Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Saga Of The Airport (or never arrive at Charles de Gaule at noon)

Published on Saturday, 10 May 2008 17:01

Written by Randy Martin

Oh, my God!! I always knew there was a reason we always arrived in Paris early in the morning, like 8:00AM. I just knew it instinctively, but I never really knew why I knew it -- until today.

OK, OK, so May is one of the biggest holiday months of the year for the French. There's May Day, May 1st, the French Labor Day. Then, there are religious holidays on the 8th (WWII Victory Day), 11th (Pentecost), 12th (Whit Monday). Normally, there is Acension Day, too, but this year it fell on May 1st, which is already a national holiday. And, when the holiday is on a Thursday or a Tuesday, the French do what any normal person would do, given the chance. They take the Friday or Monday off as well. The French are very devoted to long weekends.

So, when do we choose to arrive in Paris? Why on May 9th, of course, smack dab in the middle of one of those long weekends. And, this is an especially long weekend because not only was Thursday a holiday, but so is Monday, making for a five-day weekend -- the perfect opportunity for the French to travel.

Add to this the fact that a lot of American universities are already out for the summer, and you have hundreds of additional American young people arriving in Paris, both on vacation and on school trips.

Well, we got off the plane at 11:30AM this morning, and I thought we had landed at the Mexico City airport. We've been coming to France now since 1981, and I've never, and I do mean never, seen this many people at the airport. I didn't think it could be any worse, but that was before I got to the RER (train) station at the airport. Holy lost tourist, Batman! I estimate there were about 600-700 people wandering around the train station, looking exactly like zombies.

It took us two hours to get train tickets into Paris. But, we finally made it to our beloved Hotel Marignan.

We are exhausted, and to top it off, the wine bar down the street where we were going to eat lunch stopped serving at 2:00PM, and we got there about 2:20PM. So, we had to settle for crêpes! Ah, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Until next time, remember, you're wine glass should never be empty…

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