Now its off to the French Rivera where the sun, beaches, cocktails and fine French dining awaits. Its an early morning and we make our way through to Heathrow Airport (Terminal 5).
The Terminal
London Heathrow T5 would have to be my favourite airport terminal. It is so expansive and beautiful with glorious views of the tarmac and British Airways have made a significant investment in the terminal.
The Lounges (The Arrivals and Departure) Lounges are amazing! I am a huge fan of the Concorde Room (you can check out my review of that lounge here) and the seamless service offered by British Airways as they have the whole terminal to themselves.
A tip for anyone who travels a lot, is to spend all your dough with one airline alliance. As you move up the loyalty ranks (whether its gold, platinum or silver) you get certain reciprocal rights with other carriers in the alliance. Even though I am not flying First today (as sadly, probably due to their very short flying time, British Airways do not offer First on most intra-Europe flights), I can use the First check-in and beat the queues.
Lounge
I then make my way to the Galleries First Lounge and find a beautiful spot overlooking the tarmac. Here are some pictures of this beautiful lounge.
Breakfast
As you can see above there is a wide selection of fine wines and champagne (which are all self pour – i.e. help yourself). Now there’s an old saying (I actually it might not be an old saying, I could have just made it up… I am known to do that sometimes) that its after 12pm somewhere in the world, so wine can be drunk at any time… I decide to apply that rule today. Its 7am and I am happily pour myself a glass of Taittinger to go with my breakfast.
There is a beautiful buttery soft berry fruit croissant and the main dish of silky scrambled eggs with the crunchy hash brown and black pudding – a very traditional British Breakfast.
Then our flight gets delayed… there was a storm in London and flights had to be pushed back, so I have an extra hour to kill and I am quite hungry. I review the menu and notice there is an Eggs Benedict which takes my fancy. I decide to have it but request it without the ham. The waitress suggests an Eggs Royale with smoked salmon – I strongly concur with her recommendation.
So the Eggs Royale… it looks so beautiful I just don’t want to touch it. I pour myself another glass of Taittinger and gentle work through the dish. The rich creamy hollandaise sauce is a delight, then there is the succulent oily “distinct” flavour and texture of the salmon and then there is the poached eggs. The soft gelatine like texture of the egg white is broken open to reveal a rich thick gooey bright yellow egg yolk which runs all over the plate. The different parts of the dish intermingle with everything gently resting on the crispy toasted English muffin. It was a taste sensation and such a satisfying experience. I just loved it. To be honest this beats the Eggs Royale I had in the Concorde Dining Room at the Arrivals Lounge last year (you can see that review here).
The Flight
The view from the clouds is breathtaking, with some of the most amazing views of the clouds.
The view as we head to Nice is breathtaking with the stony yellow of the Riviera sandwiching the blue skies (sprinkled with fluffy white clouds) and the deep blue sea.
The airstrip is next to the water and this is the view of the landing (below).
1 comment