John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 8 - RETURN FLIGHT OR EUROSTAR
Your tour manager will advise the departure time to take your return flight to the UK.

Janet reported: “Excellent sleep. Comfortable in bed. Up, 7am.” She vacated the bathroom, ca.7.20am, and I used it after that. Down the stair-well to breakfast, 8.05am: orange juice from the whole-orange juicer (which stopped working for just about every other user, and kept having to be fixed by the longsuffering staff); cornflakes with milk; bacon, sausages and baked beans from the bains-maries on the cooked food counter, with a little jar of Heinz tomato ketchup that I asked for from the server, between the times when he was fixing the juicer; fresh-baked bread and cheese; and “café long” from one of the two machines. Back up in the room, Janet did the remaining packing of the suitcases, which we then padlocked and strapped up, before we went out for a last stroll around.


Locations of Hôtel Aquabella, places shown in the photos which follow, and the pick-up point for the final coach journey to Nice Airport

We passed again the Hôtel de Ville with its tall, street-straddling campanile, and found ourselves in a square in which were set up market stalls with fruit and vegetables for sale. We stopped at one of the cafés, where I had a café allongé and Janet a Coke Zero. “[It was] sunny and dry out,” Janet had commented in her journal entry for the start of the day, adding later that it was “quite warm”. Indeed, she noted that we “sat al fresco, at last!”


Monday 22 May 2023 10:10:58
Refreshments at Le Petit Bistrot, Place Richelme, Aix-en-Provence


Monday 22 May 2023 10:11:54
Marché aux fruits et légumes, Place Richelme, Aix-en-Provence

“I bought a pêche blanche from a stall,” Janet wrote. “We wandered off again and simply soaked up the atmosphere.” We came to a square with a fountain, which we hadn’t encountered on our walking tour. It had a central pillar topped by a bust, the name on which I couldn’t make out at the time.


Monday 22 May 2023 10:30:42
Fontaine Bellegarde at the end of Rue Mignet, Aix-en-Provence


Monday 22 May 2023 10:31:40
Bust of “Granet” atop Fontaine Bellegarde (François Marius Granet, 1775–1849, Aix painter)

We turned back again, and stopped at another café not far along that street. It had a very small fountain outside — another one which we’d not previously seen — with two outlets for water which poured into what looked like a drinking trough for animals. (It might equally originally have been a place for washing clothes, or even for bathing.) We had two cafés allongés, Janet’s being décaféiné.


Monday 22 May 2023 10:33:16
Looking south along Rue Mignet, Aix-en-Provence


Monday 22 May 2023 10:35:12
Refreshments at O’ Bella Ciao, 37 Rue Mignet, Aix-en-Provence

Janet wrote: “It was around 10.45am so we started back for the hotel. I spotted a shop selling marzipan fruits and couldn’t resist buying a packet (I love these). I was quite amazed that they only cost 7 euros. There were four large fruits. Best ones I ever had were from Taormina. We arrived back [at the hotel] just before 11am, went to our room, had a pee, collected our bags etc., and went to check out. Chris had told us to be in the lobby at 11.30am.” At was at this point that Janet gave him an envelope containing gratuity-money. “We left the hotel and walked up [along Rue des Étuves] to the road to board our coach, and we were off.” We crossed Boulevard Jean Jaurès at the light-controlled pedestrian crossing for the last time, to board a different coach to take us to Nice Airport (but the same driver): it was black on the outside like the other, but lacked the large white lettering; inside, I wouldn’t have known it was a different coach.


Google Maps: Hôtel Aquabella & Spa Aix en Provence, 2 Rue des Étuves, 13100 Aix-en-Provence to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport
Click on image to enlarge.

We arrived outside Terminal 1 of Nice Airport (“ca.13:30”, according to my notes, or according to Janet’s account “around 1.15pm”). Some of the party gave the driver money at this point; we’d already given him an envelope yesterday. Janet wrote, “It was getting pretty hot.” One or two found this regrettable, because the rest of the week had been mainly cool. Janet’s account went on to state her opinion of the weather we’d experienced: “Really, although we had some rain, the temperature was much better for our type of holiday than it was today. We did come at the right time.” With that I agree: the advantage of cooler weather is that one has more pockets in which to carry things. First, Chris Brown took some of us along to “Check-in D”, and showed us where our baggage drop would occur, “about 2.20pm at ‘D32’ or ‘D33’.” I returned to Janet, and we went to the first café that one comes to, just to the left, on entering the terminal. I had a 500ml can of Heineken beer and she a Pepsi Max (“Yes! only my second Pepsi since we arrived. It was good”). She prefers Pepsi Max to Coke Zero. I wasn’t feeling hungry, but, not knowing when I’d have opportunity later to eat, I bought a baguette spread with butter and filled with ham.


Monday 22 May 2023 13:57:28
Refreshments at La Tarte Tropézienne, just within the entrance of Terminal 1, Nice Airport

“Then we set off to find our check-in place. We waited about 20 minutes then finally checked in.”


