The 'after-flight' adventure
When balloonists have childish fun !

Fire... air... earth... and water...

Those are the ingredients for a baptism ceremony after a hot-air balloon flight. You'll need to bring dry clothes!

Of course there is more to it than just that. The pilot gives a speech and tells stories about the history and techniques of ballooning, the soon-to-be certified balloonists have to make certain promises - and are treated with the various ingredients, preferably in generous amounts if conditions allow. It all mixes into slimy stuff and basically the passengers are gunged.

Every passenger who makes it t through this wet and messy ordeal receives a title of ballooning nobility which is mentioned on his or her flight certificate. Of course there is bubbly for drinking as well (we have selected a very good regional champagne) - and our shower is available to rinse off and clean up afterwards.

Most people appreciate this a lot and heave tremendous fun, rediscovering the child lurking in themselves for a moment. Which is the point of ballooning: childish fun.
Our base is situated in the area of the Viaduc des Fades (the Crazy Ladies Viaduct), named after two pleasantly crazy sisters (les 'Fades', local language for 'fadas' or crazy people) who ran a watermill in the valley of the Sioule river and dedicated their inheritance to the construction of a bridge to make the river crossing safer - a bridge that is now inundated by the reservoir lake of Fades-Besserve. Half of the viaduct and the reservoir dam named after them are in our village of Sauret-Besserve. We felt this rather fits the pleasant crazyness of ballooning!

You may bring a clown's nose (and convince friends to donate to a good cause if you get gunged), dress up in party outfits, wear flippers or high heels for the ceremony, anything to add to the fun. Obviously, the more fun the passengers have, the more gunge... And we have 'special' versions for special cases and certain tickets like the '3 feathers' and our Crazy Girls Special, with extra slimy stuff! We take lots of photos and you can get get them all on disk for posterity, free of cost.

Back to the ballooning page. 

Form for organizing your flight

   

Even crazier: the 'natural' option, in the countryside, mud run style...