Thanks to Montgolfier Brothers of France, in 1783 history of mankind witnessed how it feels to be flying like a bird or perhaps sailing like wind. Imagining so… When you look down from 500 metres above the earth, what would you see ? How would you feel ? Would you feel like an object encircling the earth ? Would you wish to touch those forests down below ? Or discharge the rooster of its sunrise duties & just shout out loud a friendly hello to the world below announcing the rising of sun ?
First flight of hot air balloon took off at Versailles with Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette & the nobles gazing out from the windows of Château deVersailles.
17th September 1783
At the blast of a cannon, at 1 pm, a sheep, duck and cockerel entered the round wicker basket tied to the balloon by a rope…
Then who was the first man ever to fly aboard a montgolfière (French name for hot air balloon) ? Find out here in the Complete anecdote
My montgolfière experience
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Then I believe a series of pictures would do justice to the story I want to share with you.
I had to reach the meeting point by 7:30 AM. While crossing the forests in the dark just before sunrise, I caught this glimpse of Château de Fontainebleau & its gardens.Golden skies at sunrise… This is where it all beganPreparations for the flight are in full swing by our pilot with his crew members of France montgolfieres CompanyPilot Adrien making sure of our safety. And a fan is stationed next to the basket to start inflating the balloon soon.Voilà ! A lot has happened in few minutes. Just few more moments before we hop on…Oh boy ! There rises our balloon… Isn’t it a lovely thing to watch ?Isn’t it a handsome thing !!Up we go… The golden sunlight… A morning I would never ever forget !This is where we were few minutes agoThese magnificent gardens were a brainchild of André Le Nôtre, Principal Gardener during the reign of Louis XIV. Wasn’t he a genius with perspectives ?Here comes the Fontainebleau Palace, dubbed le chateau du siècle (Palace of the century)They say your shadow follows you wherever you go. There it is… Shadow of our hot air balloon.When majestic turns into miniature : Fontainebleau Palace in its entiretySeine river bordering the city of FontainebleauSomewhere in the forests of FontainebleauPerspective ! Isn’t it a wonderful thing ?You will spot a number of châteaux around FontainebleauStill following us…Château de Courances spotted near our landing site at Moigny-sur-ÉcoleJust before we descend back to earth…
“As long as there is someone waiting for us on the other end of the journey, we will look forward to reaching our destination. Even if it was not our family or a friend, we had our crew members waiting for us to land safely. And that’s all mattered.” – Author
The huge inflated balloon you saw earlier is now deflated & reduced to the size of this bagTime to raise a toast to our adventure with courage & composure. Santé !We wish all the adventurers out there Safe Winds !
