Thursday 20th September 2018
The alarm was set for 4 a.m. and the car picked me up just after five. It was dark and raining fairly heavily. We took the M6 Toll road to Birmingham Airport which I find I like like less each time I use it. Air France were to take me first to Paris on the AF1165. Well, I arrived in plenty of time but it was apparently still rather early because there was only one Air France check-in desk manned. After about twenty minutes, two more desks opened and then I was quickly and politely checked in. At least the Security area was not busy and I was processed without delay and without the usual irritation that the staff often display. I waited in the re-vamped 'Aspire' Lounge which Air France use - certainly an improvement on the former one. I watched an Air France A320 taxi in and correctly decided that it was my flight but arriving late so my departure would be late.
We were about 20 minutes late taking off partly because there were lots of cargo containers to be loaded.
Cargo loading in the rain, Birmingham Airport: the view from seat 1F.
The aircraft was a little 'tired' but the cabin staff were friendly and the flight just gave them time to serve a pleasant continental breakfast before we started our descent to Paris.
CDG airport (Charles de Gaulle) didn't seem particularly welcoming but (more by luck than good judgement) I managed to transit to the 'K' gates (involving a Siemens driverless train) and find the Air France lounge from where I'm posting this introduction. Now, I'm off to gate K22 for the AF1060 to Yerevan in Armenia.
Sorry if I sound crochety. Air travel seems to get harder.
Related posts on this website
This is the first of a series of posts describing my 'Golden Eagle' Caspian Odyssey trip. Clicking on the 'Next report' link displays the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report.
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Caspian Odyssey reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Caspian Odyssey reports.
My pictures
Birmingham Airport (this and earlier trips).
Paris: Charles de Gaulle Airport (this and earlier trips).
