For a city which regularly welcomes key figures from the world of politics, it is no stranger to visitors who have been told their heads are in the clouds once or twice in their career. But ascending to 4,500 feet, with breathtaking views of Lake Geneva to my right and the Swiss mountains to my left, I found myself in the same situation – quite literally. You join me touring the skies of Geneva in a hot air balloon with the team at Ballons Du Leman, which operates flights across several regions in the western part of Switzerland and neighbouring France.
As I tucked into lunch served up by a crew member, waves of heat hit me. Flames periodically soared overhead as pilot Gaël expertly controlled the balloon’s direction, something the professional pilot – who has logged more than 1,600 hours of going up, up, and away inside wicker baskets – explained was not as straightforward in the region as other locations. “We have to play with very different winds at different altitudes here with the mountains around us,” he said.
“It is an advanced location, and navigating without a steering wheel or an engine, you have to play with those different winds which is very complex, but we like the technical side of it.” It was plenty of fun spotting sights from a perspective you won’t get anywhere else, including an aerial view of Servette Football Club’s stadium. But it was just as much fun looking down on the ground, and seeing the excitement and joy on the faces of peop.