Every Monday during the week when the European Parliament is in session, a fully occupied plane operated by the former state-owned airline LOT takes off from Warsaw for Strasbourg. Most of the seats are occupied by the country’s 53 MEPs, with a few journalists also flying in economy class. Two hours later, the plane takes off again and flies back to Warsaw – almost empty, because the MEPs and journalists are busy in Strasbourg until Thursday lunchtime and there is otherwise little interest in the connection to Poland from Alsace.