Its been a busy week with trips to Paris & London,well Nanterre and Hayes actually the less than glamourous western parts of the cities but Paris & London sounds a lot more interesting. Arriving at Paris CDG their Passport Control seemed like they were trying to challenge the USA for title of the world’s slowest border control and they were attempting it without visas, fingerprinting and face scans just being painfully slow.
It’s always a challenge getting from Charles De Gaulle airport to the hotel in Nanterre; taxis invariably get lost usually having to stop and ask for directions and now even with sat nav the taxi took 3 or 4 wrong turns before depositing me & my colleague in a soulless concrete square about 100 metres from the hotel. By the time I’d checked in the hotel restaurant had closed.
After a very productive days work it was back to the airport for the Easyjet flight to Liverpool. CDG is a truely depressing airport. After trekking up and down the terminal a couple of times, asking people for directions the Easyjet check in desk was finally located tucked away round a corner which looked like it was through passport control. The check-in desk was manned by people with all the charm and helpfulness of a dead wombat but eventually I got my hand on the boarding card. Time then to get some food before the flight but no - in this country famed for its cullenary delights the only food available was a pathetic chicken sandwich or a smaller and even sadder looking jambon salad. Once through into the departure area there was nothing other than a machine dispensing crisps and chocolate bars so it was a case of leave it to the flight.
I’d paid extra for the Speedy boarding option with Easyjet which avoids having to join the scrum to board the plane. The one drawback is that you get to board before passengers with small children. This means you don’t have the opportunity to choose a seat furthest away as possible from babies & toddlers. So I had the delight of spending the flight sat across from a family with 2 children of about 18 months and 3 years old. The younger one specialised in spontaneous screaming whilst the older one kept repeating a line from an Abba song so I had the joy of
money money money always funny in a rich man’s world
money money money always funny in a rich man’s world
money money money
Waaaah
always funny in a rich man’s world
Money Waaah money Waaah money in a rich Waaah Waah mans world
When th eEasy kiosk came round with the food all the sandwicheshad gone so tead was a Mars bar & coffee. The guy in the row in front asked for some perfume from the ‘duty free’ ……
Have you got that one No
What about that - I’ll go and check …….. No
That one - No actually all we’ve got is the two on special offer
He then turned to the gift pages
Have you got this ?? No
What about this? I’ll ask a colleague …… No, we’ve got chocolates.
Ok I’ll have those.
Then over the tannoy - The EasyShop has a wide selection of perfumes and gifts avaiable ask a stewardess.
Oh the joys of travel