Comments for Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, France

Landed there as it is just across the fence of the ITER research facility. General impression: busy, windy & French. There are hundreds of sailplanes, several clubs, many hangars, three runways (depends on how you count them). People are very friendly & helpful, but do not expect too much English there. They understand English on the radio but do not reply (neither in English nor in French), so you should look out and behave. No landing fee, no complications, but also no taxi phone numbers, no easy transportation service from the airport to the nearby Manosque. Will come back.

I don't see any aircraft at this "airport". Or marked runways, grass or tarmac for that matter.

Marseille is the airport where Air France 8969 hijacking ended....

A mandatory training procedure was put in place at Cannes ( LFMD). Feb_2010

Please visit the website http://www.cannes.aeroport.fr/index.html and register.

Cannes is very noise sensitive and you might be checked after landing if you have done the briefing!

I've added the link.

-> fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9roport_de_Barcelonnette-Saint-Pons

Please don't leave any valuables in the bungalows/tents, even if you are just out for dinner or swimming at the pool.

This place is dear to my heart because this is where I grew up, and most of my family still live here....

About 25 years ago my father had a little 20ft sailboat which was berthed at Port-Saint-Laurent (the marina you can see just west of the airport on the satellite picture). I remember once we were sailing and the Concorde just flew overhead on short final (it used to come every year in May for the Cannes festival and Monaco GP, one year there were five of them parked on the tarmac). I still remember this magic roar ! Simply out of this world !

I subsequently saw Concorde take off or land in CDG, LHR and JFK, but nothing beat that memory. I always wanted to fly on Concorde but unfortunately that will never happens, however I feel privileged for having seen (and heard) it in flight.