As previously noted, this trip has been pretty damn wonderful and today we put just a touch of additional gilding atop this L\u2019Opera dessert that was our July on the Continent. After our last petit dejeuner at hotel Belloy Saint Germain and a 35 minute RER train trip to Charles de Gaulle airport we found pretty much what was expected; CDG was a zoo. Passage to the American Airlines check-in counter began in a line that extended past the patisserie, past the restroom doors, past the McDonalds (remember, they call it a \u2018Roy-al\u2019) through a few hundred feet nylon tape-bordered zigzags \u00a0and took a bit over an hour and a half to traverse. The seats that I had selected back in June when we booked the flight were both aisles, one in front of the other\u2014there was nothing else available. This was certainly a very full and probably oversold airplane. At this point, the obvious question was, should the opportunity present itself, do we want to spend another night in Paris. The more obvious answer was a quick \u201cyou betcha\u201d so at the gate, we offered ourselves up to the agent and were informed that indeed, they may need a seat or two. We\u2019d wait until boarding was complete and if they were full, we\u2019d be provided with future travel vouchers, plus a hotel, meals and upgraded seats on tomorrow\u2019s flight. The slightly disappointing result was that our coach seats weren\u2019t needed. The pleasantly surprising outcome was that for being such affable and willing volunteers, we were upgraded to business class. As I typed this section, I was most comfortably perched in a 97-way-fully-reclining seat, finishing off a lovely fromage plate and a Kronenbourg 1664 beer.<\/p>\n
The only down side to this leg was that we were too late out of Paris to make the connection in Dallas. I\u2019d picked this flight because after a few weeks on the road and 9-hour time change, a long connection is the pits.\u00a0 It\u2019ll become a 3-hour layover, rather than one, but after a most relaxing ride from CDG to DFW, I suspect we\u2019ll survive.<\/p>\n
A quick note on Paris: there was a posting in the hotel regarding the shortage of taxis, reservation and prepayment requirements, etc. The RER train, nearby in almost all of Paris, is fast\u2014it took us 34 minutes from the Left Bank\u2014and at just over 8 Euros per passenger. The cab probably takes an hour or more, depending on traffic on the A1, and will set you back someplace north of \u20ac60.<\/p>\n
Enough with the writing, already. It\u2019s time for a few tunes off the PC. Laurel did find some Iz on the PC in Coco\u2019s apartment in Dijon, but other than that, there hasn\u2019t been much kanikapila for a few weeks. “Oh, madame. Plus de vin, svp.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 As previously noted, this trip has been pretty damn wonderful and today we put just a touch of additional gilding atop this L\u2019Opera dessert that was our July on the Continent. After our last petit dejeuner at hotel Belloy Saint Germain and a 35 minute RER train trip to Charles de …<\/p>\n