The outward bound trip from New Zealand to France. Wanaka to Aix en Provence.
Traveling as a Coeliac adds another level of complication, simply because not everywhere can cater for individuals who have to adhere to a demanding strict gluten free diet, nor understand it. Not even the smallest trace can enter our bodies, as it can potentially cause damage to our intestines & make us ill, so planning ahead is always required. This is our first journey overseas in a number of years, with multiple connecting flights & hours spent at numerous airports. Scheduled time travelling, about a day & a half.
We had planned on eating lunch before leaving for the airport, but packing took longer than expected, along with shutting down the house for 6weeks. Making sure we had friends to stop by & help look after my many house plants – especially Marvin the Monstera (he’s quite a beast!).
First stop. Queenstown International Airport. The international departure lounge was terrible which we had been made aware of by some friends. There’s one little ‘booth’ serving a small selection of drinks with a cabinet of pies, sandwiches & a vegan pot of something or other & some grapes. There’s also the usual vending machines offering a range of sugary drinks & chocolate bars. I don’t expect to find Coeliac friendly food everywhere, but even if I didn’t have this disease, the selection was still rather poor. So I decided to have my preferred version of grapes (a glass of rosé ) & packet of crisps knowing that food would be served on the flight.
I’m finding having a simple bags of crisps everywhere I go a very useful emergency snack. Admittedly not the healthiest, but GF ones the can be found mostly everywhere. I’m also carrying some dehydrated meals in my carry on bag, as I’m still unsure how the airline food will be.
Qantas: First flight Queenstown to Brisbane filled me with confidence. GFML – a gluten friendly meal was served, which had some items in a sealed bag & GF symbols displayed on everything. The main dish was chicken rice & green beans, a green salad, along with a vegan cheesecake. All in all quite tasty & did the job.
First transit was Brisbane Airport, I wasn’t particularly hungry at this point, so didn’t need to search for any food as we weren’t going to be spending much time here. So nothing really to report here. Although I felt this airport was seriously in need of an upgrade, it felt dated & like something out of the 1970s.
Emirates: The long flight from Brisbane to Dubai 14+ hours – My meal came with a label with my name printed on it & GFML stickers on everything. The main meal was a Harissa lamb & ginger crunch for dessert. The next meal after bits of broken sleep (however many hours later) was a surprisingly delicious spinach & pea pancake. So good in fact that I’ll try & make them at home when I get back. They tasted like they were made with chickpea flour, served with a Mediterranean style bean & tomato side & little roasted potatoes. Really good!
Next transit Dubai Airport. Once again I didn’t feel the need for anything to eat. I’d heard that it was dreadful for choice, so I didn’t bother as I wasn’t hungry. Instead we wondered around & found a magnum of Louis XIII cognac for $13,000. Or it could have been $130k?
Emirates: The next big flight, Dubai to Munich, first offering was a snack, a chicken & pesto mayo toasted sandwich delivered quite quickly into the flight. Again all labelled with my name & GFML stickers & was quite flavoursome. By this point I found myself starving I could have eaten three of them. I have no idea what time of day it is & I started to think “Is this it for a few hours? ” I did consider one of my packet meals, but held off & had a cup of tea.
Next up in the timeless void of long haul flights, was a GMFL lemon zest chicken dish, with veggie tagine & rice. Once again with my printed name tag & GFML labelled on everything, so far so good with Emirates airline food. I’ve been really impressed, as every time it’s been delivered to me they’ve said “a gluten free meal for you” with a smile, as if it’s been no trouble at all.
Next transit Munich airport: This was supposed to be a quick 2 hour transit however we ended up getting stuck here for 8+hours due to a very slow passport control process. This was a very stressful time as we missed a connecting flight to Marseille & all following flights were fully booked for the next 3days. We need to get to Aix en Provence ASAP, as Lew is competing in a race & he needs time to prepare & rest at least a few days before the event after traveling from the other side of the world. We were put on a waiting list for the next available flight to Nice. At least it would be the right country & closer to where we needed to be! After waiting about 4 more hours we missed out on that one & were instead confirmed on the last flight out later that evening. I can not fault the Lufthansa staff who were absolutely amazing! Missing this flight by about 15-20 mins delayed us by an entire day.
Still in transit waiting for that crucial last flight….. food. We’re both incredibly tired & delirious at this stage, disappointed by the change of schedule & just needed to eat something, anything. My ability to retain information & which boarding gate number was becoming questionable as I reversed Gate 72 to Gate 27 which were at opposite ends of the terminal. We don’t know what day it is or what time it is & we need to eat as we’re not going to get another chance from quite sometime. I jump on to the wonderful Find Me Gluten Free app & there’s a review on Dean & Davids about a pre packed GF salad. What a win to find this when I can’t even read a gate number let alone trying to understand a German food label!!- it clearly states Laktose & Glutenfrei on the label. Confirmed by my trusty google translate app.
Absolute must do before you leave the house.
We are not planning on using internet/data until we’re connected to wifi, either at an airport or our accommodation A great opportunity to disconnect from the online world & observe everything around us.
Download the google/translate app & download your languages (I selected French & Spanish). When you download these it gives you the option of translating without an internet connection – this is GOLD & has saved me so many times already. Open up the app & use the camera feature to easily hover the phone over a food label or a menu. There’s no need to take a photo & it translates to English!! Genius!! It also means if you’re really struggling & attempting to explain something terribly in whatever language, you can type in what you mean in English & it’ll translate for you. There’s also a conversation feature which allows you to speak into it & it’ll translate for you. Oh technology…. thank you!
Be prepared & take your own supplies for an emergency situation.
You never know when there will be one & I did have to use one of my dehydrated meals in a hotel in Nice. We arrived after 1 am local time after the disastrous transit in Munich & we needed to get up early to get to ourselves sorted to get a train from Nice to Aix en Provence, where we should have arrived the previous day. Breakfast was Beef Teriyaki by simply boiling the kettle & it was actually rather tasty. Back Country Cuisine meals are made for hikers climbing up mountains & I imagined if you’d done that & you had one of these meals to eat…man it would taste good! They have a whole range of gluten free meals to chose from.
Next stop was Nice Ville train station for a few hours waiting for correct train to get on to Aix en Provence. No choice at all in the wee shop, so a very tasty bag of salt & cracked pepper crisps it is. I’m going to end up looking like a potato!
Actual travel time about 2 & a half days.
Stay tuned for the next instalment – France.
The land of pastries & fresh baguettes.
I'm Not Awkward I'm a Coeliac 