Magic flying in Annecy, France this weekend (Friday , Saturday, Sunday)

Ogisawa (Red Bull 5th Place) from Japan was here as was Seiko, the very cool, very beautiful Japanese female acro pilot.  She flies in pearls and looks like a fashion model with clothes and body to suit.  I felt like such a giant klutz next to her. Ogisawa was having celebration drinks with local pilots like Pierre from Les Passegeurs du Vent, Damian from Le Grande Espaces and Denis Cortella from Kortel.

I cannot believe how many gliders were in the sky this weekend - really awesome.  The whole of Europe is on holiday!  Annecy and the surrounding areas are protected to preserve the quaint French village flavour.  In the mornings people take a stroll to the local village or bakery and buy their crunchy french loaves of bread for breakfast.  It is a wonderful sight.  Ok, you can tell I am not from Europe by the fact that I am fascinated by such normal every day activites.

And the French people are amazingly friendly. I don't have a car and so I hitched around between flying sites, the camping site I stayed at, and Annecy where I would catch the train for longer distances.  An elderly French couple with their French poodle stopped on a windy narrow road that I was walking along and caused a traffic jam in my honour when they stopped to pick me up.  They could not speak a word of English and I know nothing of the French language, but they insisted on driving all the way around the lake to deliver me safely to my camp site.  Another young man by the name of Christiaan and his dog Nukkie, who could speak English (Christiaan that is, not Nukkie :-) was wonderful and offered to be my driver for the day as he was not working.  He also took me up to the high take off (Forclaz?).  He offered to collect me at the bottom when I landed, but I felt bad about that as the conditions looked good and I suspected I was going to fly for a few hours and not sure where I was going to land.  Which is exactly what happened.  I flew between the two main take off sights, making the crossing three times just to be sure it was not luck.  Lovely smooth flight. 

In Sallanches, France, I visited Denis who made me a new Flygirl flight suit.  Marina Olexina from Russia recommended him when we were at the Czech Open and Seiko from Japan wears his combination flight suit as well.  At last I found someone who makes tailored flights suits for women.  Well he does this reluctantly, but if you want something nice...at a price, France is the place to get it made and Denis is the man to make it happen.  People think I am nuts to have travelled all the way from Austria to visit his factory for a flight suit - but I think it is worth it!

Sallanches, it turns out, is a very beautiful valley with waterfalls and massive rock faces.  I plan to fly in a few hours whilst the Kortel seamstress sews up my suit.

Saw two gliders flying at 6:30 am - no not PPG's.  They must have gone up the mountain last night or early this morning and flew down to land in the morning mists of the valley.

Then it was the hot air balloons turn!  Apparently they fly the valley regularly - what I sight!

Now know why flying is so popular here in Europe - awesome flying - just about all day!

Tomorrow Verbier, Switzerland and back to the Cloudbase tour for a week or so.

 More later