Air France is swapping the flight deck for the sun deck this summer, opening a pop-up restaurant at Marseille’s storied Cercle des Nageurs swimming club that will serve its full long-haul Business Class menu from 14 July to 9 August 2026.
The Mediterranean residency is the airline’s third summer outing of the concept, following well-received editions in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo and, most recently, on The Rooftop at Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann. It also extends the carrier’s growing fondness for the French Riviera, where the Air France beach returned to the Croisette for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The premise is disarmingly simple: guests sample the airline’s Business Class dishes “just like on board”, but with the sea and the Marseille skyline standing in for a cabin window. The menu comes from Régis Marcon, the three-Michelin-starred chef whose credentials lend the project serious culinary weight, with signatures including duck lasagne with blackcurrant sauce and a contemporary ratatouille cake, all served in the same format passengers receive at 30,000 feet.
Puddings are the work of Nina Métayer, named the world’s best pastry chef in 2023, whose highlights include a lemon-verbena creation and a hazelnut-caramel slice. The cellar and bar are no afterthought either, with Pommery champagne, French wines chosen by the airline’s head sommelier Xavier Thuizat, and Quintessence, Air France’s new signature cocktail from mixologist Matthias Giroud, according to the airline’s announcement.
The 40-cover restaurant sits on the club’s terrace, dressed in Air France’s navy, white and red livery and finished with the carrier’s winged seahorse emblem. Diners will also find high-speed Wi-Fi throughout, mirroring the free ultra-high-speed connectivity now rolling out across the airline’s fleet, plus a small Air France Shopping corner selling travel accessories.
The venue itself is a shrewd choice. The Cercle des Nageurs, perched above the water near the Pharo, is one of Marseille’s most exclusive addresses and, as Business Traveller notes, the pop-up trades on exactly the sort of borrowed glamour that has made the airline’s previous residencies a summer fixture.
The restaurant opens every evening except Mondays, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Dinner is reservation-only and priced at €98 per person, drinks included, which, for a three-Michelin-star pedigree with a Mediterranean sunset thrown in, may prove the summer’s most competitive Business Class fare.
