It’s a great option to be able to upgrade your economy class meal on select flights when flying Air France. A few months ago Air France hosted a few friends and I at their flagship lounge at Paris CDG airport; giving us access to a quiet closed space where we interviewed their chefs from Servair and sampled a range of inflight dishes.Last year when flying to Bali, I flew from Paris to Singapore with Air France and pre-ordered the Lénotre dish which you can read about here.
TERMINAL 2D LOUNGE
First up a quick peek at their recently renovated lounge at Terminal 2G. The reason why I decided to include this is that they have a bakery in this lounge that makes everything fresh daily, it’s not every day that you see an airline lounge with a bakery on site.
Flights from this terminal are generally operated by aircraft of up to 100 seats, and frequent flyers had provided feedback to Air France that the previous lounge at Terminal 2G wasn’t up to scratch. The airline listened, renovated the lounge and re-opened it on 1 March 2017. There’s a collaboration with Illy to provide great coffee, and the food offered is Parisian style with choices of hot and cold offerings that are prepared fresh in the kitchen.
PRE ORDER MEALS
If you’re flying with Air France from Paris to most long-haul destinations you can pre-order and pay to upgrade your free economy/premium economy class meal. I’m a big fan of these types of meals.
THE LENÔTRE MEAL €28.00
This is a business class style of meal, and in my opinion worth every cent. An appetiser consisting of an assortment of antipasti, the main is a herb-crusted hake in a lemongrass sauce with mixed vegetables, followed by Cantal cheese, grapes and spinach. No meal is complete without a delicious dessert which is a lemon and hazelnut dessert created by the team at Lenôtre.
LE MARCHÉ DE JEAN IMBERT €21.00
Jean Imbert won Season 3 of Top Chef in France back in 2012. Air France decided to collaborate with him, and since March 2016 his meal has been available for pre-order. The meal includes a starter of Bufala mozzarella, organic quinoa, and pears, for the main a confit beef in teriyaki sauce, yellow carrots, broccoli alongside goat’s cheese, apricot, buckwheat and a Josephine citrus shortbread biscuit with organic lemon cream.
THE TRADITION MEAL €18.00
An authentic French-inspired meal using the very best of local French products. For an appetiser you will have a Foie gras terrine, gingerbread, dried fig chutney and baby spinach, the main meal is a veal blanquette, thyme-glazed pearl onions, mushrooms and basmati rice, followed by Camembert and grape bunch and finished with Granny’s chocolate cake.
THE OCEAN MEAL €15.00
An ocean-inspired meal that consists of an appetiser of shrimp sautéed in ginger, raw char and baby spinach salad followed by a main of salmon in sorrel sauce, basmati rice, baby vegetables (leeks, tomatoes, onions) with some Camembert cheese and a lemon meringue shortbread biscuit for dessert.
There is also an Italian option, but this meal is limited to select flights only, and it costs only €12.00, further information on the meals can be found here.
HOW TO ORDER
There are three ways to order these meals:
1- When purchasing your flight online at airfrance.com
2- After booking your ticket in the ‘your reservations’ section on the Air France website from 90 days and up to 24 hours before departure.
3- At online check-in from 30 hours and up to 24 hours before the flight.A special thanks to Air France for showing off their fabulous pre-order meals.