Loire Valley: Arriving in Paris

Our experience at Dulles was relatively smooth. The three o’clock international rush is a bit intimidating. It took us about 50 minutes to check in and another 40 minutes to clear security. Arriving at the gate for a slightly late departure left us with about 30 minutes to spare. The flight was quite full and as we were about to enter the takeoff queue, the pilot came on with a reserved voice that announced that we would be returning to the gate. The ground crew had gotten freight loading happy and freight needed to be unloaded before takeoff. I know this is exactly the sort of thing a pilot dreads at Dulles because getting a precious takeoff slot can be a matter of minutes during the evening international flight rush. But, that appeared to be the only hiccup for our flight and the pilot tried to make up for the delay by getting us to Paris in 7 hours flat.

I am always reminded how dated a modern design can look when arriving into Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Perhaps it is the color of the cement walls or that anything plastic has not been replaced since it opened in 1974. Not even cheery signs plastered along the walls or simply arriving in Paris can lift the mood that the somber, prison-like design inspires.

We were quite fortunate that in arriving nearly an hour late somehow meant one of the smoothest arrivals in Paris that I have ever experienced. After landing we were able to sweep through immigration and receiving our baggage in under an hour with the only other people being those from our own flight. Off to find the car rental counter, we ran into a “security incident” barrier merely steps from the Hertz counter. The area had been evacuated. Two army men, a police officer, and a security incident person stood what can only be described as nonchalantly across the hallway. I say nonchalantly because in addition to ourselves, many other travelers attempted to simply walk by them. This flustered the young army men who would then try to explain that, no you may not go this way. No, we cannot tell you what it is about. Then, they would turn to each other and aloud wonder why everyone kept trying to pass them. I had a few theories, but wasn’t going to elaborate directly to the army men. Let us just say that when you hold an automatic rifle like it is a glass of wine while you talk up and joke with your buddy the police officer, it sets a mood of casual affairs that clearly the crowd picked up on.

I find car rentals in any country (including my own!) quite frustrating. Even with Hertz’s top status thanks to Jacob’s mad travel schedule, we still didn’t end up with the car we reserved. I would love to know if anyone ever ends up with exactly the car that they have reserved in advance. I had been looking forward to driving the relatively new Peugot 308 HDI diesel hybrid which is in Hertz’s green collection. Instead, I was given the Peugot 307 which I think should only marginally qualify as a green car. Certainly it is diesel and diesel is much cleaner in Europe than it is in America, but it still lacks any hybrid component. As I dickered with the agent at the counter about the lack of a 308, my choices became a Mercedes A class or the 307. All six feet of me with my mother and three pieces of baggage had a good laugh about the prospect of the A class before snatching up the 308 keys and heading downstairs to the parking area.

Now, again, one really questions the dismal design of Terminal 1 then the ways in which people design its usage. I appreciated the ease it took to get from the rental counter to the parking space. I did not appreciate that the hatchback was back into a space guarded by concrete struts. While I ducked going in, I failed to duck going out and now have a sizable goose egg on my noggin and a bruise on my bum from my own stupidity. I am simply happy that I did not end up with a concussion.

Since it was still quite early, I was able to smack the GPS onto the windshield and head out of the airport with very little traffic. Nearly all of the traffic we saw was heading into the airport, instead. It was a bit grey with stormy weather blowing through but not enough to keep us from stopping by Vaux le Vicomte as planned.