She Met a Pilot on a Plane to London

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/style/married-travelers.html

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If not for a one-hour flight to London from Paris, Sonia Brozak and Matthieu Autret probably would never have landed an opportunity to live together in New York.

“I couldn’t help but notice her — she was gorgeous,” said Mr. Autret, a private-jet pilot, recalling the flight in October 2019.

She sat in seat 1A and he in 1B. “He was reading, then he got up to take off his jacket, and that’s when we started talking,” said Ms. Brozak, who for much of the last five years worked in visitor services at the Tate Modern museum in London and as a tour guide at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Mr. Autret mentioned during their flight that his mother, Stéphanie Autret, was a painter.

At the time, both Ms. Brozak and Mr. Autret were living in Paris. She was on her way to London for a job interview and he to a weeklong evaluation of pilots at an airline there.

Upon landing, they spent another half-hour chatting at the baggage carousel, and before going their separate ways, agreed to have dinner when they returned to Paris.

That dinner, at Terrace de l’Alcazar in the Latin Quarter, turned into a first date. Just a few months later, the couple moved together to Geneva.

Avid skiers, they spent the winter in Chamonix, France.

“He was terribly handsome, and just so kind, a real gentleman,” said Ms. Brozak, who graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and received a master’s degree in art history from University College London. “He was also very considerate and highly intellectual,” she said. “He was just a well-rounded, very-well-put-together person.”

Ms. Brozak and Mr. Autret returned to Paris just as France’s pandemic lockdown measures took effect in March 2020. Both stayed in the home of Mr. Autret’s parents.

When Ms. Brozak returned to her native New York in January, she took more than souvenirs and a few leftover euros. She also took Mr. Autret.

“Our original plan was to live in France,” she said. “As it happened, Matthieu was still searching for a job when I was accepted to law school here,” said Ms. Brozak. She said she was accepted to several law schools in the city and hasn’t yet decided which to attend.

Mr. Autret said he “really enjoys living in New York.” They live together on the Upper East Side. He completed his pilot training at the Florida Flight Training Center in Venice, Fla., and received European and American flight certifications in England, Germany and Spain.

“I would be happy living just about anywhere,” Mr. Autret said, “as long as it is with Sonia.”

The couple were engaged during a ski tour on Dec. 31, 2020, at the top of the Tour glacier in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France. Mr. Autret was the first to reach the summit. When Ms. Brozak arrived, he dropped down on one knee, ring in glove, and proposed.

They were married in Pound Ridge, N.Y., on March 26 at the summer townhouse of the bride’s parents, Elizabeth Kavaler and Stephen Brozak. Matthew Brotmann, a justice of the peace for the town of Pound Ridge, officiated.

The groom’s parents, Stephanie Autret and Bertrand Autret, were unable to attend because of coronavirus restrictions, which also forced the bride and groom to scrap their original wedding plans. They had planned to marry in France, in the home garden of the groom’s parents.

“Our families have never met,” the bride said, “but when this virus finally disappears, that will change very, very quickly.”