I flew over on Air France – for anyone planning a trip to this area, I would highly recommend flying them. While I’ve not flown internationally before – I have flown about the same time limit to Hawaii via a different airline and was served a sandwich. Last night they passed around a menu, I had two choices for an entrée. The choices were Veal, with rice and steamed veggies or (insert a long French name here) Pasta with marinara sauce and steamed veggies. Every meal came with a cup of fresh fruit, nice size piece of cheese, and a slice of cake. On the tray was also an appetizer – it was a rice mixture on half the plate, shredded lettuce on the other half and a beautiful slice of salmon on the top. Now – the salmon was raw… I was trying to good sport and embrace the culture – I peppered my salmon and cut into it and… decided an airplane was probably not the best place to risk that sort of thing. Each meal also came with metal silverware (a cheapy metal – but metal none-the-less) and for beverage you could choose from three soft drinks or 15 wines and beers – for free! I settled for the water that came on my tray as I did not recognize the soft drinks. They later came around and offered tea and coffee. I was thrilled about the coffee – she poured it and… from that point forward I have chosen to no longer impugn the great name of coffee by calling it that – rather, I will call it European Sludge until someone can present me a cup that will change my opinion. I had three cups on the plane and have one right now – it is still European Sludge.
I was able to get some sleep. But as the sun started coming up – I wanted to be looking out the window.
I managed to take this photo of the coastline of France just as the sun was coming up.
I thought this was interesting – it proves that Texas farmers have no creativity!
Look at the beautiful shapes of these farms! Granted, it’s probably not cotton – but seriously, must cotton be grown on a perfectly square piece of land? I’m sure there’s a reason for it.
I also had a great shot of Paris – the plane was turning and hung me right over the city – but it turned out a blurr (perhaps my camera got queezy).
I also had a great shot of Paris – the plane was turning and hung me right over the city – but it turned out a blurr (perhaps my camera got queezy).
The Paris de Gualle airport is the kookiest airport I believe I’ve ever seen. Where my flight landed I had two options – exit left or exit right. Nothing mentioned my next flight or even the airline that it is on. So, I proceeded to the information desk for Air France. A nice young man proceeded to tell me that I needed to go to the other Paris Airport. Now, to give you a little history to my knowledge on this – when booking my flight there were several itineraries that were cheaper than mine but when I read the fine print it was because I would have to change airports. It would have been nice to see Paris for real and all, but we are talking at least two hours apart. So I made sure not to get stuck with that. So, when this young man told me this I proceeded to argue with him while pulling out my itinerary. Just so you know, it really does no good to argue with anyone that can only understand every other word. The important thing to take away from this is… I was right! We found someone else and while I did have to change terminals – it was at the same airport. I had to pull my passport out three times and go through a security screening once. Sadly – the only place where anyone got upset with me for not knowing what I was doing was in Houston by US Border Patrol. Not to worry – I stood up for myself and told him where he could stick it. He seemed a little surprised – I think he thought I was French. They were checking your passport at one point as they were scanning the ticket for boarding and they had announced to have your passport out and ready. Well, after they checked it and I headed down the tunnel to the plane, I put it away. Little did I know that Border Patrol was just around the corner to scan them again. So – he mouthed off to me and I mouthed right back. It bothered me more because it didn’t hurt anything, I just reached into the pocket on my bag and pulled it right back out – never missed a beat. I just hate it because it is people like that that cause the rest of us Americans to be considered rude and arrogant by the rest of the world. I’m still a little peeved about it if you can’t tell. But the upside to all of this is… I got a stamp in my passport and it says PARIS! Never mind the fact that the only Eiffel Tower I have seen was about three inches tall and available for 6 Euros.
Well – that’s about it for now. I am going to finish my croissant and spend the next few hours breathing in some Paris air!
No comments:
Post a Comment