Roziere Flies Home to France

Balloon Life,October2000

TwoFrenchmen,LaurentLajoyeand
Christophe Houver from the Lorraine re-
gionin the east of France, landed at 8:36
a.m. on Tuesday September 5 in the small
Calvados village of Saon, only few kilo-
meters from the Balleroy castle, property
of the Forbes Family. After 146 hours 49
minutesand24 secondsflight time from
St. John, New Brunswick, on board their
balloonflyingthecolorsoftheConseil
Regional de Lorraine (for the millennium
celebrations), the two pilots heaved a sign
of relief.
They had hoped to make the crossing

by Philippe Buron-Pilatre
Photographs by Denis Bomer

From St. John (New Brunswick, Canada) to
Normandy (France), the incredible adventure of two
Frenchmen in a Roziere balloon over the Atlantic ocean

inonlythree days, but on the eve of their
departure, they learned from their Belgian
meteo ro logis tLu cTrullemans(well
known for a having lead Bertrand Piccard
andBrianJonesintheirconquestof the
worldtour ina Roziere balloon) that the
crossingwouldwithoutdoubtbemuch
longer, the winds beingvery feeble.
Theytooktwoextra propane cylin-
ders to be on the safe side. A wise precau-
tion. They launched with 16 propane cyl-
inders onboard.
The two pilots main objective was to
accomplishthefirstsuccessfulcrossing

Roziere Flies Home to
France

Above:A few minutes before launch from
St. John’s, New Brunswick, Canada.
Right:Christophe Houver on satellite
phone (l) and Laurent Lajoye (r)
training in France before the flight.

Balloon Life,October2000

of the Atlantic by a French team. Having
reached that goal they have also captured
a new world recordin the AM 07(2200
cubic meter) category, held until now by
SpaniardsTomasFeliuRiusandJesus
Gonzales set onFebruary 8, 1992with a
time of 129 hours 10 minutes. In addition
the team established threeFrench records:
distance (4792.57 km), time (146h 49min
24s) and height (5218m).
LaurentLajoyehasmorethan600
hoursandChristopheHouver 150hours
flying time on board a hot air balloon. But,
itwas a leap into the unknown as neither
pilot had a great deal of experience pilot-
ingaRoziereballoon,apartfromatest
flight on a400 cubic meter balloon forone
hour.
Thetale of theircrossing is thereflec-
tionofmanyballooningadventuresal-
ready encountered by others pilots. Glazed
rain, snow,cumulus clouds zones in which
they were dangerously tossedaround for
long minutes, ice stalactites which had to
be regularlybrokentoavoidtheriskof
weighingdowntheballoon.Theworst
partof it allwas the coldwhich they had
toputupwithatmore than5000meters
highof –10ºC. Their experimental cabin

Above: First test flight of the gondola
under a hot air balloon.

Top left: Survival at sea training.
Middle left: Gondola being setup on
soccer field in St. John’s.
Lower left: Plastic covering to protect
the envelope.

Below: Landing in Saon, 12 km west of
Bayeux in Calvados, France.

Left: Seven hours into the flight the bal-
loon is over Nova Scotia, Canada.

Balloon Life,October2000

whichtheyhaddesignedwithengineers
from a school from Metz (capital town of
theLorraine regionEastFrance) didnot
have any heating and was not pressurized.
The envelope was made by Per Lindstrand,
one that was used in planning for his and
Richard Branson’s attempt to circumnavi-
gate-the-world by balloon.
Duringthe entirecrossinga ground
crew keptopenastrictlynecessaryliai-
son.Thepublic,media,sponsors,were
able to follow the race, day and night, on
alargescreenattheraceheadquarters
installedinthe buildingof the Regional
Government of Lorraine, thanks to infor-
mationreceivedfrom the ArgosBeacon
andtransmitted via Internet bythe crew.
Apart froma teamvictory, whether
onthegroundor inthe air, this sportive

performance wasarchived,thankstoan
important preparation and a good techno-
logical choice. Apart from the fax and the
weaknessesoftheArgosBeacon,the
equipment, put to some particularly hard
wear, never gave up.
Eventhecabin,designedtoresist
more toa landingin water rather thanon
land,respondedperfectlytothepilots
demands. They landed gently and without
difficulty in France. Nothing broken, not
a single bruise.
On the Monday before their landing,
Laurent and Christophe began to feel tired.
But reassuring news of improving weather
allowedthemtocontinuejustasthey
were consideringlanding on the coast of
CornwallinEngland.Theycrossedthe
English channel during the night and flew

across the Frenchcoastduringthe small
hours of morning.
The two pilots, natives ofthe Lorraine
region, homeland of Jean-François Pilâtre
de Rozier (the first man to achieve a flight
inahotairballoonin1783)hadbeen
preparingforthelast3yearswithonly
modestfinancialsupport.Itisaboveall
the work of a solid, ambitious and deter-
mined crew, the capacityof the pilotsto
adapttoanysituation, andthefinancial
support of all the sponsors that made it all
possibletosucceedinthisadventure of
the end of the 20thcentury.

Translation by Mary Pelard with
additional editing by BalloonLife.

Control Center in Metz, Lorraine Re-
gion, plotting the course of the French
team as they fly across the Atlantic.

A large contingent of the French team
and French ballooning community gather
with Christophe Houver and Laurent
Lajoye at their landing site in Saon,
France.