It was nice interesting that for an Air France departure from the U,S. check-in opened 30 hours before departure. Even if a Business Class upgrade offer was out of our reach, we could manage to pay a little for seats in the front row of the main cabin, and we took that offer that showed up at check-in.
We got the bus to Boston Logan Airport, check-in was normal, and we found that, at Terminal E, used almost only for international flights, a domestic flight on Sun Country Airlines was at our gate, delayed over four hours. There was no alternative gate for our flight, so the inbound aircraft needed to wait, delaying the cleanup for our flight and everything after that.
We boarded and found it nice to have the front row economy seats. Even if it was billed as standard legroom, it felt better to have the wall in front rather than a row of seats, and the third person in the aisle had infinite legroom. I heard not to have great expectations of AF’s food, and the chicken rice pilaf was ok. I pretty much didn’t sleep, but the flight was short enough and it was nice to have the A350’s big windows. The screen also had a camera view of the takeoff and landing.
We arrived about an hour late. We were at Hall M of Paris CDG Airport Terminal 2E. It took several turns and descents to get to the underground train to Hall K to start our way out. There was the odd setup where we needed to start one way to turn around and choose which lane to take based on passport nationality. For those that qualified, including the U.S., we went through e-gates, putting the passport on a reader while our faces are read to determine a match. Then there was a hall with signs to the different baggage carousels (our bags were ready). It was about an hour after arrival that we got into the taxi line; there were many people but it moved quickly. We noted the chill in the air after we came from a hot spell in Vermont. We got into a taxi and it took over an hour in rush hour traffic to get to our hotel in Montparnasse.
The desk agent said the room would be ready shortly, but I reminded her that I’d booked the previous night. We got what was called an upgraded room, maybe slightly bigger than the basic. Even this modern hotel had the traditional French practice of a toilet room separate from the bathroom. The neighborhood has a lot of modern buildings, with the Tour Montparnasse and other high-rises nearby.
After some rest, we took some walks around the neighborhood, including the historic theatre street Rue de la Gaîté.
The next day, our main outing was to the Musée Marmottan-Monet; in many visits to Paris, often focusing on museums, I don’t remember having been there, and we liked the good collection with several Monets. We went there with a Bolt rideshare and returned on the métro, having bought Navigo Easy cards that can be loaded with tickets. At La Muette station, the turnstiles were taped off and people went around them, so no fare was taken from the cards; I don’t know if we missed some procedure that we needed to follow.
As we sometimes like to do even if it’s against local custom, we had one main meal in the mid-afternoon, Chez Papa near our hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment