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Early August - Gordon (ABOVE LEFT) and Andy flew nearly every day. Their faces show what they thought of their flight over the castle of Peyrepertuse. The castle in the background is Queribus.
End of July - ABOVE Lewis and Andy from Kendal, looking north-east ABOVE Ken's Nova and Ian skying out at Tuchan, looking south. Aberdeen Ian's already booked to come back in October with his family, Karen Handstand, Kieran Semi-fish and Ailis McHamish.
July - Chris was back yet again. We've known him since he was our club coach on the Isle of Wight in the year 2000. He got well high over Ceret this time. Take-off is at 850 m and I think he was between 1700 or 1800, exploring the peaks behind. ABOVE RIGHT, Chris heading towards the motorway which leads to Spain. This time Jackie came too. She's a keen swimmer. The photo RIGHT shows the stream below Peyrepertuse, which they dam in the summer so that everyone can keep cool. Matthew and Gail were here too, from Sussex. They are great travellers. ABOVE RIGHT is Matthew, with the lake where we swim on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.
July Right: Toon from the Netherlands flying at Ceret. Above left, Sabine from Germany. Co-incidentally Sabine comes from a town just down the road from where Udo was born and where his brothers still live, Kleve. Anne of Cleves came from there too! Above right: Ken from Belfast, who flew down in his self-build RUTAN VARIEZE, which cruises at 160kts, to Perpignan. After that he went home via Corsica and the Alps.
Last week in June - Philip and Els were here, from Belgium. On the first day Philip flew Tuchan, with Dennis from Yorkshire, who was camping nearby that week. Both of them made good take-offs and landings. Leucate was more useful for ground handling than flying that week, except for those who were already at home in coastal conditons, but it was useful experience. Right and below: Philip takes off from Ceret North, with the normal landing field below his feet and the reserve landing field - caravan park - above his head, Dennis at Ceret about to fly over the swimming pools of "Ceret Heights", Banyuls beach, where we went one non-flyable day. Banyuls has a platform to swim out to and coves to explore on foot or by kayak, as well as a volley ball court on the beach and a place to get drinks and a bowl of chips.
While Mike was here he spotted this deer while having his lunch, near Targasonne. Later in the week he and Jen got out of the truck to stop the traffic on the road up to Targasonne because a young deer was on the road and had to be persuaded to climb back under the barrier and into the forest. Mike's best flight was on Ceret (north take-off).
9th June - Europe hasn't had wonderful weather this May, though usually it is one of our best months. Andy, Martin and Arthur came over and we managed some flights at Ceret and Leucate and Targasonne (Cereja). Apart from the Pyramid orchids (above) we saw a weasel at the Peyrepertuse cascade. Photo credits Arthur, who did a lot of early morning cycling including altitude climbs - over a kilometer upwards! He spotted a couple of badgers, deer and ponies amongst other things. For his other photos please see http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/arthur.cullender/Pyrenees. There is still a lot of snow on mount Canigou, behind our village. If you are interested in a recent article about Canigou rescue, see http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23491526 (British teenagers hailed as heroes for saving stranded climbers).
May 11th - 18th Chris, Geoff, John, Mike and Paul, demonstrating (right) the long Tuchan ridge with its XC potential. Below, John landing in the spring flowers at Tuchan and Paul taking off at Ceret. Below that, Mike providing the after-flight cherries, Chris and Mike showing that flying makes you happy.
Geoff and the others - nice even lift for cruising out into the valley.
May 4th - 9th Nick, Karl and Phil were here. You can see their account of their trip on Derbyshire Soaring Club Forum. The photo to the left shows them exploring the Targasonne slopes. Forward or right takes you into Spain. They became "locals" at Frank's bar in the evening. Great to see you, guys!
End April and beginning of May - Tuchan was good for soaring, We saw an interesting rock formation on take-off, not sure of its name but please tell us if you know. Richard's best XC was on his last day. At first it didn't look hopeful, but after a low save above the landing field he got back up to take-off, gained some extra height and turned east down the valley via Font Romeu then towards La Llagonne, where the gliders take off from. Congratulations to him!
April 26th: Udo top landed to picnic with his family, visiting from Germany, Richard (Mustang) headed west and did an excellent flight into Spain and Jen landed near Llivia. Dave has 1000 hours on a PPL and tried his first tandem PG ride. The conditions were right for a "prestige" flight .
April 25th : Targasonne - the route up to take-off is accessible again after the snowfalls. Monsieur et Madame Marmotte were out to greet us, with their youngster. Here is one of the adults basking on the rock, well-camouflaged, bottom left of the photo. John was with us (Thames Valley), complete with Aspen and lenticulars.
