Home Again

This is just a quick post to let you know that I got home late yesterday evening.

We had to fly via Paris Charles de Gaulle, an airport I really don’t like and try to avoid whenever possible. And yesterday’s stopover once again reminded me why. Because first, the plane from Dublin took an entire circuit around the airport to reach its parking position, then the airfield bus took another circuit around the entire airport to dump us at a terminal, whereupon we had to walk through the entire terminal to catch another airport bus outside which drove around the entire airport yet again to take us to another terminal. We also had to pass through two security checks during that time. And when our flight was finally ready to take off, it circled the entire bloody airport yet again. As inefficient design goes, this one has to be the kicker. And we didn’t even have to go out to Terminal 1, which is practically an airport to itself.

As airports go, Charles de Gaulle is pretty damn ugly as well. There’s a lot of construction work going on and they’re obviously trying, but the ghost of Le Corbusier is still wafting even through the new bits. They’re way too much in love with concrete there. And dressing up concrete with cheerful carpets doesn’t make it any less concrete. Sometimes I think that the architects have forgotten that the airport is only named after Charles de Gaulle and that they weren’t supposed to build its tomb.

On the plus side, I saw an Airbus A380 docked at one of the terminals, which is still a pretty uncommon sight. I also saw one of the surviving Air France Concordes on display.

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