A message to Charles de Gaulle officials: your airport is in disrepair.
One of every two elevators is out of order. It’s a similar story for the escalators, moving walkways, cash machines, and phones. Those phones that do work are of such poor quality that everyone on the other end sounds like vintage Buzz Aldrin, regardless of distance.
The only positive side affect from the lack of maintenance is the sparrow nest inside Terminal 2, which provided some entertainment while I waited for you to locate the bags you lost and damaged.
The rest of the day, however, was ripe with delight and wonder. I met some of my best friends, previously only known to me through the interweb, embarked on a leisurely teaser tour of Paris (which took us under the Eiffel, over the Seine, and in the tres cool Pompidou), and engorged on fine cuisine.
The night ends with this report from my own private apartment on a narrow street made for postcards and movies. I’ll be back home in Salt Lake tomorrow. What a long week this has been.
Yeah, thanks for the day too, Stewf. sorry about not knowing the train too well.... yeah, tonight marked the end of your final trip in europe. I hope you will have a good voyage tomorrow. And some good memories
Pascal commented that you seemed a bit uncomfortable or a bit shy, which is a bit different from the way of lex's shyness. But we did enjoy the dinner too, just too bad we couldn't talk a lot, the restaurant was too noisy.
Told you, next time if you are in town, I will take you to the district near République, where there are some nice old signages, and deserted place, with traces of the past. It is a rare part of Paris, and it won't stay very long like that.
Hope to see you some time some where
hugs
Posted by: naf | June 16, 2004 at 05:28 PM
:O I didnt know you were leaving so soon! I had forgotten about your plans in France :( I hope you get to read the email Ive sent you & I wanted to thank you again for the wonderful package because it made my day.
Good luck with the moving & I hope you have a great time while you stay in Salt Lake. Maybe I'll get a chance to visit you next year when I move back to the states (Im told I might get a job offer in Sn Diego!)
lots of hugs and kisses
anna
Posted by: anna | June 17, 2004 at 04:27 AM
What? You go to CDG and you don't marvel at its rich typographic history?
I named my wireless internet router Charles (Airport, get it?) after CDG. I do love that Fruitger.
Posted by: Dyana | June 17, 2004 at 09:24 PM
By the way, I would like to announce, in case anyone was unsure: I am a huge dork.
Posted by: Dyana | June 17, 2004 at 09:28 PM
And I misspelled Frutiger.
Ok, I'm done now.
Posted by: Dyana | June 17, 2004 at 09:29 PM
Ok, now try to make some money to be able to come back soon…
ps : i need to get used to the american hug. I need to pratice more ;)
Posted by: neuelex | June 19, 2004 at 04:10 AM
Did you see the bum who sleeps there?
CDG is a bit of a disaster, but Jess and I had a worse experience coming back from Cannes, where last-minute transport plans required that we rent a car and drive to Paris (8 hours away) overnight. The drive, even the part through the busy city, went fine, but once we got to the airport and drove around for 15 or 20 minutes looking for gas, we spent an hour driving around the freight area of the airport because there were very few signs pointing back to the main area, and those signs made it even less clear where to return the rental car, as we had to go down a narrow, hidden little passageway.
Now, this was the day after terminal E had COLLAPSED, and it just so happened that that's were we returned our car. No one thought to tell us or post a sign informing us where to enter the airport, they just locked the doors. We had a nice walk around, stressing what should have been an early arrival turning into us almost missing our one-hour check-in deadline. Good times.
But hey, at least you got to see Paris!
Posted by: Jeremy J-Dawg | June 19, 2004 at 12:09 PM