We bought this game in Montreal a few years ago but could never figure out how to play since the rules were written in French. Recently, we were able to translate the original rules thanks to Google's translator and some "by hand" edits. And it's fun to play! Note that I've left unchanged the French word for hot air balloon: mongolfières. Without futher ado, here are the English rules.
December 2, 2005   Jim Salem

Contents

• 50 cards including of: 8 "sponsor" cards (represented by 3 mongolfières of different colors), 1 "compass" card (starting card), 1 "medal" card (ending card), 1 "lightning" card, 3 "deflated mongolfière" cards, 10 "sun" cards, 26 direction cards
• 8 Mongolfières (game peices)
• 1 Game instructions

Cards

	8 "sponsor" cards		26 direction cards
	26 direction cards		1 "compass" card (starting card)
	Sun Card: If a player lands on one of these cards, he takes another turn. He rolls the die and moves the balloon of his choice. If another balloon is already on the "sun" card, he moves it as indicated in paragraph 3 below, before taking his extra turn. When a balloon is moved onto a sun card due to paragraph 3 below, no extra turn is taken.
	"Lightning" Card: Any balloon that lands on this card must start over on the "compass" (starting) card.
	"Deflated Mongolfière" cards: Any balloon landing on this card cannot move again except under one of the 2 following conditions: Being be moved by another balloon landing on this same card (see paragraph 3). If and only if all the other balloons move past it.
	"Medal" card (ending card): On his turn, a player can place the "medal" card at the end of the course. Once this is done, other players can place cards on their turn between the end of the course and the medal card, even if they do not move a balloon there. However, once there are 2 or more balloons on the medal card, no more cards can be added to the course. The players do not need to roll an exact number to land on the medal card.

Shuffle the "sponsor" cards and give 1 to each player, face down. Put the "compass" card on the table and all the mongolfières at the side. Shuffle the remainder of the cards (the "medal" card, "lightning" card, "deflated mongolfière" cards, "sun" cards and direction cards) and deal 4 of them to each player (the player must always have 4 cards in hand). Put the remaining cards in a pile. Roll the die to determine who goes first -- the highest number starts.

Game Rules

1. On your turn, roll the die and move the mongolfière of your choice the number of cards indicated by the die. If there are not enough cards placed on the table to land there, the player extends the course by the number of missing cards. If the player does not have enough cards, he loses his turn, and the mongolfière is not moved. As long as cards remain in the drawing pile, the player draws as many as he played. [Note: We play that you draw only at the very end of your turn(s), before handing the die to the next player. Thus, you can't keep getting extra turns and drawing more cards.]
2. The balloon must "fly" in the direction indicated by the arrow on the card it started on.
   Some cards have backwards facing arrows. In this case, it becomes interesting to move a mongolfière that is not one of your sponsors, onto one of these cards. Thus, the player who wants to move this mongolfière later must move backwards.
3. There can be only one mongolfière on each card, except for the starting and ending cards ("compass "and" medal"). If a balloon lands on an already occupied card, it takes the place of the occupant and moves the occupant one card in the direction indicated by the arrow. If the card does not contain an arrow, it is up to the player determines whether to move the old occupant forward or backward.
4. If possible, the player must move a mongolfière on their turn, even if it is one of his adversary's balloons or if it results in one of his balloons landing on a "bad card".