You are flying to Nice for a whole month on your summer holidays on the Provence. Ah... the French Riviera, la Côte d'Azur!

It's a beautiful morning and through the window (yes, you got the window seat!) you have been gazing at the Mediterranean waters for a while... You can already devise LFMN – the Nice/Côte d’Azur aéroport ahead of you! Then you hear a click through the sound system, some background noise and the Captain's cheerful voice informs you that soon you will arrive at your destination: the outside air temperature is 25ºC already and there is not a single cloud in the sky. The day looks like a wonderful promise!

Soon everybody is greeting the Captain's superb landing, and you claim that this was the smoothest you can remember!

But now you must get off the plane, hmm.. You're waiting for the first class passengers to leave the plane ahead of you. You are standing, waiting for the two passengers that got the middle and center aisle seats to move, so you may start walking as well. Actually, you are not really standing: you have the hand luggage compartment right on your head and there's not enough room between your seat and the other in front of you. Well, you can hold your knees bent like that for a while... The gentleman that kept talking during the whole flight cries "Sorry!!" because he pulled his heavyweight tennis bag from the luggage box right onto your shoulder... “That must have hurt, sorry again!!” You’re feeling a tad anxious and definitely need to stretch your legs! And now that smell... 11am, and you were caught between to guys already sweating heavily as you walk down the aisle.

At last the outside, your feet stand on the warm tarmac, and you fill your lungs with the mild morning air, welcoming that gentle breeze!

You step into the bus that will take you to Terminal 2: the new building that accommodates the passengers from international flights. The bus is rolling...

And then you see her!!

There’s no way you could have missed such a beauty! The elegant, curved, unmistakable lines of a Lockheed Constellation... she’s painted in white and blue, a mild but intense blue, just like the Provence skies above.
The aircraft seems to be in pristine condition! And then that long line of people boarding in, slowly, as no one seems to be in a hurry to get into the plane, staring at the last rivet their memory can hold; many feeling the paint and the metal under their fingertips as they cross the main exit. If you could just turn back and join them...!

But the bus keeps rolling ... and then... wait again! You know that nose shape coming from behind the Connie! It’s the oldies’ oldie, the DC-3, and bearing the same paint scheme... White and blue...!

.

When you return to mother earth again, you are already walking inside the Terminal, people moving in every direction all around you. You stop. You look up to the hanging signs to find the main Information desk. You won’t leave the airport before you know a bit more about it! There it is!! Your French’s a bit rusty but that’s not a problem because as soon as you point out to the Connie that just started taxiing on her flight to Greece the lady behind the balcony says a long “Ahhh... c’est L'Air Azur, Monsieur!”. And then, as she handles to you a leaflet of the company, you hear a roar and she stretches her arm pointing outside and, vividly, exclaims: “Look Sir, here comes another one! That’s the Caravelle, L'Air Azur, of course!” the sentence finishing in a shiny smile!

Late at night in your room you finally open the leaflet. You decided earlier that you’d have to do that just right before going to sleep – and have sweet dreams the whole night long!

L'Air Azur is flying all over Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa and before your holidays end you’ll take a trip on that Connie, no matter what... and as you were about to close the leaflet and turn off the lights you see those words... (could my life be changing this much? you say to yourself... must read that again...!)

“L'Air Azur. Hiring Pilots”

Welcome to L'Air Azur!