Private Jet Charter Blog
Birthday Weekend..Gastronomique..Magnifique!
Yes, it’s my birthday. And boy, how quick did that come back around? Could it really be a whole year since I partied in being 39 again in Dublin! Well as I shared with you recently, I’m having a bit of a love affair with France. So when Mr C asked if I would like to have a birthday weekend away, I said ‘Yes please, Bordeaux would be lovely’ 
We departed from Lille Lesquin airport and just over an hour later we arrived in Bordeaux. We stayed at La Boutique Hotel a luxury hotel close to the best restaurants, chiquest boutiques and wonderful chocolate shops. There is plenty of choice of hotels in Bordeaux, but I was swayed by the beautiful rooms, with designer furniture and the massive round bath full of rose petals. Need I say more!
Bordeaux is located on the western coast of France and is a rather busy port city. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region in France, and is also the seventh largest metropolitan city in France. The famous and renowned Bordeaux wine is produced in this city. Some older parts of the city are even listed on the UNESCO world heritage list. I can confirm that the architecture is amazing.
We wandered around the streets, admiring the stunning buildings and architecture that led us down to the quay, where docked on the Quayside was ‘The World’
At 644 feet, officially the largest privately owned yacht on the planet. Let me assure you standing next to her to take a picture, she is just absolutely HUGE.
Since her launch in 2002, she has constantly circumnavigated the globe. Each resident owns one or more of the 165 privately owned apartments and enjoys a lifestyle we can only dream about.
A Bellini at Bellini bar was followed by Birthday dinner at La Tupina, recommended by a friend (thanks to Michael Prior). The first thing you will notice in the fireplace is ‘la Tupina’, meaning kettle in the basque language. In the winter the soup boils there really slowly. The fireplace is at the heart of the restaurant, and you can choose your cut of meat to be cooked over the open fire. Actually I chose a traditional South Western dish Cassoulet a haricot bean stew with duck, pork and sausage, very slowly cooked. Delicious
The famed author, Victor Hugo, has aptly described Bordeaux by commenting, “Take Versailles, add Antwerp, and you have Bordeaux”. Indeed this historic city is worth a visit, even if it is just to taste its delightful French wine. I’ll drink to that And that was only the first day……more to come
Caipirinhas all round….
Well here’s a good looking bunch! From left to right, it’s Derek, Lori, Andrea and Daniel from our Fort Lauderdale office. 
Lori tells me that Team Ft Lauderdale were invited to attend the new Porsche Cayman launch on Friday, April 26th at Chima Brazilian Steakhouse on Las Olas. Lucky things!
So it was Caipirinhas all round, Brazils national cocktail made of sugar cane and lime, simply delicious and a succession of tasty hors d’oeuvres.
The Cayman launch event was a great success, with over 150 attendees to welcome the latest rear mid-engined, rear wheel drive 2 seat sports car. A special thanks to Mike Peters for such a lovely evening. Only wish I could have been there too.
Secret Affair
Really? Who with I hear you ask. Its not a person silly, it’s a Country. I’m having a love affair with France. So when Mr C said shall we go somewhere this weekend (I think he had the garden centre in mind), I said ‘Oooh yes, lets go to Le Touquet!’ There is an airport there you know, called Le Touquet Cote d’Opal and Lydd Airport offers a sheduled service, or if you were feeling flush you could take a small jet. But we took the Eurotunnel to Calais. C’est facile
Le Touquet-Paris Plage (to give it its proper name), has a reputation as the most elegant holiday resort of Northern France, the playground of rich Parisians, with many luxury hotels such as the beautiful Westminster Hôtel & Spa a 1930’s luxury hotel in the heart of Le Touquet. It is just 500 metres from the beach and offers spacious, Art Deco guestrooms (that’ll be where you will find me then), fabulous restaurants and bistros, a whole host of unique boutiques, choclatiers, amazing Patisseries, Fleuristes and the most amazing vegetable shop ever probably in the world! And it’s all open on a Sunday, so Sante!
To give you a bit of history, the resort was created in 1876 by Hippolyte de Villemessant (1812–1879), founder and owner of the Paris newspaper, Le Figaro. Since the mid-1990s, Le Touquet’s villas have become extremely fashionable amongst architecture lovers throughout Europe, rediscovering the “folie” of seaside architecture of both the Roaring Twenties and the 1930s. Noel Coward and the ‘smart set’ from England spent weekends here (no wonder I love it), and commissioned more outstanding villa designs echoing traditional and ultra-modern styles.
Inland from the miles of sandy beaches, a mecca for kite surfers, it is a wonderful sight to behold with hundreds of colourful kites, theres hotels, a Casino and a Horse Racing Course, a wide range of sports, particularly golf with championship standard courses set in magical pine forests. The casino provided the inspiration of the casino of Royale-les-Eaux in the James Bond movie Casino Royale. This town really has got something for everyone.
Every year in February, a motorbike and quad race called ‘Enduro‘ is held where bikes race along the beach over 17.8 kilometers of sand dunes. The final ranking is determined according to the number of laps completed after three hours of racing, and according to the order of crossing the finish line on the last lap. Even if you are not really a motorbike fan, the site of some 1000 + motorbikes and quads screaming along the sand dunes is an exhilarating experience. Just remember if you go, its a nightmare leaving town. Motorbike mayhem!
