As ambassadors of French lifestyle and superior savoir-faire, Air France and the Palace of Versailles share many values and help to promote France’s influence throughout the world.
They are today teaming up in a unique partnership to create and offer Air France’s La Première customers an immersive and refined culinary experience, before their trip in the airline’s most exclusive travel cabin.
As from November 7, 2018, Air France is inviting the Palace of Versailles into its La Première lounge located in terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
Boxed orange trees, belonging to the Palace of Versailles botanical collection, are exceptionally on display in the entrance to the vestibule of the Air France lounge surrounding a décor evoking the lush green ornamental patterns of French landscaped gardens. They bring a touch of Versailles to a lounge synonymous with luxury, tranquillity and well-being.
Customers can then enjoy a unique, refined culinary experience at lunch or teatime, inspired by the Ducasse restaurant at the Palace of Versailles.
AN EXCEPTIONAL LUNCH
During lunch, Air France’s La Première lounge Chef Teddy Merienne invites customers to discover one of the exceptional dishes created for the exclusive dinner parties staged at the Palace of Versailles by the Ducasse restaurant – Turbot with tender Swiss chard. Expertly crafted cooking techniques and perfectly seasoned vegetables bring the natural flavours to the fore.
TEATIME ACCORDING TO MARIE-ANTOINETTE
For teatime, La Première customers can enjoy “Les Délices de Marie-Antoinette” comprising a marble cake, chocolate chip brioche and a Louis XIV, the signature dessert of the Ducasse restaurant at the Palace of Versailles. These are all served with a coffee or hot chocolate, which was the custom of the queen.
For the occasion, all the dishes are exceptionally served on tableware from the Ancient Royal Manufacture of Limoges, in identical reproductions by Maison Bernardaud and also used at the Ducasse restaurant in the Palace of Versailles.
La Première lounge customers will be able to prolong their experience by perusing Alain Ducasse’s Cuisine de Roi à Versailles cookbook and co-publications offered by the Palace of Versailles in the La Première lounge’s fine art book selection.
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AIR FRANCE’S LA PREMIÈRE LOUNGE AT PARIS-CHARLES DE GAULLE
Designed by the architect Didier Lefort, the Air France La Première lounge is an exclusive space spanning 1,000 sq. m, offering a moment of calm and serenity, and the promise of an exceptional travel experience. The fine dining tradition is particularly in the spotlight. The menus and wine lists have been selected by Chef Alain Ducasse and customers will feel like they’re dining in a renowned restaurant thanks to individual table service and the most prestigious vintages from the Air France wine cellar. In 2018, Air France won a Skytrax award at the recent World Airline Awards for “Best first class lounge dining”. Whether they choose to leaf through an art book, relax in the prestigious Biologique Recherche spa, take a shower or take time out to work in a private booth, the La Première lounge has been designed to meet every desire.
PALACE OF VERSAILLES
The Palace of Versailles, a famous world heritage site listed by UNESCO since 1979, is at the same time a royal residence, a museum on the history of France created by Louis-Philippe, and a national palace that has played host to the French Parliament in Congress. Besides its three historic residences – the Palace, the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon – the estate of Versailles boasts a large Baroque garden designed by André Le Nôtre with groves and fountains, the gardens of Trianon and Marie-Antoinette’s Hamlet, a wooded park located beyond the Grand Canal, and more recently the estate of Marly since 2009. Stretching out over more than 800 hectares, the estate of Versailles welcomes over 10 million French and foreign visitors each year who all come to admire the collections composed of over 60,000 works including paintings, furniture, ancient books, sketches, sculptures, engravings, artefacts and carriages. The former royal residence is a textbook in its own right on the history of France from the 17th century to the present day, and is a symbol of French art de vivre and the taste and skills of excellence. Forever anchored in the present thanks to the importance it places on creation (programme of shows, contemporary art exhibitions, promoting artistic craftsmen and women etc), the Palace of Versailles’ reputation continues to spread across the world.