Apologies for the delay in getting this trip report to you. If not for the nagging of DMetters-Bone it may never have appeared! It's my first trip report, so here goes...
We started our trip back to London quite early in the morning, breakfast had been served in our room and the buggy had come to take us to the heliport. We were only waiting a few minutes before we could hear our Air Mauritius helicopter approaching. Our journey to the airport was a very quick 15 minutes compared to our 1_ hour car transfer when we first arrived in Mauritius.
We were told by the hotel there is not much room in the helicopter for luggage and as neither the OH nor I travel light, we had our luggage picked up the previous night to be taken to the airport earlier that morning. We could see this ending in disaster, but our faithful driver was waiting at the appointed time and place with our cases much to our relief.
When arrived we were collected by an MK courtesy van and shuttled around to the front of the airport and dropped at the 'premium' entrance to the airport. By premium I mean there was only a queue 60 people long rather than 300 at the regular entrance. After the first round of security screening we arrived at the Air France business class desk where there were only a few others passengers waiting to check in. The whole procedure probably took about 15 minutes.
Mauritius has not escaped the universal chaos of overly zealous security. After removing shoes, belts, powering on laptops, explaining that my 100ml bottle of after shave was only 100ml we were through into the air side of the terminal and headed straight for the Air Mauritius Lounge. There are two lounges at MRU for Air Mauritius, Air France and their partners - first class on the ground floor and business class get the mezzanine. A pretty basic catering set up with a self service bar, sandwiches and crisps/snacks, but the lounge itself is quite nice and spacious. You could access the bathrooms by walking through the (well used) smoking area while holding your breath.
We didn't really have long in the lounge, before our flight was called. No priority boarding had been set up by Air France, but we had hung back in the lounge until the last call and most of the passengers had already boarded. Once we were on the plane we headed straight for 2K&L. We had a bit of banter with one of the flight attendants and a glass or two of bubbly; well it was Air France and would have been rude not to.
We weren't long seated before we pushed back and were taxiing off to the runway. Being such a small airport there was no waiting; we took off to the south, then circled back and flew northwards along the west coast and onto Madagascar. The flight to the African mainland seemed to take ages, but we consoled ourselves with a glass or two of something cold and bubbly.
During this time we were served breakfast. Fresh fruit, cereal yoghurt, croissants (with the yummiest strawberry and vanilla preserve) and a very nice fruit filled cr_pe.
After breakfast people started to settle down for the long haul back to Paris. The OH and I went on a self guided tour of the plane, all the way down to the end and back again. It's quite an annoying phenomenon how you're made to pull your blinds down and have the cabin in absolute darkness for a day flight; when we came back to our little cabin at the front of the plane it was nice and bright (no blinds pulled down there) and we were flying over Africa with some amazing views.
Another point to make is how AF's entertainment system on their leisure aircraft is not on demand, every just plays in a loop and there is not much of it. I think there were only two English language films and two French films (though the French films were much better, both English films starred Sylvester Stallone). Worse still, at the back of the plane there are just big screens showing one film to the whole cabin. I guess on their higher revenue routes they have a more advanced AVOD system.
The hours passed and as we were flying along the Saudi coast we were served lunch. We started with an hors d'oeuvre of smoked duck breast, melon and sun-dried tomato. For the main course we had a choice of lamb curry with rice and vegetable brochette, fillet of wrasse with coral sauce, baby vegetables and rice, or the 'plat du jour', breast of chicken with olives. All this was followed by a cheese selection, then the dessert, a gorgeous vanilla pastry tart. You've go to hand it to AF, their catering is pretty good.
One small thing that made a big difference was that in AF business class the attendants push the trolleys along the aisles to serve the meals. I guess I am used to the VA standard of service. Even so the crew were great, always up for a chat and refreshing everyone's glasses. We asked one crew member if she knew the name of the group of islands we were flying over, she wasn't sure so asked the pilot, she came back to us saying they were a chain of unnamed islands, they are not inhabited but belong to Saudi Arabia.
Later in the afternoon we were zipping along the Italian coast line. We were treated to some spectacular views of the Amalfi Coast, Naples and Mount Vesuvius then Rome. Switzerland was not far then came France and a touch down at CDG.
Transfers at CDG are never that easy, but this one was seamless. Off the aircraft quickly and onto the transfer bus to terminal 2F. Architecturally a beautiful building, but there is not much there to do in the way of shopping or dining. We headed straight for the lounge. It was Easter Monday, so the lounge was heaving with leisure travellers returning home after their holidays; we found a nice position overlooking the runway, watered and fed ourselves and waited until we were called for our London flight. But that's another story...
If you would like to see the pictures from our holiday and flight have a look at http://tinyurl.com/357pf5
