A Helicopter
When a Helicopter Pierces the Fog Above Tallard
This morning the clouds had swallowed the valley and the mountains. In the hills of Châteauvieux, a few kilometres from Gap-Tallard airfield, my husky Vahina and I witnessed the kind of scene the sky here keeps for those who take the time to go out walking.
Vahina is in heat, and for days she has been howling around the house from morning to night. This morning, grey and damp as it was, I took her out anyway: a dog who needs to run won’t be reasoned with. The moment I let her off the lead she was gone through the bushes, nose in the air, searching for some hypothetical male. I followed behind with my phone, filming the mist that covered everything.
Then an engine noise rose out of nowhere. A helicopter, somewhere above the valley, and I couldn’t see it. The fog was so thick that nothing was visible beyond a hundred metres. I feared for him. Probably an army aircraft or a helicopter from Gap hospital trying to land at Tallard just below, with nothing to guide it.
He did what a careful pilot does: he climbed. A few seconds later he broke out of the cloud ceiling, and I managed to film him briefly so I could show you.
Click to watch the helicopter break out of the clouds above the valley.
In the heat of the moment I had shouted after him, as if the pilot could hear me. It was Vahina who heard. She burst out of the bushes, out of breath, and came straight back to me without a single call. I walked her home, a little calmer, and I was a little more moved.
That is an ordinary morning here. When the sky is clear, parachutes and gliders decorate the horizon, and children never tire of counting them. When it closes in, something is still happening up there. And in any weather, there are the three- or four-hour walks with Vahina, where every outing holds a surprise.
What awaits you
- 🐾 Your dog is welcome at no extra charge, with 3 to 4 hour walks in the hills alongside Vahina
- ✈️ 3 km from Gap-Tallard airfield: parachutists, gliders, free flight, and sometimes a helicopter
- 👨👩👧 Suites designed for families, where young and old all find their place
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Vahina-Paradis B&B
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