Belinda and I are nearly at the end of our two weeks holiday in France. The day of our arrival, Chamonix was shrouded in cloud. The following day I went up to the Plaine Joux take-off but conditions were not suitable for flying as the picture below shows!

For the next two days the rain stayed away long enough for me to do some flying with Manu and Bertrand from the Centre Ecole Parapente du Mont Blanc. The launch looks out over to Mont Blanc and the views were spectacular. Flying in the mountains is different to the slope soaring that I have been doing this year back in England. With light or non-existent winds we were mostly doing Alpine (forward) launches and launching from much greater heights. The highlight was flying from Mieussy – the birthplace of paragliding.

For the weekend we went to Lake Annecy to swim, read and eat at the waterside restaurants. We were camping right on the waterside and the weather was stunning. There was a man staying at the same campsite who had an amphibious car which he would drive into the water before disappearing across the lake.

We arrived back in Chamonix on Monday and I was hoping to get some more flying in. Sadly the high pressure that had stayed in the area for the past week hasn’t lasted, and after a single flight yesterday morning, the heavens opened and we have had torrential rain and thunderstorms. This weekend it’s back to work for me on Saturday. I wonder if the weather will be flyable on Sunday…