Day 43 - October 13 - Saturday
Decided we would walk to the Air France shuttle by the Arc de Triomphe. Walked along the Champs Elysee, stopped and had our last expensive coffee at Georges IV. Ouch! It was a bit crowded as the World Rugby Cup had been going on for the last few weeks and there were more tourists on the weekends in Paris. We left and arrived at the bus stop. One bus had left and another one had pulled up but the two men wouldn't let anyone on until 'they' decided it was time. They just kep shooting the breeze for another 15 minutes.
We finally got on the bus, which is supposed to leave every 20-30 minutes for Charles De Gaulle airport. Time goes by and they are still letting people on the bus even though it's past time. I guess this is the civil service system at work! They finally leave and we get to the airport in about 30 minutes. We are dropped off, but notice there are no signs anywhere for any of the airlines. We go inside and have to ask several people where the AA check in area is located. Really a crazily designed airport!
Got my bag searched - they pulled out the pesto and snowglobes but let me through with it. (little did I know, at least in the US you can't carry snowglobes at all on board). Business class was awesome! We had a retrofitted plane with the new lay flat pod-style seats, DVD entertainment system, bigger overhead bins. Food was great - salmon , steak, pizza for a snack, ice cream sundaes, wine, champagne.
Customs and Immigration at Chicago was easy to get through. Having to go back through security stunk. My bag got searched and they saw the pesto and made me put it in a smaller ziploc bag versus the bigger one it was in - go figure! They didn't bother to check for the snowglobes - which is what the Xray guy saw in the first place. I don't feel safer. Got back home around 12:30 am and took the shuttle bus and arrived about 1:30 am.
Tired, happy and sad!
