Sunday, October 4, 2009
Air Tour of France - Carcassonne and return to London
The flight between Avignon and Carcassonne took us along the Med coast;
Sete;
Carcassonne has a walled old town. We stayed at a great B&B there, "Ecuries de Sainte Croix" which I'd reccomend to anyone visiting the area;
We spend a day cycling along a canal and wished we could have stayed longer;
Return flight with 70 bottles of wine on board and 5hr fuel was almost at maximum allowable weight;
Cahors;
Turning final at Fairoakes after 5hrs airborne;
Air Tour of France - Avignon and lower Rhone valley
Climbing out from Annecy towars the Rhone Valley provided spectacular scenary;
What exactly is going on here? We randomly stumbled across this Chateaux with a collection of presumably exmilitary planes. There is no runway or airfield in sight.
I hope that the planes don't end up like this car collection that we found in Champagne (it was 3 times this size but I couldn't get it all in shot!) The things that you find in rural France...
Conditions were sweltering upon arrival at Avignon. The dry brown landscape if Provence was a stark contrast after Annecy. I'm wearing my beanie to justify having brought it (along with other typical London clothes that were never worn).
Avignon was the centre of Catholicism while 5 popes resided there in the 13th Centurary (typical church vs state troubles in Rome at the time). Along with a medieval walled city, there is a spectacular palace that the popes built on a hill within the city walls;
Pont d'Avignon:
Gigondas - brutal steep terrain, we wandered around the village and dropped in on Domaine le Boussiere and Chateua de St Cosme;
Chateauneuf du Pape - summer house for the popes while they were at Avignon. The large white stones that are typical of the area increase the thermal mass of the soil. We only visited one winery here, domaine de Christia which is run by a lady our age who has lived in Melbourne. The wines were mind bending. We tasted some that Parker rated 96 and 98.
Rasteau - just north of Gigondas and Chateauneuf du Pape, we checked Domaine de la Soumade and Coteaux de Travers before driving the hire car up through the bell tower at the top of the village;
Air Tour of France - Annecy
Flying a UK registered plane overseas requires compliance with the UK Air Navigation Order's definition of Visual Met Conditions - remaining not only clear of cloud but distincly, also in sight of the surface as exemplified by the heading reference of Mt Blanc at flight level 60 inbound for Annecy in the foothills of the Alps ;)
As above, so below.
Annecy. Unspeakably lovely place.
Gilles-Marie approached and introduced himself on the Annecy airport apron as another HR100 pilot (they are quite rare planes). A fantastically interesting chap, he has recently retired from CERN and was able to meet us for drinks the next day when he described his inspiring experinece of alp flying and ski instructing. His life long local knoweldge of the area allowed us a good undertanding of the alpine lake geography and the nature of the Haute-Savoie people and dialect.
Gilles-Marie took us for a flight around to Geneva and over his house!
We wanted to fly together south up the alp valley over Grenoble to Gap Tallard but decided to push on rather than waiting for a patch of weather to clear. As always, less time pressure would have been vastly prefereable.
Local CAP 2 aero squad on climb out for a display over the lake.
We cycled around lake Annecy and poked around the old town and market. We loved Annecy and will return at the soonest oppourtunity so see Gilles-Marie and Francoise again and maybe to undertake some alp flying training.
Air Tour of France - Macon and Clermont Ferrand
With conditions not suiting our planned flight into the foothills of the alps, we headed for Macon in Burgandy. Helen was awarded 'shot of the week' for this;
These vehicle are designed to go betweek the rows of vines. I wanted a go on one but eveyone was so busy with the harvest that it didn't seem likely.
On the basis of a reccomendation that there was good cheese there, we flew across the central hills to Clermont Ferrand to investigate. Although landing was only a tenner, it was a full service international airport. We were placed on stand 14 with our own terminal walkway and collected by a man in a bus to be escorted out landside through security. Naturally we had to make him wait for a flurry of clothes re-packing bike assembly.
Air Tour of France - Troyes and Bar sur Seine
The Robin can carry 4 people and so has a long range and can carry our bikes and camping gear.
Helen's bike was made by Chas Roberts in Croydon and separates into two pieces that fit in a Cordura bag that she made the week before we left. Mine is designed by a guy near Cambridge that we went to see earlier in the year. It can fold but still rides well on good surfaces.
First night was Troyes, SE of Paris after a 3 hr flight. We checked into a hotel near the airport and spent day 2 cycling around the well preserved medieval town.
Helen wanted to hop half an hour south to Bar sur Seine, a small airfield that she had identified as being close to some particular Champagne producers. We flew over Epernay and all around the valley to check out the geography;
What we found upon arrival was a picturesque grass airstrip atop an escarpment ridge with vinyards down each valley on either side. The flying club there is just fantastic - a true ground roots DIY aviator's club. When we asked if we could camp, they invited us to stay in the club house inside a hanger that they built a few years ago - complete with bar, shower, office and several workshops! Very comfortable.
Note the trophy cabinet wall made from Champagne bottles (illuminated of course) and the lamp shades made from old aviation charts.
70's glider converted to a pusher flying wing... why not?
The club had several 'Gazail' microlights under construction from plans - these are to be fitted with a Citroen 1.4l diesals that they buy reconditioned for £1K. It burns only 6 litres per hour at 75% power at which the plane achieves 120kt. Wonderful club, lovely people. We can't wait to return to visit.
This is an aerobatic plane that they had similarly built themselves from plans;
The 10% slope up through the vinyard to the airfield made itself felt with a few cases of Champagne on the bikes. At the start of the trip we suffered a little from being out of shape. Not for long though.
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