So this is a little bit late, but I hope you enjoy it...May be some of you burning up in this August Heat will cool down with some of the reporting..... Trip Report: ATL-CDG-NCE-CDG-ATL (December 24, 2003/Jan 1, 2004 A cheap fare found back in September led my wife and I to b ook the following during her Christmas break: AF301 ATL-CDG 24 Dec AF7702 CDG-NCE 25 Dec, and returning on AF7711 NCE-CDG AF316 on Jan 1. We arrived at the Atlanta Airport ab out 1300 for a scheduled 1420 departure. DL handles AF in Atlanta, and after about a 15 minute wait in line, we handed our Passports to the female ticket agent, telling her we had e-tickets and no baggage to check. We told her we were booked thru to Nice and then she asked if we were booked thru PHL, we said no, direct to Paris and she had difficulty finding our reservation. After much fumbling around, I recited the record locator to her (which for some reason I had memorized). She STILL couldn?t find our reservation so I fished the Air France confirmation out of my carryon bag and handed it to her....She looked very confused and then pointed out to me in somewhat broken English....?I am sorry, but you are booked tomorrow, 25 Dec!? I was a bit short with her incompetance by now and in a loud voice said ?No Maam, we are booked out ot Charles de Gaulle on 25 Dec!? She finally figured it out issued us Boarding Passes 41A/B to Paris and 2E/F on the A320 to Nice.l Oh well, it ain?t the same DL it used to be, once again..... Security was fairly efficient even tho there were quite a few folks traveling on Christmas eve....We hustled to the gate now, as we only had about 25 minutes to departure time....When we got to the gate, our A343 was awaiting us, but we noticed departure time had been pushed back to 1545. Checking with the agent, we were told due to late arrival from Paris and then bit later, he gave the usual P.A. about being able to make up the time enroute, and assurances of making connecting flights were made... We boarding a very nicely appointed AB340 (sorry, Bill Hough, yes my preference is Boeing, but all my travel in A340s have been comfortable), and found our way to our 41A/B. We pushed back about 40 or so minutes late, and got a fairly rapid departure and soon climbed up to 36 thousand after some time of with the seat belt sign on with some minor turbulence. Routing was pretty much the standard East Coast tracking east of DCA and BWI then over Cape Cod, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia....AF has the LCD seatback screens as well as the TV monitors at the centerline of the aircraft, About 6 movies were available as well as a lot of music and game options as well. A drink service with some tolerable French wine and Champagne was offered as well as 25cl Stella Artois (Belgian, go figure) Biere was offered. Then, much to my surprise, we were given menus with a choice of entree! Hey, am I in a time warp back into the ?80?s or what! No charge for drinks, and hot food! Oh yeah, now I re member, I ain?t on an American Carrier! The menu choices were: Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce Veal saute with wild Mushrooms or New Orleans-style chicken with Cajun sauce, wild rice buttered baby vegetables ______ Cheese Chocolate Raspberry cake Coffee and Tea Mary had the Poulet and I had the Veau, and both were excellent....The accompanied Brie and Dessert were nice touches as well. Mini-Bagguettes were offered and the whole service was done with style and attention. All the f/a?s were visible pretty much the whole trip, and refills of the wine were offered (tho they ran out of Rouge). I can rarely sleep over the pond, and watched the Generic moving map a good part of the way (it looked like the same setup we had on Cathay Pacific a couple of years ago, with Geographic waypoints mentioned that I have never heard of ). I got up mid Trans-Atlantic to stretch the legs to find the Cabin Crew in the somewhat spacious rear galley sitting in chairs around a metal ?Card Table? enjoying the bits and pieces evidently leftover from First and Business Class!.....We came in over Ireland, the U.K. and the north of France for a 30 minute or so late departure at Terminal 2E at CDG..... We were in a big hurry, hoping the make our connectiion and made a mad dash to the terminal(after a totally cursory passport check at Customs, we just held them in the air and were waved thru!) We rushed thru the tunnel to New Terminal 2F and quickly collared an agent at the information desk. He called the gate, and even though we had about ten minutes before departure he told us the that it was closed we wouldn?t get an A320 ride this morning, He then sent us about 10 feet or so away to another agent to re-book us...After a couple phone calls which I couldn?t figure out, we were re-booked on the 1025 departure on a 735. ....Interested sidelight, we were given meal