Monday, June 6, 2011

Stuck in Paris!

On our trip to Oslo this past week, we flew through Paris. CDG to be exact. Our trip home however was a different matter. Not wanting to take a six am flight out of Oslo Sunday morning, we opted for a 1230 departure, but one that had us switching airports in Paris. Little did we know what we were in for.

Roberts volunteered to write a guest blog on "how to navigate CDG." I told him for that he needs his own blog! Or maybe a 12 hour a day talk show... In any case, here is a tip when traveling to ORLY from CDG. You need to go pick up your baggage, then go terminal 2F and downstairs to the taxi area. There is a bus area beyond the taxi area, where you will find Le Cars (buses) with various destinations; EuroDisney and ORLY among them. The trip costs 19 euro per adult and takes about 1.5 hours.

He sure didn't spend the whole weekend passed out

Upon reaching ORLY, Lauris received his second pat-down, although they didn't check his diaper like in Atlanta. The airport was a madhouse; terribly long lines and waiting areas so full that the floors were all taken as well. And this was before any flights were cancelled. Note to parents with small children; ORLY does not allow strollers past security, be prepared to carry your child around once at the gate.
 

This would not have been so bad had the flight not been cancelled after we boarded the plane and sat on the tarmack for two hours. Then of course mass confusion, and by the time we were issued new tickets, shuttled to the hotel and checked in there, it was 1am. Fast forward to this morning, our flight for which we arrived at the airport before 8am for has been delayed two hours and we are once more waiting. But I keep reminding myself, bad weather happens. The last two times I was stranded overnight was in ATL, and I don't remember being comped a hotel room.

Looking for positives in this mess I see the doctor's station here in ORLY. Lauris took ill yesterday and we were able to see a doctor to get the necessary prescriptions, as well as have them filled right here in the airport for about 45 euro. Compare that to an emergency room visit? But even this would not have been necessary had we not been stuck here all day. So lesson learned; fly into CDG, fly out of CDG. And when you get stuck in an elevator there, the nice mechanics will be over tout suite!


* Now that this is out of my system I will be able to concentrate on the adventure we had in Oslo; stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. I've done the Gatwick to Heathrow transfer before and it sucks! Now I never ever fly in and out of two different airports in one city, I'd rather wake up at some ungodly hour than deal with the hassle.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yep, we were trying to avoid ungodly hours but ended up making everything worse for ourselves! But otherwise it was a wonderful trip, I really shouldn't complain. I'll file it under "lessons learned."

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