Over the next week or so I'll tell a bit about my latest adventures in Europe. It was a great trip that flew by way too fast. Day 1 was spent riding airplanes while Day 2 was spent in Paris and ended in Barcelona.
During the November trip I flew Virgin Atlantic to London. Virgin is supposed to be the young, hip airline but I wasn't overly impressed. This trip was booked on Delta and I have to give them high marks for their international coach service. Sure it's as cramped as any other economy section but they won me over with the entertainment system. Like most airlines they have "seat back video" installed. The difference is the shear volume of choices that are included for FREE. There were at least 10 television show episodes to watch, at least 20 movie choices in a variety of languages, about 20 airline music channels and dozens of CD's to listen to. (Including a techno channel called Hot Dance that had at least 10 dance/techno albums to choose from!)
We left another beautiful day in Orlando for a rainy connection in Atlanta. Fortunately there were no delays and we were soon on our way to Paris. Avoiding jet lag east bound requires that you get at least 3 hours of sleep and I was able to accomplish that goal on the overnight flight. Morning brought cloudy skies over the eastern Atlantic and western France but about 30 minutes before landing we suddenly went into the clear. There was a great view of the City of Lights as we began the descent into Charles DeGaulle Airport.
Our luggage was checked through to Barcelona and I booked the trip with an all-day layover. This allowed for a trip into the city which we accomplished via the RER train which runs from the basement of the airport directly into Paris. First stop of course was the Tour Eifel (Eifel Tower). The beautiful morning allowed for awesome views in all directions of the city. Then there was the long walk to the Arc de Triomphe, lunch along the Champs Elysses, a bus to the department store Printemps and then the long trek back out to the airport. (BTW, the shopping quality out at the airport was quite poor. No telling how much money is lost by not having better options.) The evening ended with an Air France connecting flight down to Barcelona. The flying time is not much more than an hour and including great view of the still-snowy Pyrenees mountains, the valley that includes the tiny country of Andorra (where I had visited a few years ago by car) and the approach into Barcelona along the Costa Brava sea coast.
Overall we didn't really enjoy Paris but it probably had more to do with being tired from the overnight flight than anything else. But the Weather Channel had predicted a rainy day there before we left Florida so to end up with a nice day made the stopover worthwhile.
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