Meyrargues, big blue sky over Provence!
Sunday 24 July, midday
First of all, we must warmly thank the Carpentras microlight club (www.ulmcarpentras.com) and the aerodrome manager, who did an extraordinary job to let us stay the night when we had only been planned for lunch! It is also thanks to the Tour's completely self-contained logistics that this is possible. The formula is tried and tested, but it needs accomplices on the spot. If you want to discover the Ventoux, do drop in on our friends in Carpentras.
For this stage summary, we will cut the essential weather considerations down to the simplest, because the situation is very simple: the weather is fine and looks set to stay that way! To make up for yesterday's short and eventful stage, most participants therefore flew a catch-up session. And as it is the Sunday of the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, climbing Mont Ventoux was the obvious thing to do. Careful, we must not write « Tour de France ULM » because the name « Tour de France » is a registered trademark! So we will say the Tour. That said, we do not deserve much credit, because the calves of the sweating cyclists among the orchards and then in the arid heat of the Col des Tempêtes are replaced, in our case, by our Rotax engines (not only them, but often) which take us quickly to the 1,900 m of the summit, where the coolness is noticeable. The paragliders begin their day with a clear, beautiful view over Provence, free flight! Everything is blue and calm, luxury and almost sensual pleasure.
Starting from the summit of the Ventoux, all we had to do was coast down towards the Luberon, and we could spend a week (if the weather allowed) flying over this region packed with treasures, colours, history, violent contrasts and smells that are often perceptible in flight. You often feel like landing, driving along a little road between the shade of the trees and then taking off again for another hop. Playing this game, we flew over the splendid ochre quarries of the Luberon, which form incredible contrasts with the vegetation. Then we quickly arrived above the poetic roofs of Manosque overlooking the Durance valley. We then move from the mineral theme of the Ventoux and the Luberon to the more watery one of the Gorges du Verdon and Lake Sainte-Croix. There are places in France that you should visit as a child, as an adult, as an adult with children, because they stay with our sensibility for ever and define our relationship with nature and with people.
The distance as the crow flies, which we often cross in this area, between Carpentras and Meyrargues is barely 60 km, but we spent two hours of pleasure. We had to come back down towards Aix-en-Provence, navigating between the zones and the power stations, to reach that little corner of Provençal paradise that is the Meyrargues microlight base. An old sheepfold serves as the control tower, with a 400 metre runway that is fairly hard and dry but more than enough for our microlights, and a festive atmosphere full of ice creams, cool water and the pleasure of being together. We can never say enough about how friendly microlight bases are, returning to simple flying on an airfield among friends, without excessive constraints or pointless procedures, for the simple pleasure of flying and meeting up. The presence of the senator-mayor of Meyrargues is a sign of this interest. The base will soon be completely self-sufficient in energy and we had bins for sorted waste. Success often lies in simplicity. We owe this base to our friend Christian Piccioli, president of the PACA Regional Committee, who is with us on the Tour. Some pilots preferred not to land at the base, and that is understandable too.
On that subject, we must say that yesterday's stage may give an impression of excessive risk-taking, but that is not the case. Each pilot is pilot in command, and the decision to land at any given place is theirs alone. It happens naturally. The philosophy of microlight flying is responsibility, and the role of the Tour's organisation is to give everyone the maximum freedom. It is extremely instructive when some experienced pilots explain their approach to thunderstorms to others, or when the constraints of a small base force us to really assess the capabilities of our machines. Nobody is forced, and the atmosphere on this tour is particularly good. Pleasure, in complete safety.
The weather is fine and hot; we are off to fly over the Camargue!
Sébastien Perrot
(Diogène GPS beacon)
The super Carpentras team who brilliantly turned an intermediate stop into a final one...
Let the stories begin, at the Varets'...
The sky has calmed over Carpentras
Christian and Eric, hiding the Ventoux
The DGAC is smiling!
It is starting to get hot
Carpentras airfield has had time to dry out
The town of Carpentras
The climb of Mont Ventoux
The Col des Tempêtes
The superb ochre quarries of the Luberon
The roofs of Manosque, Jean Giono is not far away.
The EDF canal at La Brillane
Lake Esparron
The Verdon gorges
Le Vieux Quinson
Lake Sainte-Croix
Montagne Sainte-Victoire
The Meyrargues microlight runway
The "sheepfold control" tower
Pierre-Henri Lopez, Christian Piccioli and Mireille Jouve, Senator-Mayor of Meyrargues
Comments
Sad not to be with you, as I could not find anyone to cover my job during Tour week...
Enjoy yourselves and be careful!!!
See you next year.
Hervé. Pas de l'Aze microlight strip. Dordogne.
I am proud of our pilots from the Houville La Branche base
LF 2851
See you soon and happy flying to everyone
Jean Jacques
Best wishes from the Cambrésis.
J.LUCAS
Happy flying, see you soon.
Well done also to all your hosts who show, every time, such remarkable flexibility, delighted to welcome you! It is also thanks to them that your well-oiled logistics can best cope with the elements and events.
Finally, well done to all the pilots, young and old, who celebrate flight... in freedom, amid a cacophony of Rotaxes!
Enjoy your flight over the Camargue marshes, and may the Mistral go away (haha).
Big family hugs to my little brother Xavier, Sport beacon
Thérèse & Co
Kind regards, Thérèse
Just a regret at not being part of this adventure!
All the best to everyone.
We recognised you.
This tour is off to a strong start but it should go well from here.
With your sidekick, take good care of MAMAN.
Bert
I hope many pilots made the same navigation choice as you.
You saw exactly what there was to see on this morning's stage!
Alain, LF0453, who flies here all year round but does not get the chance every day to see such a friendly gathering of people and machines.
Again!
Tour de France ULM???
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