vouchers without asking, however, I had mentioned this to the first agent....Later I talked with a passenger who also had the same misconnect scenario, and he wasn?t given them. The vouchers were only good for a pastrie and coffee at the somewhat dingy snack bar (why, in a new terminal, there are only stairs accessing it, we had to drag our carryons up and down!). A lot of the new terminal looked nice, but some of the stairways alreadly looked worn/chipped and worse than some of the train station stairways we were to encounter later in the trip in Italy! We were rebooked into seats 2EF on the 73, but I had already figured out that this meant nothing at all. After snaring an AF system timetable there, I found they have a plethora of seating arrangements on all the narrow-body aircraft....The flight ended up being fully booked and were delayed a few minutes by the lady in 1F coming back from the lav doing a diaper change for her kid (this is probably one delay we didn?t mind as we were only a short distance downwind). Flight 7702 was a reality check back into the real world. Cramped cabin on a 737, and the diapered kid started wailing somewhere over Lyon and all the way to the Cote d? Azur. Also, the service was more what we are used to....choice of Apple Juice, Orange Juice or coffee, and not much of that. Except for the screaming kid, the flight was pretty nondescript except for a very dramatic curving approach over a sunshine lit Meditennean into a runway built up and extending out into the sea. We arrived on time at exactly 12 noon and taxied by a couple of EasyJet 73?s and parked next to (I think) the A320 we should have been on earlier. Another sidelight.....While stuck at CDG for the 3 hour layover, I visited an ATM to get a few Euro?s...while there, I started talking to a young American girl in her late teens or so, who said she was off the flight from Miami and visiting her parent who live in Nice......As we were leaving the bag claim area and going out of security, this same girl (who was right in front of us) was confronted by a plainclothes gentlemant who produced a badge to her and asked her in English where she had come from and she replied ?Miami?. I didn?t think any more of it until a few seconds later I saw a uniformed Policeman with a German Shepard headed straight for her and the other guy.....A drug bust? mebbe, could have been a new version of the ?French Connection? (we ain?t THAT far from Marseille!..... After a week of riding trains in Italy and France, we prepared to make our return on a very early New Year?s day. As the flight was scheduled out at 0720, and it was a holiday. (I had doubs about the first schedule airport bus getting us there on time) we elected to reserve a room at the ETAP (must be French for tiny cubicle) Hotel right accros the street from NCE terminal 1. After a dropping our stuff there we caught a the 5 miles back into town, where we had a nice Nice dinner and walked over to the beach where New Years was already in Full Swing....Shortly after the start of 2004 we found ourselves trying to find a way back to the airport but, as New Years and labor unions would have it, there were no buses, cabs or trains headed out that way. Fortunately the five miles to the airport is urban well lit beachfront, and we ended up walking the whole five miles arriving exhausted about 0145. Need less to say, we weren?t to bright eyed as we made our way to the terminal in the pre-dawn darkness about 0545. The only consolation was the bright-eyed swet young thing checking us in, told my wife in French she hadn?t been up an awake since the New Year! There was a bit of a hassle before reaching her, as another agent insisted we check our not-THAT-big carryons to Atlanta. I was a bit miffed, as I knew damn well the A320 we were about to get on (and needless to say, the A340, has plenty of bin space......Oh well, nothing in those bag but some pretty dirty clothes, and we were on our way home.....Boarding AF7711 (is this a gambler?s special from Nice?) was on time and we pushed back a minuite or so beforethe scheduled 0725 departure. We climbed up south over the Med, and were treated to the first rays of the sun illuminating the Isnow covered talian Alps. Speaking of snow, the Captain came on and informed us the weather in Paris was a balmy 0 degrees C. and aome snow was expected.....We weren?t ready for what was to transpire next...... The Paris area was pretty cloudy as we descended into CDG. Then at about 300 feet or so, and in clear view of the parallel taxiway, OOOPS, a very abrupt change of attitude and we were going up at a pretty steep angle! The captain came on pretty quickly and explained the runway was blocked and that was the reason for the go-around...Hmm...I kinda had my doubts after the visuals, but Mon Capitan sure ain?t gonna say he screwed up and was too high! The relanding procedure