My love of hot air balloons began when I moved to Ottawa and discovered that one of North America’s largest balloon festivals is held annually from neighbouring Gatineau, QC which, along with Ottawa, makes up Canada’s National Capital Region. The “Festival des Montgolfières” is held there on the weekend preceding Labour Day, Aug 28 to Sept 1 this year. Balloons come in all shapes and sizes from all over Canada and the USA, as well as other countries such as Brazil, Germany, Australia and Japan. Today there are no limits to their colour, design and size, and fanciful shapes adorn our skies every year. I’m going to show you some of the more colourful ones, but first, a bit of history …. The hot air balloon was invented by the Montgolfier brothers, who made the first
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