The Bennett family had decided to spend a fabulous Christmas in Paris, strolling down the boulevards, taking in the sights, enjoying the festive period in one of the world's most romantic cities.

Unfortunately, half of their luggage, including the children's gifts, had a rather more adventurous time of it, seemingly ending up in Afghanistan and prompting a security alert when it was returned to the UK.

David and Marie Bennett, from Brockenhurst, near Southampton, had packed two cases for their trip to the city of light, one for themselves, one for their children, Françoise, 13, and 10-year-old Remi.

They flew from Southampton airport to Charles de Gaulle in Paris just before Christmas but were devastated when the children's bag, loaded with their presents and clothes, failed to make it to the carousel.

With many shops closed for Christmas, it meant the family weren't able to dress as stylishly, or warmly, as they would have liked, but they made the most of their time in France.

However, when they returned to the UK they discovered just how far from their missing case they must actually have been. The wandering suitcase finally turned up in England after six days away from its owners labelled with the International Air Transport Association airport code "FAH".

Although it was an unfamiliar code to airport staff they looked it up and were amazed to find that the code stands for Farah, a city in western Afghanistan. Quite how it could have got there remains a mystery: planes do not fly routinely to Farah from Charles de Gaulle, let alone from Southampton.

Mr Bennett, 48, said yesterday: "We are still none the wiser about the suitcase's journey. I imagine it must have just disappeared down a chute to Afghanistan.

"It's like some sort of Disney film where a mistake leads to a suitcase taking its own holiday. When we finally picked up the bag it had about five different labels.

"Staff didn't recognise the airport code on the label and had to look it up. They said, 'You'll never believe it - your case has been to Afghanistan.'

"There was even a note from Hampshire police saying they'd gone through the bag because of where it had come from."

Air France is investigating but admitted that it was baffled.