about 20 - 25 balloons are participating. They are all brightly coloured and they make an incredible picture when they all take off together and fill the skies. Flat land is hard to find where we live, so they are using any level field around us to fill their balloons and stage their take off.
Hot-air ballooning is an interesting concept. To trust so completely in the whims of a breeze is, I think very daring. While I have been brought up sailing and can trust the wind, it seems to me that your choice of movement is so much more restricted in a hot air balloon. Surely in a balloon you can only go up or down and your speed is entirely dependent on the wind. All I can say is that balloonists must be supreme weather forecasters!! God help you if your burner goes out!! And while I am sure that the views from a balloon flight over the Alps must be very spectacular, I'm not sure I could relax enough to enjoy the scenery. I suspect I would be spend all my time trying to second guess where we were going to land. As I have mentioned before in connection with the paragliders - there is not that much empty space in France! Dropping a balloon on the autoroute or onto the roof of a factory down in the valley gives me the willies!!
3/ A balloon taking off from our "backyard"!!
Daily Life
Some one asked me recently if our lives had changed much? Are we doing things differently in France? That's a hard question to answer. So today I will reveal some trivial things that have changed for me, while I give the deeper question a little more thought.
First trivial change is that I now drink coffee! This is quite a big step for me. I have resisted drinking coffee for 42 years so to take up the habit in middle age is really quite momentous. The hassle of finding a good cup of tea in this country proved to be just too hard. And I would be the size of a house ( and broke) if I ordered hot chocolate every day. So, nothing like jumping in with both feet. I now have at least one or maybe 2 espresso coffees every day. I also have now learned why all you coffee addicts like the stuff. Forget the taste.. it's a real pick up n'est-ce pas? When my energy is lagging on the slopes mid-morning there is nothing like a little espresso to pep me up! Mind you, I am starting to get fussy and can now discern the difference between a good and bad coffee! I will be joining the Wanaka coffee critics when I return home!!
Graeme's biggest change is to more read books instead of watching television. Personally, I think he overdosed on French TV when he was feverish with bronchitis last month. But he is really enjoying his reading. I wonder if he will keep it up when our life changes again at home?
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