Since 1782 and the first successful flight of an aerostat at Vidalon in the Montgolfier brothers‘ park, the Annonay-Rhône area has become the“city of hot-air balloons“.
First balloon flight
The first official flight took place on 4 June 1783, in front of the Estates General of the Vivarais (nobles, ecclesiastics and the people) in the courtyard of the Cordeliers convent in Annonay.
- Video of the re-enactment of the first Montgolfier flight in Annonay:
Since that landmark day in the history of aerial flight, the city of hot-air balloons has perpetuated the tradition with an annual historical re-enactment in the Place des Cordeliers and a celebration of the take-off in the Parc Déomas in Annonay.
From the Rhône to Annonay by hot air balloon
From the banks of the Rhône river to Annonay by hot air balloon via the Cance river valley…
Video trip to the land of hot air balloons between the Rhône valley and the foothills of Pilat:
Excerpt from the report Du Beaujolais aux Monts d’Ardèche by Sandra Malfait broadcast on the show Des Racines & Des Ailes in December 2015 on France 3.
Find out more about the city of hot-air balloons and the Montgolfier brothers?
- L’art de l’envol, the annual balloon festival in the land of the Montgolfier brothers
- The birth of the hot-air balloon: the story of an innovation “made in Annonay“
- Video: Hot-air ballooning in Annonay-Rhône in Ardèche
- Radio: The Montgolfier brothers and the history of hot-air ballooning
- Montgolfier-Canson (French), 450 years of paper history in Annonay-Rhône
Along the Rhône
- Map of the Rhône river
- Weather along the Rhône
- Taking the train in Switzerland and France
- Where to sleep in the Rhône valley?
- River tourism map (Rhône)
- Towns along the river
- The Viarhôna, the green bike route along the Rhône river
