Hot air balloon ride over Geneva
Filling up our balloon before launch
The other two took off before us
Gearing up to help
Getting ready to fire the burners
Almost ready to launch
What a view! Palais Wilson and the lakefront
Looking over to rive gauche and the Saleve and le Mole behind
Pont Mt. Blanc and the Fetes de Genève going down in the Jardin Anglais
Ile Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cathedral St. Pierre
Parc des Bastions
Vielle ville
Plainpalais
The Arve river
Sun over the Jura mountains
Looking back to Geneva and Lac Léman
Rolex building at Plan les Ouates and the apartment complex where the Beutlers live
Colourful fields in France
The Saleve and farm land
Geneva's altitude is over 1200 ft, but St. Julien is higher still, so we were over 1,500 feet up in the air.
Patrick and Patrick searching for uncultivated fields to land in.
The mountains of Annecy in the distance
Saleve and farmland again
Pilot and copilot pose for a photo
Soaring over a forest
A mansion featured in some of the Tintin books
Approaching our landing spot
A couple walking with their dog stops to see us fly by
Began to lose altitude here; we landed in the field after the dark brown strip of land
After our bumpy landing. We drug along the ground about 100 metres
Patrick, Patrick, and my friend Tristan celebrate another successful flight
We begin to fold the envelope
Packing up the ballon
posted by Ben at 6:55 PM
2 Comments:
Absolutely wonderful, Ben. How great to get a sense of Geneva, its layout, and your conneciton to it.
The fields in France were one of your prettiest photos in the series.
So Tristan scored the flight for you?
Thanks, Nate. Yes, it was an amazing flight! I'm glad it gives a more fluid view of how places that I've photographed separately fit into a larger whole.
I know Tristan from school, he knocked on my door that evening and asked me if I wanted to go up in a hot air balloon in 10 minutes time--I readily agreed, ended a Skype conversation with Heather, grabbed my camera and spare batteries and literally ran down to the spot, just 2 minutes from where I live.
Apparently the VIPs that had been invited didn't want to fly. I saw one of them--the head of Honda for all of Europe--who came to wish us a good flight.
Tristan was our "recovery team," i.e. he followed us in the car and pulled up into the field where we landed mere moments after we'd crawled out of the wicker cabin.
The French fields are indeed very beautiful; I think the late evening light brought out such vivid colours.
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