France is an amazing place to visit as it offers some of the most scenic flying in the world.
Join Debu Choudhury on this trip as he shares his knowledge and experience, to explore some of the iconic sites of France and also some of the less known but equally impressive sites in the area.
France is an amazing place to visit and paraglide. It has some of the most scenic flying in the world and the idea behind this trip is to share Debu Choudhury's knowledge and experience of the sites and to fly with you at some of the iconic sites of France and also some of the less known but equally impressive sites in the area.
Debu will provide instruction and guidance to advance your flying skills, teach you how to assess flying conditions of new sites and how to interpret and understand the weather of the Alps. If conditions allow, we will work on and discuss thermalling and/or cross country flights. The daily routine will be to choose the best location for the day based on weather conditions, get a solid site intro, and then fly as much as possible.
As paragliding pilots we all know we are very weather dependent, so incase the weather is not flyable, we have organized a bunch of other activities; some cultural like visits to local wine and cheese productions, a traditional meal at a mountain hut etc, and some involving other adventure activities like a via feratta, canyoning , mountain biking etc.
Debu's home and base for this trip is St Pierre de Chartreuse, a central spot for accessing many of the main sites in the French alps. It is also just half an hour away from the famous st Hilaire de Touvet, also home to the biggest free flight festival in the world, the Coupe Icare. And so as a special treat, we plan to take our group to explore the magical festive environment of Coupe Icare 2022 for a day during the trip !
The plan is to fly into Lyon. Our team will collect you all as a group and drive to our base in St Pierre de Chartreuse.
The flying itinerary for the trip is not fixed as each day we will adapt according to the weather conditions, most of the sites are max 2 hours drive away, so depending on where we fly for the day there might be some early morning starts and we might get back to base late.
At the end of the trip, we will drive the group to Lyon airport.
We will be based in St Pierre de Chartreuse in a comfortable gite (guest house) with all facilities on a bed and breakfast basis.
The accommodation will be arranged for 8 nights. Breakfast will be at the gite, the kitchen will be pre stocked with all breakfast essentials and if you need anything extra there is a small supermarket and a bakery in the village.
There are a few good local restaurants around for evening meals, lunches will mostly be on the road. There are great bakeries all over France with a large choice of sandwiches and local delicacies for a quick packed lunch.
The launches that we will visit are pristine and often manicured like a golf course, the landing fields are large and forgiving.
Some of the Famous sites we will visit during weekdays to avoid the weekend rush :
- St Hilaire de Touvet
- Annecy
- Chamonix
Some of the lesser known but equally beautiful sites that we will likely visit :
- La Scia (local site at St pierre de Charteuse)
- Aguibelette
- Courtet
- Allevard
- Chamrousse
- Montlambert
Conditions in September are pretty chilled usually, days are shorter than summer so the window is smaller. Depending on the year, there can be pretty good xc conditions as the air is cooling down so is less stable than July or August. It is a perfect time to get to know the sites and get lots of airtime exploring and learning the area, before coming back in spring when it's really on !!
The minimum pre-requisite for this trip is CP + 20hours.
You should be good enough to takeoff independently, soar and fly without guidance and land safely without any instruction. Please remember the team is always there to give you guidance, where possible, but you must be self-reliant and be able to make your own decisions as well. If you bomb out then it is sometimes possible get a lift back up to take-off for another free flight.
France has been in the forefront of paragliding since the beginning, it was in France in Mieussy around 1978 that a group of parachutist first had the idea to try and launch their skydiving rigs from the steep alpine slopes and from there our beautiful sport was born.
The French Aalps have since then become a Mecca for paragliding, and a multitude of sites have been developed all over the country. The French federation does a great job of organizing and maintaining these sites and it is a pleasure to fly at different sites all over the country with plenty of info available for pilots to fly these sites in safety.
Debu first came to France in 2002 and immediately fell in love with the beautiful mountains and amazing paragliding potential here. He came to Europe every summer for the following years, mainly competing and discovering new sites all over Europe, but it was the French Alps that captured his heart and he finally moved to France in 2018.
For his home and base, he has chosen st Pierre de Chartreuse, a small village nestled in a beautiful alpine valley near Grenoble.
We assume that you will arrive with a functional paraglider, harness and reserve parachute, vario/gps.
We recommend you bring along your own trackers (Inreach / Spots). If you don’t have one then we can provide on rent, but do let us know before the course.
The weather is cool and you will need good flying jackets and gloves.
It is essential that you have travel insurance which covers you in respect of the following :
1. Medical Treatment
2. Medical Repatriation
3. Search & Rescue by helicopter
We will hand out a central grab sheet form, where we would like all pilots to fill in their emergency contact details, insurance policy and contact numbers.
This grab sheet also mirrors all the Risk Acceptance sign offs that are a part of this document. Please give it a good read and make sure you understand and accept the risk involved.
