Today’s post is more about the photographs than the words. I went to the World Kite Flying Championships at Berck-sur-Mer in Pas-de-Calais which is held every spring.
Berck is not a huge seaside resort but there always seems to be going on and the Kite Flying Championship event was a total surprise to me – it was so AMAZING! The event takes place over the course of just over a week and draws more than half a million spectators to its shores – easy to see why…
I drove down the main road of Berck to the beach front and from a mile or so away I started to be able to make out kites high in the sky. By the time I parked on the sea front (yes you can park next to the beaches here – free of charge, even when there’s a major event on) I was bowled over at the sight of thousands, literally thousands of kites in the sky.
On the beach hundreds of children were making home-made kites and international kite flying teams were practising aerial ballet moves, getting their kites to spin, turn, wheel about and do the okey-cokey in the sky with phenomenal precision before they went to the arena to try to win.
There were classic kites, static kites, Japanese Rokkaku combat kites and huge inflatable kites which measure up to 40 metres by 25 metres so when I say it was an amazing sight I am not exaggerating and the audience was spellbound.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s event!
A bientôt
Janine
