In June 1978, three friends from Mieussy, Haute-Savoie, France – Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson – inspired by an article on slope soaring in the Parachute Manual magazine by parachutist and publisher Dan Poynter, took some ram-air canopies and promptly threw themselves off a cliff.

This is paraphrasing the story somewhat but from there paragliding became a huge success and everyone started doing it. Here in France there were over 25,000 active pilots registered in 2011.

The French name is ‘Parapente’, where ‘pente’ means slope.

The chutes themselves come in various sizes, with lightweight chutes for those who want to hike up a mountain just to jump off the top of it, and then larger, heavier chutes which can keep you in the air longer more easily.

The bags of the chutes then double as a seat while you’re flying. The lighter chutes typically just provide you with some straps to put under your legs, but larger bags can end up looking like recliners, or sometimes even complete cocoons in which to rest your legs as you float about the mountainsides.