Frejus Kite festival October 2013

After I had booked into KAPiFrance 125, I had a look at the kite calendars and found that Frejus Kite Festival was the following weekend. I decided that it was 'only' 250 miles away I would go to it. I left KAPiFrance on the Thursday afternoon and stayed at Aigues Mortes with a view of the floodlit walled town. On Friday, I arrived at the superb Azura holiday complex where I had decided to stay with the other kite fliers. After I settled in, I went to the bar was welcomed by a group of Dutch & German fliers including Rolf Zimmerman and his wife.
In the morning there was supposed to be a fly in for departed fliers but there was very little wind till 1pm. I had to park off site with the motorcaravan and managed to launch the Levitation 'knock off' kite, put a rig and camera on the line and walk through the site taking pictures - till I reached the upwind edge of the flying area! The wind then died altogether so I then took time to have a look around. There were quite a lot of other attractions as well as the kite making workshop and two kite stalls. All this helped to attract thousands of local people. I went as far as the beach, passing the hot air balloon taking visitors for a higher view of the area. After dipping a toe in the warm sea, I returned through the gardens admiring the red bottlebrush plants on the way. I was asked when the kite festival would start and answered "When the wind does" Ahh! Lunch was provided and after I had finished mine, the wind came arrived. Some fliers didn't have lunch that day they were so keen to fly. In the early afternoon there was a parade of banners when fliers wanted to fly. It made a spectacle for my Kite Aerial Photography as the did the New Zealand dancers and their band. As at all kite festivals there was a wide range of spectacular kites and static displays and a lot of friendly people but here we had the backdrop of the mountains in the distance.There was quite an Italian contingent, one of whom was a Kite Aerial Photographer who brought his rig the next day to show me. I also made friends with Carlos from Portugal and Jose from Columbia. Only other fliers from the UK I found were John and Jill Bloom with their beautiful printed banners, this time with flamingos walking along them. The wind died at 5 o'clock so everyone packed up and went back to the hotel or their lodgings.
We were all invited to aperitifs and speeches before the meal. I was late because I had downloaded my photographs and selected some for a little photo show on my computer which attracted quite a bit of attention and admiration - especially when they saw their kites on it. (I'll have to get round to sending some photos of kites to their owners)
On Sunday morning I took my time going to breakfast and then to the festival because there was no wind...till 1-30 this time. The sky soon filled up with kites and I put up my Dopero Drone to carry the rig and camera. I walked around among the people and could show them what the camera was seeing through my video downlink with a little screen. At the end of the day, as the wind was dying, I heard my kite mentioned of over the loudspeakers ...."une petit cerf-volant bleu a cache dons une grande cerf-volant"..... because it had decided to play games with the same large inflatable lifter the Levitation had tangled with the day before. My heartfelt apologies were waved away as we untangled the two.
I sat with Rolf Zimmerman and his wife for the meal that evening and afterwards he gave me some helpful hints to make my accordion kite fly better. I still have to put them into practice. Another relaxing evening with the kite fliers followed before we said our goodbyes and our "see you next year"s.
Would I go again? Yes but I wouldn't drive, I'd fly. It's a long way.

Fly High. Sue Storey