It’s been over five years since I knew about the existence of the International Hot Air Balloon Festival that takes place for 2 weeks at the end of January in Chateau d’Oex, a little village in the mountains in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
The timing was finally right and we went to see it for ourselves over the weekend.
We had an early start, left Basel at 8.15am and made a first stop in Gruyeres. We arrived in Chateau d’Oex around 12.30 and saw the first hot air balloons all set up on the ground.
We were joined by fellow Malaysian friends from Geneva who brought along the most wonderful Malaysian picnic lunch of fried noodles, curry puffs and desserts. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
The sun was shining and it was so warm that we took off our winter jackets!
We propped ourselves on the snow on the hill slopes and watched from the distance as more and more hot air balloons started to take off into the sky. Lots of kids were having fun sledging down the hill.
