Travel to Rennes

Timeframe: (Nov 1, 2008 - Nov 2, 2008):

Salt Lake Airport

I thought being early was a good plan since Delta hadn't printed my boarding pass for the last leg of my flight (Paris to Rennes) when I checked in on Friday. When I talked to the lady at the Delta counter on my way in she said it had something to do with the fact that the last leg was with Air France and Delta couldn't print out boarding passes for them. She also told me I should talk to the people behind the counter at Charles DeGaulle in Paris.

So since I ended up being way too early it gave me a chance to search the airport for the 'only tasty Philly in SLC' (Geoff Sheehan). My gate was in terminal D, but there didn't seem to be anywhere that sold Phillies there, so I started combing the airport to see what I could find. As I was walking over to terminal C I noticed that Dick Clark's restaurant sold Phillies, but I assumed that there was no way Geoff had actually sat down at a restaurant at the airport to eat, so I kept looking.

No one in terminal C seemed to sell Phillies at all, so I headed over to the terminal at the other end of the airport (which had terminals A & B in it). But, after 30 minutes of wandering around I still hadn't found another place that sold Phillies anywhere in the airport. As I headed back Dick Clark's I began to realize why Craig is always so particular about how light his laptops are. These things do seem to get heavier for every mile you walk.

The search was worth it though, I don't think I've had such a tasty Philly Cheesesteak here in Utah before. It seems that the main difference is that they season their meat very well. Anyway, you didn't come here to read about sandwiches, so I'll move on now. (Geoff, please let me know if this was the place you were talking about)

Salt Lake to Cincinnati

The flight from SLC to Cincinnati was actually a lot of fun. I know, I know, how can sitting in a small coach seat at the back of the plane for 3 hours be fun? Well, first of all there was no one else on my row but a small Japanese man, and he decided to move to the other side of the plane (which was totally empty), so I had the entire row to myself. And also, they've now put in individual entertainment centers into that little video screen on the back of the seat in front of you. They have music, TV shows, and even some video games ($6 for all the silly little games you'd usually find on your phone), along with some Pay-Per-View movies from HBO and the like. I kept myself busy playing the free Trivia game which asks random questions and allows you to track your score against everyone else on the plane who is currently playing. It was kind of fun until the turbulence made me hit the Exit button instead of the OK button.

Cincinnati to Paris:

The flight from Ohio to Paris wasn't as much fun. There was no little video screen to occupy myself with, although the plane was slightly bigger. Thankfully there was even enough room in the overhead compartments to hold my backpack so I didn't have to store it at my feet, giving me much needed legroom.

They had a movie or two (nothing too exciting) and some TV shows on the general screens. I tried to sleep a bit but it didn't seem to work very well (I slept for maybe an hour, tops). Although through the dark of night I think I saw some lights that were Limerick Ireland, and perhaps some lights from the southern Irish coast. We passed over Cardiff (according to the video-maps), but I don't remember seeing it. Maybe that was the hour that I was sleeping. Unfortunately I don't remember seeing anything coming into Paris (although I overheard someone else say it was pretty). Perhaps all the cool stuff was on the other side of the plane.

Charles De Gaulle Airport

Now, this part was a little more hair raising. My plane from the states was supposed to land at 8:55 am, and my connecting flight to Rennes was supposed to take off at 9:55 am. I thought I was in the clear when we landed at 8:30, but the problem was I completely underestimated how much runway this airport has. I swear we spent 20-25m taxing to our gate on the other side of the airport. It's the longest plane trip on the ground I've ever taken :) Then there was customs. It wasn't that the lines were especially long, it was just that I seemed to pick the wrong one and the police officer kept taking people behind me and putting them at the head of a new line. Also, when I finally got to the little cubicle with a person inside it, they asked me no questions, took my passport, looked at it, handed it back and said 'au revoir'. I got no stamps, no VISA, no nothing. I really hope this isn't a problem later.

So I find out my next flight leaves from gate G39. I see signs all over for terminal G2 so I start following those. Unfortunately after taking me up a flight of stairs, down a corridor, down another flight of stairs the sign tells me that terminal G2 is outside! Outside? Why would there be a terminal outside? Looking out the door there's only parking lot after parking lot, along with some car ramps up to other parking lots. My flight leaves in 40 minutes and the sign tells me I should go outside. Well, I wander around looking for more signs thinking there has to be a way though the airport some how. But all signs for G2 lead to that doorway and out into Paris. Finally after some searching around outside a bus pulls up and it says Terminaux G2 on it. Hooray! After asking the driver if this is the bus for terminal G, I hop on.

Apparently, since I left the airport, once I get to terminal G2 I need to go through another security line. But I don't have a boarding pass! So I run up to some nice women near the automated computer things and we find out that I can't use the computer things, that I have to go wait in line at the desk. After talking to the lady behind the desk I find out the reason that I had problems at the computer is because I'm all ready checked into this flight. She prints me a boarding pass and off I go. Through the line, up the escalator in a large room with lots of people, but no gate signs? It seems there are some people behind the desk at the other end of the room so I go talk to them.

Turns out that this is just a huge waiting room. What you have to do is wait there and watch the board and wait for your flight to get a gate assignment. Once an assignment shows up on the board, you are then allowed to go through a door that takes you to all the gates. Unfortunately this last plane was really small so they wouldn't let me take my luggage with me. But fortunately they just put it on the plane before we took off and I got it as soon as I came down the steps. So there was very little chance of them losing it.

Paris to Rennes

This was a pretty short flight (44 minutes) so there wasn't much time to notice anything. I tried to see Paris on the way up, but didn't notice much. I asked the guy sitting next to me and he said Paris was on the other side of the plane, so I guess I just got unlucky. The plane was full of high school aged kids, and all the guys were reading the local soccer rag. The flight was short and uneventful.