Day 43, Friday, Dubai

The free wiffee at Nice Airport Terminal 2 is quite good. Only about 3 hours to wait now for Emirates flight EK78. QF8078 on our boarding pass, why I hope we are entitled to use the Emirates lounge using my hard won Qantas Lifetime Gold card, my only qualification in a lifetime of hard work and study.

View at 7:30am. Those abandoned industrial buildings at left are very handy to Place Massena, Old Town, Promenade des Anglais too. I wonder why they have not been replaced by apartments.

Breakfast came with the hotel room. Serve yourself from a table in the corridor, eat in your room. Since we had paid for it we ate some, then went down to the patisserie around the corner to enjoy an alfresco breakfast.

No flan, but the tarte citron was special. Fresh squeezed OJ, cafe au lait. A pigeon on the awning above released a parting gift on Anne. We cleaned it up as best we could. I finished my breakfast, hoping that nothing had splashed onto it, then we returned to the hotel for another shower.

On the way to the Indian restaurant last evening Anne had noticed a shop with more of the French designed and manufactured string bags, at a lower price than earlier in the Old Town. We were on the doorstep of the shop at 10am this morning. Anne bought four string bags, then considering the new dearth of plastic bags in supermarkets at home, reentered the shop and bought a fifth.

The name of the shop seemed appropriate.

Then, down the 96 steps with two 14kg suitcases and my pillow from Toulouse, board the 98 bus to Terminal 2, and here we are. Time to try checking in.

My Qantas Lifetime Gold card worked! We are in the Levity Lounge, only slightly more crowded than the boarding gate. Better wifi though.

It’s almost as exciting waiting to fly home as it is leaving.