April 16th: Mount Neolous in the Alberes (foothills of the Pyrenees, where they meet the Mediterranen). 1200m above sea level. We erected a new balise, to give wind readings every 15 minutes, automatically to our our radio frequency. Very shortly we hope to fly this site to assess suitability for our visitors. Udo just needs to decide which are the softest trees to land in (just kidding).
April 5th LEFT: Kostas taking off from Ceret North (850m asl). Four pilots got away. Didier turned east, 850m flew over the motorway which connects France to Spain, connected with the Alberes range and reached the Mediterranean, landing at Argeles. David, Dominique and Jean-Jacques went west, further into the Pyrenees, landing at Prats de Mollo and St Laurent near the Spanish border.
ASK US ABOUT THE NEW ROUTES March 27th Local weekly newspaper LA SEMAINE DU ROUSSILLON published a list of local airports: Perpignan, Beziers, Carcassonne, Montpellier and Nimes, as well as a long list from Girona. Here's just one example: you can now fly to Beziers from ****Bristol****
Last week in February RIGHT: Local pilot landing at Ceret. In the background is Mount Canigou, 2784 metres. There were about eight of us flying that day, two got enough height to get away and the rest had fun on the lower ridges. Jean provided the entertainment with his Catalan songs on the drive up the mountain.
Mid February 2008 Kevin from London ground handling at Targasonne, then flying towards Angoustrine. Udo, aka "bear" from paraglidingforum.com. Geoff and Judith came over from Spain for the day: both achieved some good high flights. One glider off on XC.
February 6th Most of the peach blossom is not out yet but things are really warming up here. Nearly every day in January was flyable, many of the best flights were from Peyrepertuse castle.
Peyrepertuse 28 December 2007 - half a dozen of us were having fun over the castle that day, waving to the tourists on the battlements as usual and enjoying the strong lift.
Congratulations to Aldric, from the Ceret paragliding club, for his flight on Saturday 27th October from PIC D'ESTABLES TO MAURY (25 km). For those of you who have already been out here to see us, pic d'Estables lies west of the castles of Queribus and Peyrepertuse. Maury is the town we drive through on the way to Peyrepertuse which has the trompe-l'oeil paintings on the walls, of a man looking out of a door, three old men on a bench and grape vines. Aldric is a geography teacher and amateur weather expert. He told us about meteociel.com, which enables us to forecast seven days ahead. It gives detailed predictions about rain, cloud cover, sunshine, wind at altitude etc for three hourly intervals.Another magnificent flight was achieved by Didier Ponslet on Monday 27th August, an out and return from BATÈRE TO PUIGMAL, landing at Amélie les Bains. Ceilings of 4600m that day.
Autumn's been beautiful, with plenty of lift. Ian and Kev returned, having visited earlier in the year, bringing with them Alex and Peter, Lynne and Bernadette. Please see Gallery page for Alex and Lynne's video. Many thanks to them.
Our friends from the Isle of Wight returned in September. Mike flew over to re-visit his castle (Aguilar) across the Tuchan valley and at Targasonne explored the "Themis" which gives off heat from reflecting mirors. John consolidated his skills at various sites, enjoying his new wing and Jim had fun playing with the lift, particularly at Targasonne.
We've had a series of visitors lately who like running. Michelle was in training for the Great North Run. She and Martin met while skydiving but nowadays tend to paraglide more often. The photo above shows her coming into land at Tuchan after cruising around high above the Tuchan valley. Peyrepertuse: Martin takes off, Queribus castle on the horizon in front and Peyrepertuse Castle behind him. The best sites that week were Tuchan, Peyrepertuse and Targasonne.
Mike "Jukebox" Mason was flying with us in early September. During his visit he flew Ceret N, Targasonne and Peyrepertuse ("The Castle"). Mike liked to go running in the evenings in the lanes around our village, a great time of year for grapes and figs. The take-off at Sorede re-opened on 8 September. It was cleared with help from the people of Sorede and local pilots. The mayor had a tandem ride in celebration of the event. This picture was taken in January and shows Jean, who is the dynamic sites officer for the Eastern Pyrenees. The view looks west towards Mount Canigou.
2nd September 07 and here is Anthony coming in to land at Ceret, followed by Ken from Belfast. On his next flight Ken flew over to a lake in the next village of St Jean Pla de Corts and celebrated his XC with a swim. Earlier in the week he flew Tuchan, Targasonne and Port de Lers. Please see gallery for Port de Lers photos.