French Ballooning adventure

My husband Rob is a Hot Air Balloon pilot and every two years we travel to France for the International Mondial Hot Air Balloon Festival, which takes place in Lorraine (an area of north west France famous for it's quiche). The peace of this beautiful landscape of tiny villages, rolling wheat fields, wooded hills, plum and cherry orchards is shattered by the arrival of over 400 hot air balloon teams. My job is to chase our balloon across the French countryside in a recovery vehicle and trailer. It's a great way to explore the area. This year we took part in a mass launch and broke the world record for the most balloons taking off at one time (433 to be precise). It was an amazing spectacle.

Balloonists have to get up at 4am so that they can fly before the sun warms the ground and causes thermals. By 10am the balloon is usually recovered and packed away ready for the evening flight at 7pm. This leaves a window of opportunity for sketching in the middle of the day. 

Above is a sketch made at the village of Hattonchatel, perched on a hilltop surrounded by fruit orchards and boasting a grand chateau. The village well stands in front of a covered arcade which looks to be a good few hundred years old judging by the old timbers holding up it's roof.

I had a great time taking photos of interesting textures, which I will get printed and use as a valuable source of collaging material. There was a wealth of rusty, crumbling surfaces and peeling paint for me to collect!

Our French campsite was far less romantic and boasted some caravans that had definitely seen better days! The one next to our tent was covered in faded stickers and surrounded by garden gnomes.

I really love this part of France and was very sad to leave. Hopefully we will return in 2017!
You can see more photographs from this trip on my intagram page.