took about 12 minutes or so, and as we landed we saw a line-up of Snowplows, and snowing like crazy but very little snow on the ground....This was to change pretty quick. As we taxied, you could tell the situation was getting worse rapidly. This time, we went to a remote stand and were deplaned on stairs to the waiting bus, did manage to get a shot of Mary against the plane and the snow, but were hustled quickly by an agent onto the bus. Once again we came into 2E with a trip over to 2F. We got there just as boarding was about to start, so no time to peruse the Givenchy and other Designer Duty-Free shops (as if we could afford anything there). Boarding was a bit late at about 1000. We found our way back to de back of de bus to 43AB, and it was pretty obvious we would not make our 1015 departure. The captain came on the P.A. and informed we would be delayed a bit because of the weather (Duh, it was snowing so hard it had covered the windows of the aircraft). We sat and sat, then finally at about 1100 we pushed back into a very slushy mess. Taxiways had been plowed though, but very little ground traffic was observed. We began a very slow taxi, and after about 15 minute we made our way around to terminal One were we c ould see 3 UA 777?s, USAirways 763, Ethiopian 76 among others. After about half an hour not moving, it was anmounce we would be there for awhile as runways were cleared, etc. Passengers then starting getting up to check out the lavs, etc. and after awhile I got up and wandered to the back galley and started chatting with the F/A?s. I asked if they had been in such a situation before, the guy had once, the female f/a never. They were quite friendly, and a bit later mentioned (after conferring with others in the crew) to do an ?Aperitif? service on the ground. I went back to my seat, and a few minutes later, they came through with the carts. Drinks were served along with the French version of Trail Mix (not bad tho). Then the pilot annouced we were lining up for de-icing and after making a 90 degree turn into the de-icing lane, I noticed quite a few 74?s, 77?s, and Busses lined up behind us. Finally after about another wait, after a long wait, we we cleared for takeoff, I will have to admit, the fact that it was New Years Day.....?What kind of Layover, or night before, the crew had before coming on duty? But I will have to say, the departure was quite normal, and the flight back was great. One of the Male F/A?s catered to us the entire flight back, I saw no French arrogance at all. Sorry for the details on the return, I have them somewhere, but, the Catering (interestingly enough) was not as great as on the outbound, or perhaps, am am not a very good French Gourmand! The wine, of course, was excellent, but interestingly enough, the beer was Belgian!, I guess the French have pride in the wines, and say the hell with beers, and we will bring in from Belgium! Whatever, anyways, the service could not have been better, made friends with one of the Male F/A?s (no not gay) who has a girlfriend in the states...He was more than accomodating, and later in the flight (of course, I gave him my story as well), he unloaded a few goodies (cheese, candies, etc,) on us. Yeah, I have the details downstairs somewhere, but I have already bored you with the outbound stuff (see below). The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, Cruising over Maine with frozen lakes in view, but very little snow on the ground....Arrival in ATL was pretty non-descript as well. Seems like whenever you take a trip internationaly on a new carrier, the Outbound, is new, just like Christmas, and the the return, albeit very nice, lacks the excitement of the Outbound. Granted, I have done AF before SCL-BNE-GEG, but that was a long time ago, and very different circumstances..... We got into Atlanta, and were met by quite a few outbound unhappy ATL-CDG pax who had been waiting sometime. Hey, what can you say, how often does a crippling snowstorm hit Paris! Sorry for the short finals on the return journey, but (a) It was nothing the right home about (b) I would have to go and find the menus, and I am sure most could care less). and (c) Thanks to Wally for A/C registration help but I would never get this report out if I screwed around any more! Thanks for your Patience, Bryant Petitt Cumming, GA BTW, As you probably know (and many listers already know) the way to write a trip repor is, particularitly on a long International journey like this, it to write it on the laptop as you go. I forgot a ton of stuff probably on the return, and my only excuse for the lack of documentation is the fact the laptop batteries on the old Toilet Seat MacIBook were failing. Thanks to Wally for getting me ship registrations which are not present in the report, but I think, most of you CGAS....... __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail