Flying North to travel South.

[OZDUCK]

We decided to go straight to CDG from Bordeaux. There are only a couple of direct trains a day that do this route. This was the most expensive long distance train we took and was also the worst. It was a TGV but must have been a very early one as it was pretty worn and not very comfortable. The A/C was virtually ineffective. It was a 36C day and it was no cooler than that inside the train.

It was just under a four hour trip as it stopped at a number of stations and did not run on the high speed line very often. It goes through Tours and near to Orleans. Then it loops around Paris via Disneyland and CDG and eventually terminates in Lille. The TGV to Paris can do the trip in just over 2 hours. There had been no English announcements on the train until we got to the Disneyland station and then some announcements were made in perfect English. The train was always pretty busy but for the 20 or so minutes between Disneyland and CDG it was packed.

The legroom was very poor especially considering this was First Class.



This seat was occupied by a youngish guy who spent an hour on his phone pleading with someone not break up with him. Lots of tears and sobbing - not very comfortable to listen to him. However by the time he got off he seemed cheerful again and had apparently won them back again.





Some views on the way

Angouleme



The TGV's have a few windows that are kept clear of transfers etc that block the views. You can see CDG through this one.



Crossing the Loire in Tours



The white pylon is for the new cable car system being built in the S.E of Paris. It will be part of the public transit system and connects to the Metro

The first cable car in the Île-de-France region of Paris is nearing completion - Urban Transport Magazine

Flying over a motorway, a railway line and a park to school, work or the station at a height of over 50 metres? This will soon be a reality between Créteil and Limeil-Brévannes in the south-east of Paris. With the construction of the first urban cable car in the entire Paris conurbation...

www.urban-transport-magazine.com

 

[OZDUCK]

We used the Geographotel nearby CDG. It is one of a number of close-by hotels that offer a free shuttle service and are much cheaper than the hotels at CDG. However I would not recommend this one. The shuttle bus was a bit of a rattletrap and too small. We had to wait for the next pickup - only about 30 minutes - as it was full the first time around. The hotel is very clean, fairly modern and the staff were friendly. However the room we had was incredibly small. Far smaller than places like a Holiday Inn Express. You had to pretty much open the bathroom door to dry yourself after a shower. The bed, which was admittedly comfortable, almost touched the walls on either side. The only place we could put our suitcases was on the floor blocking the door. The A/C wasn't working because the date to switch it on hadn't been reached is not the first time we ran across this, regardless of the outside temperature. At least we could open the windows.

The hotel - the height of the plane gives you an idea how close to CDG it was. The perimeter fence was probably only a km away in a straight line but with the convoluted layout of the roads around CDG it was about a 7 km trip.



The breakfast did actually look to be good value but we were able to eat in the airport lounge so didn't try it.

The hotel is in the small village of Le Mesnil-Amelot. It is a very well tended place with several food options. We just had some basic Lebanese food. There is a very nice little park were we sat and had our take-away.





We took the shuttle back to CDG at about 0600. The passport check was quick but the security check was chaotic. I thought it was the worst I had experienced until we went out of Berlin a few weeks ago. That wasn't chaotic just glacially slow and understaffed.

Etihad uses the Paul Maxence by Extime lounge airside in Terminal 1. It was very quite at this time of day. The staff were friendly and the food choices pretty good. One poor staff member was harangued by an American woman because they didn't have US style granola. There was also a
boarding call for our flight.





The Etihad A380 has not had a cabin refresh for a number of years but it was still very comfortable



Once we were airborne my view was mostly of the wing



An iconic plane



My wife did get a few nice photos from her seat





I assume that our plane had either hit a bird or an extremely large insect when it landed in Paris. There was blood splatter over the lens of the tail camera