Travel Day - All day and then some

Posting for the 10/24, Tuesday.

Our travel day home was a long one.  It started early at 5:00 am local time.  First issue of the day was the hotel could not accept Sharon's credit card to pay for the room because it was not “chip and pin”.  The hotel did not have a machine that could read the magnetic strip.  Sharon had been using it the whole trip so far, without a problem.  Fortunately, Steve had a chip and pin card, so he offered to put our room on his card.  The alternative would have been an early morning ATM run for Sharon and it was still dark outside.  It was really nice of him to do that.  That situation will definitely be getting fixed with an updated card with the chip and pin before the next trip!

After check out, we walked over to the train station to catch our 7:36 local train for the 10 minute ride to Champagne-Ardenne.  We had a 28 minute wait at C-A, so just enough time for Steve and I to go up to the station and get cafes & croissants.  Our TGV train was on time and we arrived at CDG at 8:56 am.  You don’t really feel how fast the trains are going when you are on them, but when you are sitting on the platform at the station and one whizzes through without stopping you are almost literally blown away.  It’s pretty impressive.

Arrival at CDG was pretty slick.  Upstairs from the train level we found an information booth right away and they were able to tell us which terminals and gates we needed for our flights.  After that, it was just a matter of following the signs.  Turns out our Delta flight was leaving at 1:40pm from terminal 2E and Steve & Bonnie’s United flight was leaving at 12:35pm from terminal 1, so we said good-bye to them at that point and set off to find our gate.  It was still a process to get out there so we were glad we were not pressed for time.  It’s a good thing we did not take the later train that morning.

As it was, we had plenty of time to get through security, find our gate, and shop for Lauduree macarons and chocolates.  We also had time for a nice sit-down lunch with a glass of wine at an Art Café.  Terminal 2E seems to be a brand new terminal.  Sharon doesn't think It was same one she flew out of before.  It was very nice and not crowded at all.  Sharon panicked a bit when she did not see Lauduree at first, but finally we spotted it. Sharon was really looking forward to those macarons!  Flight to JFK was uneventful.  Steward told us we did not need to fill out customs forms because we had US passports.  That was different than last year.

We arrived at JFK terminal 4 on time, but had to circle for about 20 minutes before we could land.  It was a bit worrisome because we only had 2 hours and 23 minutes to make our connection.  Sharon said the customs/immigration process has improved since last year, but it still took some time.  The corridor that was a sea of humanity last year was organized into 3 separate and distinct lines, and there was almost no one in it, so it was a breeze to get to the customs room.  That is where the lines started, but it was pretty well organized.  First line, we found out why we didn’t need to fill out customs forms on the plane.  They now have banks of automated customs machines.  You insert your passport, answer all the questions and let the machine take your picture.  It then gives you a printed receipt with your picture on it.  Next line is to see the immigration officer and have your passport stamped.  After that it is baggage claim and recheck for those who are doing that.  We had kept our bags, but we had to hand over our receipts to leave the baggage claim area.  Officially back in the USA.

Next stop was departures information where we found out our connecting flight to PDX was leaving from terminal 2.  ARRGH!  That meant taking the Air Train for one stop, going outside to walk across the street to the baggage level of terminal 2 and taking the elevator up to the departures level where chaos ensued.  According to Sharon, things have not improved at terminal 2.  Security line was awful.  They only had one scanner working for general boarding and one scanner for all the priority boarding.  And it was crowded.  And people were cranky.  It took forever to get through security.  We would have just barely made our flight if it had been on time, but fortunately for us it was running about 10 minutes late.  Finally had time to stop at the restroom and then purchase a sandwich and fruit salad to share on the plane.  No time for a leisurely meal and glass of wine at JFK!  (Sharon apparently had been thinking about a shrimp cocktail and bottle of wine that was shared with her friends when leaving through terminal 4 last year.)  Then we had to wait.  The boarding process was very slow and disorganized.  We were zone 3 for boarding, so among the last to get on the plane.  They ended out wanting to check our bags on the jetway, so we said fine.  We did have a nice surprise when we finally got to our seats.  Sharon had booked 2 aisle seats across from each other, but the window and middle seats by Sharon were empty, so I moved over to her row and we had plenty of room for the flight home.  After all the crowding at the terminal, that was a relief.  We also noticed that many of the overhead compartments were empty so we don’t know why we had to check our bags.  In spite of all the delays, we were only about 25 minutes late getting into Portland.

By the time we got to Portland, Sharon was beyond crying tired.  We had been up for 26 hours by that time, with nothing more than a few cat naps on the planes.  Sharon slept for almost 10 hours when we finally got home and into bed.  Now we are both trying to adjust to the local time.  I'm really glad I didn't try to go to work this week.

Waiting for our first train in Reims.  The first was a local train that we got off of on the next stop.

 Fast train to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Our train

The giant departure board.  This is where we parted with Steve and Bonnie.  Our planes were in different terminals.

It was interesting, the closer you got to your gate, the smaller the board, or so it seemed.

After going through security and reaching our gate, Sharon had some serious shopping to do.  She was converting all of our euros to macaroons and chocolate. :)

We were doing our best to get rid of all the euros we had.  We had less than a euro when we got on the plane.

Our last meal in France at the Art Cafe.

That's a fruit bowl?