Saturday, June 7, 2008
We departed Dallas on a completely full 767, and headed for Europe. Almost 10 hours later we arrived in Paris, after passing a sleepless night. The meskin food we had at DFW did not mix well with the hard-to-describe chicken dish I had somewhere over Maine. Adding some yogurt and too-strong coffee at breakfast a few hours later really did not help my stomach, especially with little rest.
Paris was one layover we were really looking forward to. I had allowed more than two hours giving us some time to do a little wandering in what had been described to us as a thoroughly modern airport. After an extended wait on the taxiway for our gate to be ready, we debarked in what is described as a satellite terminal. After walking to the 2A main terminal, we found our connecting flight was “probably” going to leave from the 2F terminal. We were instructed to go outside the terminal, and wait for a shuttle bus which would take us where we needed to be. The waiting area was adjacent to the flight line, and we had to be careful of fuel trucks and baggage transporters which were constantly zipping past.
After a scenic tour of the working areas of Europe’s second busiest airport, we arrived at what we hoped would be the appropriate terminal. Meandering through what Susan kept saying was the ugliest airport she had ever seen, we came to a security checkpoint where we were told we had to get a boarding pass before proceeding. This wasn’t really new or useful information, and after a protracted multilingual (well, she spoke French and we spoke English) exchange, we were directed to the Air France counter to get boarding passes for our Alitalia flight. Apparently, Air France has acquired at least a part interest in the financially distressed Alitalia, and has taken over operating some of their flights. When we made our way to the AF counter, we first thought there was a riot brewing. It turned out some travel agent had sold tickets for a non-existent tour going to Beirut, so there was a large group of unhappy middle eastern travelers stuck in Paris, with no way of going to Beirut or getting hold of the person sold them the tickets. By comparison, our request for a boarding pass to Venice was welcomed by the agent as being a problem that at least had a resolution, so he helped us almost cheerfully… at least as cheerfully as possible while still being French. (It may have helped that I wasn’t cursing at him in Lebanese!)
Boarding pass In hand, we made our way back to the security checkpoint, which we passed with no trouble. It was no different from any airport security in the states, at least if you ignored the machine guns. Emerging into the gate area of the terminal, we thought we had finally found the airport we had heard about. Soaring glass ceiling, very open and quiet with none of the blaring overhead announcements so common in American airports. We cruised the duty free shops and didn’t find anything affordable or desirable, except for some off-color French postcards which I resisted buying. Time for our flight arrived and we headed down the jet-way, to…a bus. No plane awaited us at the bottom of the stairs, so we started off on another tour of the guts of CDG airport. We went to yet another terminal, climbed yet another flight of stairs, before finally boarding our plane. At last we were convinced our luck had changed. The plane was an Airbus 321, which was the nicest and roomiest medium sized plane we have traveled on in a long time. Larger seats, more leg room, and the cleanest interior we’ve seen on the trip. And finally, an airline that understands that flight attendants are supposed to be young(ish), well-groomed and professional in appearance and action. Soon we were on our way with only a few minor glitches; such as, being delayed 25 minutes because a flight from Atlanta was late, and the ancient French guy in the next seat filling the barf bag before the plane moved an inch.
The impression we had gathered of Air France’s flight crew and plane was heightened, when after about 15 minutes in the air we were fed the best airborne meal of the trip. We had a salmon pasta salad and an extremely dense and rich chocolate dessert with beer or wine included. No Charge! All this on a flight which lasted an hour and 20 minutes! When was the last time anyone had that on a domestic flight??
We got to Venice too late to catch our planned ride, but caught the next boat and made our way across the lagoon to Fondamente Nove, where we met our rental agent, who led us across the island to our apartment. I had felt pretty confident I could find the place on my own, because after all, I had a map! I quickly realized that having the map didn’t make much difference on the ground. What looked like nice straight broad thoroughfares, turned out to be 4 foot wide alleyways which twisted and turned constantly. We’ll see if things look any different in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Ciao for now!
