Introducing the Portsmouth-Bordeaux curry run

Ordering a takeaway curry has taken on a new dimension for one Briton living in the Gironde.

Aeronautics trainer and pilot James Emery, who moved to France from the UK in 2010, will fly a specially chartered plane to the UK on Saturday, where he will collect between 20 and 30 meals from an Indian restaurant in Portsmouth, The Akash, and fly them back to France for a curry night.

"When I told the owner I was disappointed with Indian food in France - not very spicy to adapt to the French palate - he suggested delivery by car," Mr Emery told AFP. But, he added, the original idea quickly developed to air delivery.

Mr Emery will take a chartered six-seater plane from Brest to Lee-On-the-Solent on Saturday morning, where he will pick up the pre-prepared and packed meals, as well the restaurant's owner. The plane and its precious spicy cargo are expected to land at Bordeaux-Saucats aerodrome in the early afternoon following a brief stopover in Cherbourg for customs formalities.

Later in the evening, French and English guests who have have paid €36 for each meal, including delivery, will gather at a hangar at the airfield for the curry night.