Ruth and Uric Jessop are famous ‘Hello’ readers and current UK tandem record holders. They have been based in France for the last couple of years. They have had their first few guests at their guest apartment in the Maritime Alps and have received rave reviews. They have done well to build a comfy apartment, the mother of all DIY projects, in between Ulric’s PWC, European and UK Nationals competitions!

Chez Jessops is near St Auban, and is an hour and 15mins from Nice airport. The apartment is self contained and at the rear of Ruth and Ulric’s house. St Auban is an excellent base for famous sites like St Andre Les Alpes, Greolieres and Gourdon. Col de Bleine and Lachens sites are even handier at 15-20 minutes drive away. If Ulric is around, he will guide you around the area and pass on some of his vast flying experience for a reasonable fee.

Its flyable most of the year, even throughout the dark UK winter. Ulric says that from sites such as Col de Bleine it is usually possible to do some very good flying with flights of 50km perfectly reasonable. Cloud base is usually around 2500m, although they have seen bases in excess of 3000m. If there is too much snow around, it tends to close down the thermals, and it is better to go to either Greolieres or Gourdon, both of which offer good thermic flying all year round. Cloudbase is quite a bit lower, and the XC potential is a little more limited, although one of the "standard" Gourdon flights is a 60km out and return!

Ruth can also guide and retrieve and is an excellent and often hilarious host who will look after the most disorganised of pilots. She even coped with a bunch of Irish pilots whose idea of self catering was Pot Noodles.

Brian Steele

Atmos Fear, August 2004 (Official Magazine of the Ulster Hang-gliding and Paragliding Club)

In early July I, Gordon McCabe and two other non-paragliding friends of Gordon's, Roger and Austin paid a visit to Ulric and Ruth Jessop's home in St Auban, near Nice, for a summer break and some fly-guiding. Unfortunately while we were there the area suffered some unusual weather for the time of year and flying became impossible for all but some very experienced Alpine flyers that were comfortable being severely pitched, yawed and knocked around. Ulric and Ruth drove us to several spectacular local flying sites including Col De Bleyne and Gourdon that had us chomping at the bit to get into the air but it was clear to us after observing Ulric actively flying his Gin Boomerang that launching for us was out of the question.

St Andre is about 50 minutes from the Jessop's place and Ulric drove us there one evening where it did appear to be flyable but unfortunately for us the wind was doing a very good impersonation of what it likes to do at our local sites, howl, so all we could do was stand on what has to be one of the most impressive take-offs that any paragliding pilot could wish for. I have flown in other parts of the Alps and I am always impressed by the flying sites but St Andre took my breath away it's deep flat valley with multi-shaded fields and all around towering ridges that enveloped the horizon in every direction.

Although the wind was too strong and prevented us from flying the days were sunny, warm and beautiful so we were able to get plenty of sightseeing done including an excellent walk along a section of the Verdon Gorge were we swam in the river. One of our group, Roger, took a 185 meter bungee jump from a bridge spanning the Verdon Gorge which made my stomach turn to watch, I'll stick to jumping off hills I think. The only pitfall doing this jump was that after you jumped and dangled around for several minutes the operators lowered you to the bottom of the Gorge then you had to walk back up the using a not-so safe track that even a mountain goat would find dreadful.

Ulric and Ruth have just finished renovating part of their property into an apartment which for four of us we rented at a very reasonable cost. Ruth and Ulric are two of the nicest characters you are ever likely to come across. They made us feel like friends and not just paid visitors. We arrived at their house the first night around 01.00 am to find Ruth and Ulric both on the doorstep to welcome us with big smiles and handshakes all round. Ruth had anticipated that we would be hungry and had stocked the fridge with several different types of cheese. We had fresh milk and coffee and there was a large bowl of fruit and a freshly baked loaf of bread for us to eat. The fridge also contained some bottles of wine and some beer (Ye Ha!).

The apartment was a lovely old style building which we all fell in love with. The walls are bare brick and the floor is concrete with mats placed nicely over it. All the furniture is old but this adds to the antique style of the place. The apartment has a double bedroom and a small room downstairs fondly known as the monks' cellars. The apartment also has a couple of sofa beds that can be used which are comfortable, so I'm told! The apartment has a small bathroom which has a toilet, sink and shower and is suitable for wheelchair access. The open-plan kitchen sitting area is cosy and has all the facilities needed for self catering stays. The apartment has a garden and which gives lovely views of the hills to the east and west.

Ruth and Ulric invited us to a 70s dance in the village to celebrate Bastille Day and the craic was brilliant, my only regret is that I did not bring my camera along and missed some once in a lifetime shots of Gordon and Ruth taking over the dance floor, his star jumps were impressive. Ulric and Ruth's hospitality went far beyond the norm for any hosts. They treated us like part of their family with Ruth fussing over us and making sure we had everything continuously showering us with information about things to do and restaurants. Ruth is really outgoing and so friendly that as soon as you meet her you will feel at home. Ulric is a modest gentleman who fed Gordon and myself a wealth of information about Alpine flying and spent many wonderful hours drinking wine and chatting about flying.

Sometime in the near future I will be going back to stay and with Ruth and Ulric because this truly was a remarkable experience and I know I can speak for us all when I say that is one that we will always remember.

Hats off to Ulric and Ruth.

Tony Conway