This weekend, I embarked on a wild foodie adventure!
My three friends and I decided to take a quick “lads” trip from London to the French coast-town of Le Touquet.
As a lover of French food and travel, I was beyond excited for this journey.
We decided to fly down in a light aircraft, a Piper PA28 Arrow, and prayed for clear weather.
Saturday morning was a brutally cold when started the journey at Elstree Aerodrome Café.
The early morning fog cleared just in time for us to take off, and we had a coffee pitstop at the Turweston Flight Deck Café before heading southbound.
The views from the plane were breathtaking, as we flew over the English southern coast and then crossed the English Channel to Le Touquet Airport.
Once we landed, we set out on a mission to find “proper” French food in town. We used Google maps to filter our options and found a few restaurants with good ratings and reasonably priced. After checking out three places, we picked the most crowded one: Le Mattise.
The food was out of this world! I went all in and ordered escargot, duck, and crème brulee. I know not everyone is a fan of snails, but trust me, these were perfectly prepared and a delight to eat.
After lunch, we still had some time to stroll around the main street and hit the beach. Of course, we couldn’t leave without picking up some fresh ingredients like baguettes, camembert, wine, and macaroons for our families (Not sure our ladies would accept us back without the goods).
The flight back was just as amazing, as we flew over east London and saw the entire city and river lights spread out below us. It was a fab day out that we’ll definitely repeat as soon as possible. And don’t worry, I took plenty of photos to document our escargot adventure!
Clearing ice from the place and getting ready to start our day:
The fog is starting to clear and we can spot some “nice” houses below:
Some of the Aerodrome coffee shops are the best place to hang out.
Good coffee but more important, you can watch those light aircraft take off and land all day:
If you never flew a light aircraft… well, it’s as roomy as a Nissan micra and forget about coffee service (unless you brought it):
Flying over the English south coast. Easily spotting Brighton Pier:
An hour later and you are in France.
Two minute walk to border checks. Absolutely no Queue.
5 minutes from Landing and you can enjoy your day in France:
The serious business of picking up food can always be simplified by set menus.
No bad options here:
This is what I came for - Long oven baked, Olive Oil, Light Garlic and … Snails.
Duck and French Fries (AKA Chips) - Always a safe choice:
the humble rump steak still tender and perfectly done:
Rounding up calories to about 1000 - Creme Brulee (With Pistachios):
Walking all the way to the beach.
It may be freezing cold but we still deserve a good sunset:
Another de-icing and battle getting almost frozen thick oil into the place before take off:
Smiling all the way back over London’s lights:
