Going Home to the States

Once again I arranged for a ride to Charles de Gaulle with Parishuttle through

www.parisnet.com .Once again, the van was on time, and once again, we struggled mightily getting all the luggage down the five flights of stairs. That Monday morning, we were scheduled for pickup at 9:30 AM. Our flight was at 1:40 PM, but the traffic situation is usually unpredictable. However, on the morning of October 31, there was very little traffic, and we made it to CDG in less than 45 minutes. The most likely reason for the light traffic was that Parisians like to “faire le pont;” when a holiday is on Tuesday, in this case November 1 (All Saints Day), the French “make the bridge,” and have a long weekend from Saturday through Tuesday. This is a very nice custom.

The terminal at Charles DeGaulle Airport

A huge poster in the terminal

Our flight to Atlanta is "a l'heure"--on time.

It was helpful to have the signs in English, but what about all the people who speak other languages?

The CRS on patrol

The CRS are the riot control forces of the French National Police. They are best known for crowd control and the re-establishment of order. In December of 2011, they were called in to take angry passengers off a plane that had been stuck at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport after a technical problem delayed it for more than 24 hours. The CRS has always been renowned for employing particularly tough officers.

We were somewhat worried because Air France was on strike for three days. Air France and Delta have become affiliated in some way, but I haven’t figured out how. Fortunately for us, Air France employees were on strike, but Delta employees weren’t. Our return flight was on Delta by way of Atlanta. CDG was very, very busy, but we were very, very early. We had no trouble checking in once we found the right counter. I had gotten our boarding passes and paid for one piece of extra luggage on line in advance of our trip to Paris. We had a laptop with us, which was very handy for keeping up with email and keeping track of our bank account, but we didn’t bring a printer, so we couldn’t print out our boarding pass or pay for the extra luggage on line. It’s very convenient to be able to take care of things like this ahead of time when traveling.

The restroom sign

This was not just any restroom, as you will see.

The Metro sign and entrance to the restroom--

a replica of the metro sign for the underground subway in Paris

Sacre Coeur mural on a restroom wall ]

Wallace Fountain mural on a restroom wall

Exiting the restroom

A great carrousel mural, reminiscent of the carrousel ride on the grounds of the Paris City Hall

A Bon Voyage mural depicting the fountain in front of the church of Saint-Sulpice

A closer view of the Bon Voyage mural

Killing time looks the same in any airport, I think.

This proud Mama is happy to show off her handsome little son.

Up to that point, we had had a pretty easy time, but our luck was about to change. Delta made two gate changes, and after we trekked to the third gate, we went down a ramp, got on an airport transport bus and were bussed to another location about a mile away. We had to climb stairs to board the plane because there was no tunnel.

The concourse from one end

This concourse didn’t seem like a typical concourse because concourses are not usually so full of light.

The concourse from the other end

The light at the end of the tunnel is the end of the concourse

That’s the line we were in.

Waiting in line

The walls of the concourse look cavernous.

A look outside at what we thought was going to be our plane. This was not to be.

We went down this ramp to the outside of the terminal.

The concourse and bridge from the outside

An outside view of the concourse

Buses  took us to another plane at least a mile away from the main terminal.

 

Once we were on the plane, which was filled to capacity, finding a place overhead for our carry-on luggage was our next challenge. No one complained about anything, at least not out loud. I think we were just relieved that we were on a Delta flight instead of a grounded Air France plane, waiting out the strike. Once we were settled in our seats, I was very happy to find a little movie screen in the back of the seat in front of me. I watched three movies, one of which I had already seen, “Midnight in Paris,” one I would never have gone to see in a theater, “Bad Teacher,” and one that was a pleasant surprise, “The Lincoln Lawyer.” I was very grateful for the distraction. The food on this trip was fairly good, and this flight was much more peaceful than the flight over.

Cloud cover above Paris

Au revoir, Paris

We had to go through Customs in Atlanta. The airport has some beautiful décor and artwork, and the people directing us through the airport were very helpful, but at that point all we wanted to do was get home as fast as possible. We landed in Fort Myers on schedule and headed home in a taxi.

 

 

We have a cat, and she is an indoor/outdoor cat, originally a stray. She has a cat-door, and can go in and out of the house as she pleases. I had arranged for someone to give her food and water every day, and I called the caregiver once a week from France to be sure the cat was eating. (I had read that if a cat feels abandoned, she may stop eating.) Our cat did OK, but she is really a scaredy-cat, and the caregiver never caught sight of her the whole month. I was greatly relieved when our cat came the minute I called; she seemed pleased that the members of her staff (my husband and I) had finally returned to take care of her. The cat was fine, and as the French say,

“Tout est bien qui finit bien.”

(All’s well that ends well.)

Shadow, my cat, awaiting our return in complete comfort.