OpenSkies
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A bottle opened in the sky
“Cranberry juice or Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve Champagne?” someone offers me. The OpenSkies Biz bar takes off before time in a hushed and cosy navy blue and grey cabin. The black-and-white photographs of Paris and New York hanging on the walls amplify that “lounge” feeling while the chairs facing each other make you quickly forget that you have just got on board a plane.
To immediately set the tone: today, my travelling companion is: my daughter. For once I will be spared the often-repeated “You're so lucky” because this time she is with me. A budding epicurean, I assure you that the wine tasting is for me, my daughter will keep her remarks for the rest.
Midday. It's time for the aperitif: a glass of A to Z Oregon Pinot Gris 2007 served cold in a large glass. This particularly supple wine might easily help prepare the meal to come. We will see. This excellent glass of wine is accompanied by some small appetisers, mozzarella and tomatoes etc. Lunch will be served on an individual tray decorated with a blue-grey material napkin, pretty place settings, hot bread, a porcelain butter dish, miniature pepper and salt mills. They surround the first course: a foie gras terrine accompanied by spice bread with apricot and fig chutney. Delicious, especially with the hot bread.
The armchairs are comfortable and fully inclinable. Facing each other, one passenger is seated in the forwards direction, the other in the reverse direction. If my daughter wasn't travelling with me then the person facing me would be a perfect stranger, then I could isolate myself by raising the sort of navy blue fan to separate myself from my opposite neighbour. Lunch continues. A pot of fish: cod, salmon, red mullet and shrimps accompanied by leeks, carrots and steamed potatoes. Again, delicious. The questions begin: a neighbour to one side in the same row as me is curious and wonder why I am writing in my red notebook all through lunch. The hostesses and even the captain had come to see me several times, like a VIP, and this creates intrigue. So it was that I found myself standing and presenting your favourite magazine to my neighbour!
The wine selected for this discussion is a Crozes Hermitage 2007 by Eric Texier. For an issue centred on the Rhone Valley wines, it was a happy coincidence. NumberWine and/or a glass of wine bring people together: I would like to present you to my first in-flight subscription! Whoops, he has just lost his reading glasses and now I find myself on my knees with the hostesses searching for them! The seat belt fastening sign releases me to return to my place and to continue lunch in peace. I am particularly proud to have introduced a new reader at the magazine at 33,000 feet! Camembert or Tomme de Savoie? Neither I think. I am going to share a chocolate and orange cake with my daughter. That seems more reasonable to me.
A good coffee and it is already time to take a light nap or to flick through the choice of more than 30 films and other programmes offered. A little cold? A white duvet is quickly unfolded. My daughter is already sleeping and the cabin lighting is dimmed. I will without a doubt do the same. My row neighbour has found his glasses and is concentrating on a John Grisham book. We are in a plane but everything is calm. I nod off. Time for a light snack before landing: a Ladurée tea set is delicately placed on my small table. I am gently awoken. The sandwiches and macaroons I find inside this pretty green box remind me that I left Paris behind me some hours ago. OpenSkies has taste and really knows how to take care of their passengers.
The return flight. There is this English “club” welcome were your name is pronounced gently as if you have been a regular for years. The travelling businessmen, English and otherwise, are no longer dressed in serious suits, colourless raincoats; leaving their mysterious briefcases contents behind them. Businessmen or otherwise, the people on this flight are wearing jeans and trainers with a casual Friday jacket and drag a small cabin bag on wheels with them. I am pleased to be back in this cabin. Outside its -10°C now; a snowstorm has engulfed New York. The sleeping city was taken by surprise, a white blanket covers Central Park. From far above, we can see the white caps on the skyscrapers. The busy town was almost silent today. We leave quietly on the tips of our wings. All around, the characteristic sound of wine bottles opening can be heard. A glass of Pouilly Fumé la Moynerie 2006 closes this sweet interlude. OpenSkies definitely know how to open a bottle in the sky for you. For us, it was excellent!
Patricia Lepic
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