The weather was against us on our most recent trip back from France. Or so it seemed. Delay after delay meant our initial 22 hour trip home turned into a 43 hour marathon.
Luckily for us, the lovely people at Emirates Airlines in Paris let us go into the business class lounge – with 3 kids in tow! At that point in time we had just found out there was a 6 hour delay for the flight, meaning we would miss our connection in Dubai.
If you have never had the chance to go into an airline business class lounge, then you need to know that they are very quite, calm, relaxed places. Business men and women, usually alone, work silently on their laptops. The lights are dimmed, the chairs are comfortable.
If you have never travelled with 3 children, then you need to know they tend to bounce off walls the more tired and bored they become. Which makes it even more suprising that the staff let us in at all.
And so we found a quiet corner, away from as many other travellers as possible. We told the kids that they had to be super quiet in this special place, because we would have to leave if we disturbed any of the people who were there. We then showed them the buffet, and with their eyes popping at the choice of desserts, they realised they better try hard to keep quiet or there would be no dessert if we had to leave!
For my own part, I tried to stay as calm as I could despite the fact that we had been up at 4am, it was currently 3pm and we had a long trip still ahead of us, with no idea when we would eventually get home. I knew that if I acted calm and normal. then the kids would too. It is also at times like these that I thank the stars for electronic devices.
Once we had the kids settled, I went to explore a little myself, and then I found it. The bar area. And the bottles of Moet & Chandon.
Just when I was trying to understand what I had done for all this bad travel karma, the karma turned good!
Even though I love discovering new grower champagnes, in this situation seeing the well known brand was like meeting up with an old friend. It just left me feeling happy, and snug inside.
And just a little bit bubbly.