We departed Dallas on a completely full 767, and headed for Europe. Almost 10 hours later we arrived in Paris, after passing a sleepless night. The meskin food we had at DFW did not mix well with the hard-to-describe chicken dish I had somewhere over Maine. Adding some yogurt and too-strong coffee at breakfast a few hours later really did not help my stomach, especially with little rest.
Paris was one layover we were really looking forward to. I had allowed more than two hours giving us some time to do a little wandering in what had been described to us as a thoroughly modern airport. After an extended wait on the taxiway for our gate to be ready, we debarked in what is described as a satellite terminal. After walking to the 2A main terminal, we found our connecting flight was “probably” going to leave from the 2F terminal. We were instructed to go outside the terminal, and wait for a shuttle bus which would take us where we needed to be. The waiting area was adjacent to the flight line, and we had to be careful of fuel trucks and baggage transporters which were constantly zipping past.
After a scenic tour of the working areas of Europe’s second busiest airport, we arrived at what we hoped would be the appropriate terminal. Meandering through what Susan kept saying was the ugliest airport she had ever seen, we came to a security checkpoint where we were told we had to get a boarding pass before proceeding. This wasn’t really new or useful information, and after a protracted multilingual (well, she spoke French and we spoke English) exchange, we were directed to the Air France counter to get boarding passes for our Alitalia flight. Apparently, Air France has acquired at least a part interest in the financially distressed Alitalia, and has taken over operating some of their flights. When we made our way to the AF counter, we first thought there was a riot brewing. It turned out some travel agent had sold tickets for a non-existent tour going to Beirut, so there was a large group of unhappy middle eastern travelers stuck in Paris, with no way of going to Beirut or getting hold of the person sold them the tickets. By comparison, our request for a boarding pass to Venice was welcomed by the agent as being a problem that at least had a resolution, so he helped us almost cheerfully… at least as cheerfully as possible while still being French. (It may have helped that I wasn’t cursing at him in Lebanese!)
Boarding pass In hand, we made our way back to the security checkpoint, which we passed with no trouble. It was no different from any airport security in the states, at least if you ignored the machine guns. Emerging into the gate area of the terminal, we thought we had finally found the airport we had heard about. Soaring glass ceiling, very open and quiet with none of the blaring overhead announcements so common in American airports. We cruised the duty free shops and didn’t find anything affordable or desirable, except for some off-color French postcards which I resisted buying. Time for our flight arrived and we headed down the jet-way, to…a bus. No plane awaited us at the bottom of the stairs, so we started off on another tour of the guts of CDG airport. We went to yet another terminal, climbed yet another flight of stairs, before finally boarding our plane. At last we were convinced our luck had changed. The plane was an Airbus 321, which was the nicest and roomiest medium sized plane we have traveled on in a long time. Larger seats, more leg room, and the cleanest interior we’ve seen on the trip. And finally, an airline that understands that flight attendants are supposed to be young(ish), well-groomed and professional in appearance and action. Soon we were on our way with only a few minor glitches; such as, being delayed 25 minutes because a flight from Atlanta was late, and the ancient French guy in the next seat filling the barf bag before the plane moved an inch.
The impression we had gathered of Air France’s flight crew and plane was heightened, when after about 15 minutes in the air we were fed the best airborne meal of the trip. We had a salmon pasta salad and an extremely dense and rich chocolate dessert with beer or wine included. No Charge! All this on a flight which lasted an hour and 20 minutes! When was the last time anyone had that on a domestic flight??
We got to Venice too late to catch our planned ride, but caught the next boat and made our way across the lagoon to Fondamente Nove, where we met our rental agent, who led us across the island to our apartment. I had felt pretty confident I could find the place on my own, because after all, I had a map! I quickly realized that having the map didn’t make much difference on the ground. What looked like nice straight broad thoroughfares, turned out to be 4 foot wide alleyways which twisted and turned constantly. We’ll see if things look any different in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Ciao for now!
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