Interlude: Parasailing In 1993

The previous post sent me back into the family digital archives to find the pix documenting my parapente adventure way back in 1993. We were in France, initially Paris, celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and got as far afield, after Brittany, the Loire, Burgundy, etc., as Chamonix. Watching the parasails above led to visiting the several ecoles de parapente in town. Eventually, and with Vicki's encouragement, I enrolled for a baptisme flight, which is documented in the never-seen-before pix below. The whole flight lasted maybe 20 minutes, was exhilarating, and led to further adventures too.

Our rental car and campsite at the Iles des Barrats 

campground; it is June 29th, 1993

A parasail whisks by with Mont-Blanc in the background; note
how low the Glacier des Boissons extended in 1993 

While I am meeting with the pilot/instructor, Eddy, heading up to the
Plan Praz and suiting up, Vicki has made her way to the landing area,
the high school athletic fields...

And there, later, out of the clear blue of the western sky (not)...

Come I and Capt. Eddy

Demonstrating perfect passenger landing form

A perfect four-point landing; to the cheers of a tour bus of onlookers

Assisting with the folding up of the craft for the next ride

For the experience we had bought a disposable camera and I took the
following shots...aloft, this is of the ski-lift complex atop Plan Praz, beyond
which is the flat, downward-sloping bit of ground down which one runs,
harnessed to the parasail, before leaping into the void...the take-off

Aloft...Plan Praz from a little greater distance

Over Chamonix

Mont-Blanc and neighbors; Aiguille du Midi to the left

Circling above the landing field

Now over our campground, left of center

On final approach, cleared for landing...

My certificate; now in the box labeled "France
Souvenirs"