Monday 22 May 2023 14:20:18
Proceeding to Check-in, Terminal 1, Nice Airport


Monday 22 May 2023 14:29:08
Waiting at Check-in D32, Terminal 1, Nice Airport

Chris Brown’s flight would be only slightly later than ours, from Terminal 2 not Terminal 1; but he nevertheless stayed around till it was clear that there were no problems with our party’s checking in their hold-luggage.


Monday 22 May 2023 14:29:08 (detail)
Chris Brown, our Riviera Travel tour manager

We asked the clerk whether extra-legroom seats were available, but she said there weren’t; and failing that, we asked her for aisle and middle seats, or aisle seats opposite each other, but she couldn’t or wouldn’t give us these either. So we were assigned Seats “22E” and “22F”.


My boarding pass


Our assigned seats on the Boeing 737-800 on the return flight
(shown in yellow)

“We were through that and security fairly quickly.” Janet wrote. “I was delighted my bag wasn’t checked.”


Monday 22 May 2023 15:04:48
Proceeding to the boarding gates, Terminal 1, Nice Airport

“Then we went through Passport Control.”


Monday 22 May 2023 15:13:56
Queuing for Passport Control, Terminal 1, Nice Airport

“We looked to maybe find a souvenir, but the only stuff was lavender-based. Yuk!” We went up to the first floor, looking for catering establishments, but found only lounges up there.


Monday 22 May 2023 15:22:04
Airside – Hall B, Terminal 1, Nice Airport

So, back on the ground floor, (Janet continued:) “we found a Starbucks. I bought a ham and Emmental soft long roll to have later, plus a delicious five-fruit juice. [John] got a water. We sat at a table, and I ate my white peach, and drank my juice (delicious). [John] had a water, then bought an americano. [John] read and I updated this, etc.”


Monday 22 May 2023 16:01:40
In Starbucks, Hall B, Terminal 1, Nice Airport

“At 4.15pm our gate number [‘B40’] came up, so we went to queue up ready for boarding.” An Irish couple and a young woman were waiting at Gate B40, so we stood behind them. The same woman who had received our cases also checked passports and boarding cards. The outward flight had been delayed, so it was later than the “16:35” stated on the boarding pass when boarding started. A wheelchair user appeared ahead of us, who was allowed through first, and later we were given access; but we all came to a halt at a tape barrier where the airbridge had a junction: there was a way straight ahead, and a right turn which led to the aircraft. For passengers were disembarking, and turning right at the junction, i.e. what to us was “straight ahead”. When the last straggler had passed there was still a wait, presumably while some cleaning and tidying was being done. Finally, we were allowed aboard. I thought it was disgraceful that people were permitted to bring aboard such huge cases that they struggled to fit them in the overhead storage spaces, and that for this reason people with smaller bags were told to remove them and place them under the seat in front of them. We’d put ours in front of us anyway, so it didn’t affect us personally; but that didn’t stop me feeling cross and despising them. The pilot introduced our cabin crew “James, Helena, Jack and Stephen”. I think he said that although the flight was delayed, the duration of the flight was likely to be an estimated 1 hour 50 minutes. The scheduled flight times were 17:05 (CEST)–18:30 (BST), i.e. 2 hours 25 minutes. At 17:32 the aircraft started reversing; at 17:37 taxiing started. There were pauses before we got to the runway, and meanwhile two aircraft landed. We took off at 17:44. No-one had come to sit in the aisle seat, to Janet’s relief, so she moved into it.


Monday 22 May 2023 17:59:40
View from the Boeing 737-800 aircraft

When the refreshments trolley came by, Janet had a 7Up Free, and I a 200ml bottle of prosecco-style rosé sparking wine and a half-length “can” of “salt and vinegar” Pringles. I finished reading The Jewel in the Skull and started The Mad God’s Amulet. It was perhaps 18:20 when the announcement came that we were starting our descent to Manchester Airport. We landed at 18:33. The aeroplane stopped at 18:36, but there was a delay before taxiing resumed (18:39–18:42). I was too occupied with carrying my rucksack and positioning myself in the aisle to note further times. Lines of passengers from more than one flight merged, so there was a long zigzagging queue for Passport Control. Fortunately, one of the turns of the zigzag was near toilets with no tape barrier to prevent access to it, so Janet held our place while I went there. The staff steered us not through the automated passport control kiosks, to which some were directed, but to staffed ones. Then we went to baggage reclaim, through “Nothing to Declare” and to the exit. Janet spotted G— B— before I saw him. He took Janet’s case and led us to the vehicle. It was cooler in Manchester than it had just been in Nice, but no cooler than other days had been elsewhere in Provence. G— B— had had a slight delay, and had arrived at the Terminal 1 exit just before we did.


Google Maps: Manchester Airport to home

We got home a little before 10pm. … …

[2023]