A French air hostess will become one of Europe's pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere.

Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit¹ Kat chocolate bar at her local supermarket but initially² threw the wrapper in the bin³, telling herself that "it's only others who win."

Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she decided⁴ to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin, only to find a code marked inside.

"For someone who works in air travel it's really a dream come true," she told France Info radio.

A spokeswoman for Nestle in France confirmed that Epron had won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space.

She will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.

一名法国空姐不久将成为欧洲最早的太空游客之一。日前，这位空姐从垃圾里捡回一张巧克力包装纸，并惊喜地发现上面的数字中了“太空游”幸运大奖。

32岁的玛蒂尔达•埃普朗说，前不久她在当地一家超市买了块（雀巢）“奇巧”巧克力，吃完后顺手把包装纸扔进了垃圾桶，因为她觉得“自己根本不可能中奖”。

两个小时后，埃普朗回头想想那个大奖赛，还是决定试试运气，于是就从垃圾桶里翻出了那张包装纸，并惊喜地发现自己竟然中了大奖。

埃普朗在接受法国信息广播电台的采访时说：“对于从事航空工作的人来说，这就是梦想成真。”

雀巢集团法国公司的一位女发言人确认了埃普朗中奖的消息。届时埃普朗将乘坐Rocketplane公司制造的一架战斗机大小的四座航天飞机遨游太空。Rocketplane公司制造的航天飞机主要用于普通太空游。

埃普朗将乘坐Rocketplane XP式航天飞机抵达距离地面100公里的高空，体验五分钟的失重状态。在此之前，她将前往美国的俄克拉荷马城接受为期四天的太空训练。