hot air balloons.

Hot air balloons have been following me for six months. I didn't even notice until a few days ago: I came home from a brocante in the chinese quarter of my neighbourhood with two montgolfière pins. And then saw: the polaroid on my wall. And dozens of stamps on the table. And then there's the domes.



So I'm imagining these invisible balloons look like this:


And what makes even more circles: saturday marks the 100th anniversary of the Gordon Bennett race here in Paris, to England. Anniversaries are stupid, but Alberto Santos-Dumont (le petit Santos) is ace.

Santos-Dumont rounding the Eiffel Tower while in the process of winning the Deutsch prize on October 19, 1901. Taken from the archives of the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, SI Neg. No. 85-3941