Dubai to Nice & Nice - Saturday 12 August

The flight left Dubai on time. David and I had the arranged central row of four seats to ourselves, he at one end and me at the other. Before we took off, the air hostess wanted to know where my oxygen supply was. I said I didn't have one, I wasn't carrying any, only a CPAP machine. Oh, she said, it listed me as having an oxygen supply for goodness sakes... Anyway, that got sorted... Our second breakfast for the day was served shortly afterwards - continental. I was losing interest in food by now, I certainly wasn't hungry!



I struggled to keep my eyes open to watch a boring movie called 'Lost in Florence' (helps you get to sleep?) and then half draped myself across the seat next to me with the arm rest up - a bit tricky though, as we were told to keep our seat belts on because of air turbulence. Without using my CPAP I napped on and off for the next hour or two, quite uncomfortable, but did feel somewhat refreshed afterwards. David told me he'd had a bit of a sleep too, at the opposite end of the row, but had been disturbed by the poor chap opposite him on the aisle vomiting profusely into a duty free bag. Apparently his doctor had prescribed something to stop this - it obviously wasn't working as he continued to vomit throughout the flight! This left us both hoping that, if the guy has a bug, it doesn't spread around the plane...

Dinner for me consisted of the fish with tomato paste again. I couldn't eat it all. The little cake was nice, and I couldn't face the lovely looking bread roll that felt dry to the touch.



We were picked up by the arranged driver, Kevin, and dropped efficiently at out hotel, although we nearly ended up at the Grimaldi (a few doors down and more fancy), rather than the Mercure Grimaldi! Our room wasn't ready so I hesitantly accepted another one. The wifi signal in here looks a bit weak though... The Barrows arrived in Nice by train shortly afterwards. It was supposedly a bit cooler here today, at 23C with beautiful clear blue skies.

A trip to the little supermarket next to our hotel was interesting, it had a very strange layout, and the service certainly wasn't up to NZ standards. It took a while to find the few bits and pieces needed for breakfast in our room. But it was fascinating to see all the different products. There were no plastic bags allowed at the checkout either - they're banned, but we made good use of a bag from the fruit and vege, so there's a bit of a gap in the law on that.

Our first dinner out in Nice last night was at Chez Papa. It was lovely sitting outside to eat, and we managed to largely avoid the smokers prevalent here - cigarette butts everywhere)! The waiter was very entertaining, and very helpful with the menu. Needing gluten free restricted me quite a bit, but I still enjoyed a steak with truffle mashed potatoes, and David loved his Tuna Tataki (basically almost raw tuna, lightly seared on the edges). Everyone's plates were clean by the time we finished. The wine (a Chablis) was good and although we didn't want any desserts, the waiter insisted on pouring us some liqueurs - a lemoncello or a myrte (black currant). I was a bit plonked by then and could just about have fallen asleep at the table! All in all a very entertaining evening and great to enjoy it with the Barrows.

Flights to Nice - Friday 11 August to Saturday 12 August

Julie, our chauffeur, drove us to the airport nice and early, and there were no queues for check-in. The Emirates lady at the check-in counter was wonderful. She was able to change our seats from Dubai to Nice, to give us a whole row, later. She said that the flight had lots of space and she had put us at each end of the row and she was sure no one would be put in between. Hopefully my GF meal will still find me.

My GF meal made a nice change from previous Emirates flights out of Christchurch. It was a moist chicken breast with a nice gravy. The bread roll was quite reasonable and would have been really nice if warmed up. The spread was lactose free as well. The dessert consisted of the obligatory fruit salad, but was nice.



The plane left Christchurch on time but there was a delay of 40 minutes being able to get into Sydney. I watched a movie ('Paris can wait') and actually had a 20 minute cat-nap and felt much better for it. Snacks were handed out later and I scored some shortbread when I asked for something GF. We were off the plane for just 45 minutes and then re-boarding for the 14 and a half flight to Dubai.

The flight out of Sydney was very full and there were a lot of young children on board, but they were pretty good in the circumstances. We had our second dinner for the day, this time fish with tomato paste for me. The dessert was different but a bit dry.



This time I watched the movie 'Southside with you'. I can recommend the area we had our seats in (row 48 up the front of the plane), with two good areas for standing and moving about to stretch. There are even five toilets up the front, three of which are more spacious. Not so much queuing! I'm making this note for my own possible future reference!

I used my new portable battery-operated CPAP for this flight. It was a hell of a rigmarole to set up, but only because of the limited space around me and the fact that the seat in front of me was lying back and I couldn't reach or see what I needed easily. In the end I got some good snatches of sleep over a four hour period, and it might have been more if it hadn't been for the Aussie woman with the loud voice in the row behind.

'Midnight' snacks were brought around, including for me, with this being the first time for me that a GF snack has simply been given without a request. I had no appetite to eat it (a beef and chutney sandwich). Another three hours trying to sleep resulted in a few moments here and there. Breakfast was an omelette with asparagus and mushrooms, fruit and ordinary yoghurt, and the lactose-free margarine. I couldn't face the bread. We won't go starving on these flights!



We got into Dubai Airport on time, with their impressive systems for moving people quickly through to where they need to be. A huge mass of people moved quickly through the screening area, and then it was along walking ramps, up escalators, up lifts, along corridors, on a transit train, more lifts, more corridors, and finally to our gate B19. Our seven hour flight leaves in an hour and a half.

Itinerary for France 2017 with APT

We're leav-ing..... on a jet plane..... sure hope that we are back again....

We're gearing up for our five nights in Nice, and then APT's 22 day Best of France: Arles to Bordeaux (EUFC22) river cruising. We'll be connecting up with the Barrows and the Todds, and looking forward to a relaxing trip (I won't be answering my phone, so if you need me, you'll have to email). I sure hope we're NOT heading into the 40C that some areas of southern Europe are experiencing at the moment!

You can download a pdf and follow the APT itinerary, though the formatting is not brilliant. 

I hope you'll subscribe to this blog by email, for updates every 24 hours. I'll do my best to keep you up to date - this really is my diary. I know you're not all interested in the gluten-free meal aspect of my holidays, but those of you who ARE gluten-free, will be watching with interest.

I may be limited as to how many photos I can put in a post, but usually come back and add more and format them better upon our return home. I will also dump more photos on Facebook, but I may not take the time to actually say where they are from. It will depend on how good our internet access is, and what I am doing in the evenings!

Anyway, I hope you can enjoy the journey with us - virtually!