Let’s Support Local

For us, supporting local businesses has become increasingly important, especially since we’ve had direct contact with farmers. Through our hot-air balloon rides, we’ve developed a sense of belonging to our region, our products, and our local producers. We love taking the time to explain our Montérégie area, our region, our mountains, our beautiful Richelieu River and those who live along it, and we share information about our local agriculture. We fly over fields of corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay; we also think of the vast onion fields at Farnham Farm, the Fromagerie au Gré des Champs, the lands owned by the owners of Missiska Cheese, not to mention the wonderful fields of Ranchdale Farm, Victoire Farm, and so much more!

Did you know that back then, tradition dictated that a bottle of champagne be given to the farmers where the hot air balloon landed? Since the flights took place in the Champagne region, they would offer a local product as a token of appreciation. Since then, the tradition has continued… until we finally asked ourselves: Why not offer a local product ourselves! We’re not from Champagne, so why keep giving a bottle if the tradition is supposed to be a local product?

Bubbles are fun once in a while, but imagine when you have 3–4 hot air balloons landing in the same field every weekend. Especially since, during festivals, farmers could sometimes end up with a dozen bottles… a day!
Imagine… too much is like not enou

So we were looking for something distinctive, local, and representative that everyone would enjoy. During a morning flight with his passengers, Martin stopped at a small local bakery, and his passengers followed him inside to check it out. Needless to say, as soon as the smell of bread and pastries hit the air, those were the best-selling items of the day! That was all it took to reinforce his goal of highlighting local products. Since he couldn’t walk around with fresh pastries all day long, he thought of gift certificates—but not just any gift certificates. Gift certificates from local businesses in our area. So we started visiting neighborhood shops, local businesses, and exploring the products they offered, and this change allowed us to discover our local spots and flavors. We began offering gift certificates from Saucisson Vaudois, which offers a wide variety of products, and it was a huge success! So we continued by offering a bit more variety, adding the Boucherie du Mont-St-Grégoire, the Rougi Market—which offers a wide range of fresh regional products—Érablement bon, which showcases our Quebec maple syrup, specialty cheese shops, local boutiques, and more…

Through this new way of thanking our local farmers and the landowners from whose properties we take off and land, we highlight the importance of investing locally and showcasing our products and our region. This allows us to contribute, support one another, introduce new experiences and services, all while sharing our passion and bringing about a major shift in the tradition of hot-air ballooning through innovation.