So take my advice and have yourself a weekend in Le Touquet….certainly beats the garden centre!
The legend that is Legend
Well Lori Kennedy, who do you think you are? Thats our Lori, Manager of the Fort Lauderdale office. She’s only got her picture taken with the legendary nine times Grammy Award winner and American singer songwriter John Legend who jetted into town for a concert! Well jealous!!
How did you meet him? I asked. He was performing at Florida’s Hard Rock live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and Lori attended the show, which she said was brilliant and awesome, then she got herself invited back stage and on to dinner!
John has had a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists including Kanye West, Jay Z and Alicia Keys as well as an incredibly successful solo career as a singer, songwriter and actor.
Lucky girl. No wonder she has that Cheshire Cat look, so would I
Congratulations Mary
I have just heard the good news that our lovely Mary Al-Khouri who is based in our Dubai office, has celebrated her engagement to handsome Jordanian Rami Sahaweneh. Mary, I am delighted for you.
A family celebration was held last Friday and here is a picture of the happy couple (Mary you are looking gorgeous), who plan to get married on 15th November this year.
So congratulations Mary and Rami from all at Private Jet Charter
Not joking….it’s snowing in Nice!
‘Come on Mr C’ I said, ‘lets get away from this atrocious snowy freezing weather and disappear off to our Nice office for a few days’. I had a legitimate excuse. No really I did. I had to do a radio interview for Riviera Radio and as luck would have it they are based on the beautiful Quay Antoine 1er in fabulous Monaco. You see, Private Jet Charter is a sponsor of their Traffic and Travel news and they wanted to ask me some questions about chartering private jets.
So we drove the cute little Smart Car from Nice along the Bass Corniche, what a lovely drive that is. Passing through Villefranche Sur Mer the road climbs steeply to give you a breathtaking view over the bay, on through Beaulieu Sur Mer and winding on hugging the coast with its stunning scenery and through the rock tunnels into Monaco. If you have never driven this road, please put it on your list of places that you MUST visit before you die list!
That was yesterday. But guess what…..today it’s snowing in Nice!!!
Dinner with Dave and Ted
‘How do you fancy dinner Wen?’ Dave Doughty asked me last week. Well of course I said that would be perfect, never a girl to turn down a dinner date. He wanted me to meet one of the lovely aircraft owners he books with often. It’s one of the nice things about our job, we get to know personally all the owners of the aircraft that we charter and so lovely Ted van Zundert flew in from Amsterdam on his Fokker 50 (yes I did say Fokker, and yes unsurprisingly it seats 50 passengers) and very comfortable, practical and cost effective it is too, when you have the right size group to fly. Ted was staying at aBode Hotel a stylish boutique hotel in the centre of Canterbury. So we met in the cosy lounge bar for drinks and then moved on for dinner to Deesons British Restaurant in Sun Street in the heart of Canterbury. We thought Ted would like to try it because it was his first time in Kent, so traditional British with a modern twist and beautifully presented seemed perfect. We had all things local, Whitstable Oysters for entree, Romney Marsh lamb as a main course followed by Apple Crumble from Kentish orchards to finish off, all washed down with a really super bottle of chilled Chapel Down white wine from award winning Tenterden Vinyard. Cheers Dave, I had a super evening
Harlem Shake
Check this out, news story from Sky News today, the Harlem Shake, I love it
Many Happy Landings…
Take a look at this article from Site Selection on our Fort Lauderdale office:
The Advantages of Chartering a Private Jet
Here’s a fact: both leisure and business travellers seem to be swapping their fractional and wholly owned aircrafts for charter services, due to their economical operations. Air charter is the easiest and least expensive means of obtaining on-demand transportation, as it is just about as easy as calling for a limousine.
Time savings not only include the time that you save by avoiding long lines and increased security measures, but also the increased productivity possible when flying by private aircraft. Compared to a crowded and restrictive airliner where getting any work done would be impossible, you are able to continue your daily tasks in private jets, as private aircraft are designed as flying offices, enabling access to all of the equipment required to maximize your productivity in the air.
There is also the confidentiality factor to be considered. Chartering a flight allows executives and employees to work and communicate without concern. A private cabin circumvents eavesdropping and reduces travel visibility to protect the sensitive information carried by company personnel.
It’s also safer than travelling on commercial airlines. When an aircraft is chartered, everyone that is
on-board, including pilots and passengers, and the baggage carried, is all controlled by the
company, resulting in a safer travel. Overall, charter flights have a safety record better than that of scheduled airlines, and that’s certainly a comforting fact.
So what about those who own their own aircraft?
Unlike owning an aircraft, which limits the owner to just his or her plane, chartering offers
clients the flexibility and opportunity to travel in various planes. Each charter aircraft
has unique speed, range, payload, and comfort features which allow clients to fly in the
appropriate jet for a given situation. As each aircraft is best suited for a particular operation, this leads to lower costs for the customer.
Plus the added advantage of being able to fly into smaller airports. Unlike airliners, which require more runway length than private jets, charters are able to operate out of 5,400 airports as compared to 420 in the United States alone. Therefore, clients are able to fly into airports that are more accessible and closer to their final destination.
With all the facts considered, we’re confident you’ll agree that chartering a private jet is the only way to travel!
