Making the most of it....

The second week of the month I was given a Paris trip on reserve.  What made it especially cool was that I would be covering a trip out of Boston to Paris and my friend Anne was part of the Boston based crew working the flight.  Anne and I have been friends since we were new hires back in Boston in the early days of our flying careers.  Thru the power of Facebook, we'd reconnected, but I had not seen her in years.  Three of us were deadheading to Boston cover the flight since it upgraded to a 767 from a 757.


The deadhead up to Boston was full and I had a middle seat in the back of a packed 757.  I sat next to a nice guy from Austin named Weldon who was also on his way to Paris to do a couple of concerts at Disneyland Paris.  He was a nice guy and he even gave me a CD of his music.  You can check out his website at http://www.weldonhenson.com.


Because the flight was upgraded to a larger plane, we had lots of open seats since the booking levels remained the same.  The flight to Paris is much shorter out of Boston, just under 7 hours, so we don't get crew rest or anything, which is kind of lame, but it is what it is.

Anne and I enjoyed catching up and I was excited because we would get to hang out in Paris together, BUT, the four of us who were added to the crew with the equipment upgrade were all scheduled to layover at a hotel at the airport and not in town!  Nothing could be more miserable than spending 27 hours in an airport hotel with nothing to do.

Soooooo, when you are handed lemons, you make lemonade.  Two of my co-workers, Ed and Juanita, and I decided to take the RER train into Paris and get out and see some of the city.  We all met up in the hotel lobby that afternoon after our naps and headed into town.  The good news is that there is direct train service from the airport to the center of town, so while it takes a while, it's relatively easy to get there.

The train made about million stops and with each one, got more and more crowded.  Of course there was a lady with a stroller the size of a small car who tried to get on an otherwise packed train!  We exited around Notre Dame cathedral.  I decided a foot shot would be a great addition to my "Around the World with my Feet" album.  The bad news was that it was raining and everything was dirty and damp, but Ed let me borrow his USA today so my butt didn't get moist.

I also stumbled upon the "Center of the Universe" which is the kilometre zero in Paris.  Not sure what it means to the planet, but everyone gets their pictures taken on it and people throw money around it and the gypsies collect it.

After leaving Notre Dame, we made our way over the Seine to the Hotel de Ville, the famous building that used to serve as the City Hall of Paris.  It's the site of the famous photograph of the kissing couple taken around 1950.

Given the weather, it was not super busy here so I grabbed my own photo.  Not much has changed, although now there is a modern fountain to the left of the building.  As we were walking around the neighborhood, we saw a man get hit by a cyclist, which was a little upsetting.  The cyclist didn't seem to care, and since I don't speak french, I tried to give the "ok" symbol to the poor pedestrian, who responded with a "oui" so I am guessing he was ok, and he did get up and walk away.  I think he might have broken his iPod though.

After buying some french moutard (mustard) at a little bodega, we stumbled upon a little pedestrian side street and a neat little pizzeria called Tresor.  We enjoyed a nice bottle of red wine and some great food.

We made our way back to the train station and began the long train ride back to Roissy.  At this point, it's close to 11pm, so we are getting sleepy.  The hotel is supposed to run a van to the train station every 15 minutes, but after 45 minutes, and still no van, we found a kind security guard who let us use his cell to call the hotel and get a van sent our way.


I finally put my head on my pillow around midnight.  I was a little miffed when I woke up a mere two hours later and was WIDE awake.  I never did go back to sleep and there was not much in the way of non-French television.


We were scheduled to deadhead home to base and the flight was not full in coach.  Jane, our third co-worker got an upgrade, but Juanita and I were stuck in the back.  We had a row to ourselves, but there was a bratty little kid behind us who kicked our seats for the entire 10 hour flight home.  I was so tired that after lunch, I even managed to sleep a few hours while the little spawn of the devil continued to terrorize everyone around her.