Montgolfieres is a week long festival that takes place in a disused airfield in Saint-Jean-sur_Richelieu and it was here where we were aiming to reach by 1800.
After a pleasurable drive and a slightly long queue to get into the venue we parked up and made our way in. Clearly a lot of drivers were working to the same time deadlines that we had.
Inflatable flames greet us once we enter.
The first area we hit was full of kiddy inflatables. This was probably the largest single collection I'd ever come across and I've been to IAAPA trade fair where these things dominate the place. My favourite was the American Football one.
The second area contained a large assortment of inflatable things.
Lots of people had brought their camping chairs. They were facing towards a large stage from which music that I wasn't into was due to be played in the evening.
At 150ft long this huge inflatable is a horror walkthrough called The Creature. It had a 90 minute queue time so we gave it a miss. You enter through its mouth but you leave through it's tail, not its arse.
Here's a video showing the concept behind it.
Liking the signage. So why were we here and why were these seats staring at an empty field and not the stage? Let's just say the music is not the main draw.
Hot Air Balloons and lots of them. Montgolfieres (ah, you get it now) is one of the largest ballooning festivals.
Twice a day (dawn and dusk) the balloons take off en masse and land some distance away. For around $200 dollars its possible to book a place on one of the many that take part.
Playing with the camera settings.
I liked the themed balloons. This was themed to be a shy graduating owl.
Wasn't this in the Beatles "Hello" film?
It made for some epic photos and we all loved being in the middle of it.
I think we counted around 80 balloons. I imagine the view from up there would be pretty epic. As expected the event had quickly sold out and there were no tickets available for us to take part, so we only got to view it from the panoramic field in the centre of the activity.
This was one of the last to go.
Bye bye balloons!
As with most festivals and fairs there was some amusement rides including an Orient Express coaster.
We fell into the trap once again of buying tickets before checking if we could ride. This one only let adults ride if they were kids, and we weren't going to whore ourselves out little kids for the sake of a credit so we gave it a miss.
Aside from the coaster the rides here were being run really well. Nice and fast and on pretty long programs.
and yes of course they had a carousel.
I liked the theming on this ride. 20-20 over
At the secondary stage they were playing country...urgh! Moving swiftly on.
Yay, another Chance Zipper.
Christof aiming an artistic photo.
Me aiming at the back of his head.
We loved Montgolfieres and quickly overlooked not getting the coaster. Being in the centre of the take offs was great and we did talk about what it would have been like to have been in one of the balloons. Two of us are considering trips to Cappadocia in Turkey and we now are in agreement that the balloons has to be done there. (It's a ballooning hot spot)
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