I work for an IT company, and the main vendor I deal with is a certain French telephone system manufacturer.  A couple of times a year it is inevitable that I have to go on courses to keep up to speed with the latest of software and hardware.

For this particular training course I should have been in Vienna, however at the last minute it was cancelled, so I was put on the course the following week, in the not quite so glamorous Brest, France.I would have presumed getting to our neighbouring country to be a lot easier than going further afield, but alas it was not to be.

The only direct flights to Brest within a 3 hour drive from home was with Ryanair from Luton, however the flight only goes twice a week, on a Thursday and Saturday.  Absolutely no use for a training course running from Monday to Friday!  My only option was to fly on Air France via Paris.
I opted to travel from BHX as it is slightly further away than MAN, but is motorway all the way so I can be there in 1:20 from home.  The flights also connected nicely with a couple of new aircraft types for me, so that was a bonus!

I checked in online 30 hours before, a process that was very smooth and I reserved seat 6A on each flight, remembering that 5A on the Avro RJ has no window from my previous experiences on the type.

Sunday soon came around and I spent the morning packing my bag, and getting things sorted for my time in France, such as getting the webcam working on the laptop to stay in touch with home, and letting Orange know I was travelling abroad.

 

I got ready to set off at about 3pm, meaning I would arrive about 20 minutes prior to boarding.  I said goodbye to my wife and headed for the car.  I stay away with work several times a month around the UK, usually for a few days but occasionally for a week or more.  It never gets easier leaving my wife, if anything it gets more difficult with time.  There's a certain novelty to it at first, me travelling around and her getting the bed and remote to herself, but after a while it becomes tiring and more of a chore.  This time was particularly difficult as I'd be abroad, even though it was for only 5 nights.  Keeping in touch would be more difficult than ever, and on my return I would be at home for two nights then away for another night at the other end of the UK!

Needless to say I set off on schedule, and promptly got stuck for 10 minutes on the M1 in the roadworks – where somebody had broken down in a Citroen (there's a surprise :-)) and blocked lane 1.

I pulled over to grab some tea from McDonalds, and eventually arrived at BHX at 16:30, giving me 20 minutes to drop my bag, nip through security and head to the gate.

As I walked across to the terminal I noticed how windy it was – a lovely clear day but very windy.
Bag drop was very quick, didn't even get asked the usual security questions.  Security again was fast, hardly any queue at this time on a Sunday.  I was soon emerging into what used to be the BA Eurohub Terminal before they buggered off, needless to say it has changed a lot since then.  It is now the home of FlyBe and Ryanair, as well as a few full service airlines such as Air France and KLM.

It was pretty busy through here as there were a few BE/FR flights going.  I found a window and no sooner did I get there did I see a CityJet Avro RJ on short final for runway 33.  After a few minutes it taxied in and took position on stand 4, or door F on the passenger side.

A PSA came running along shouting down her radio and asking why the plane had gone to stand 4.

 

Nothing else was seen or heard, but I waited here on my own and sure enough at 17:05 we were called to board through door F.  A long queue quickly built up behind me but the door was not opened.  After about another 5 minutes a lady came and opened the door.  "I'll hold you down here for now as the queue's backing up into the lounge" she said, summoning us down a corridor to a gate at the end.  I felt like a passenger on the Titanic, as the gate was shut and there was no way out :-).  "I'm really sorry" said the gate agent, "but we've had two flights arrive at the same time".  The passenger at the side of me said "I take it Birmingham can't cope with this many flights then" which resulted in a rather sarcastic chuckle from the gate agent!The gate eventually opened and we proceeded another 10 feet as if doing the conga to the next obstacle – another locked door at the top of the airbridge.  Once again, we had a short wait, before we all moved in line again down the airbridge, to wait at the bottom for the ribbon to be moved out of the way to let us on the plane!

 

 

Date	22 February 2009
Airline	Air France (opb CityJet)
Flight Number	AF5139
From	Birmingham (BHX)
To	Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG)
Aircraft	Avro RJ85
Registration	EI-RJN
STD/ATD	17:20 / 17:29
STA/ATA	19:40 / 19:25
Flight Time	0:56

 

We were welcomed on board by a friendly FA, and I made my way to row 6.  Crap, I thought, as I realised that Cityjet’s RJ is different to every one I’ve been on previously, and row 5 has a window and row 6 doesn’t!  I should have kept seat 5A like I had been preassigned!  Ah well, I had a kind of backward view towards the back of the engine, but could only see down.  Not much of an issue at 27000ft but on the ground all I could do was count the oil stains on the tarmac.

A French girl came and sat next to me in the middle, and an Asian guy was on the aisle.  Perhaps unsurprisingly for a Sunday evening flight to the French capital, the flight was completely full.  Every seat taken and the overhead lockers were crammed with baggage, glad I got on first!  The lockers over my seat were smaller anyway as the ceiling dips in the RJ where the wing is.

The English captain came on to apologise for the delay which was caused by them having a strong headwind on the flight in from Paris, combined with delays in boarding us caused by the confusion at BHX.The cabin crew welcomed us aboard in the most comical accent I’ve ever heard.  It was clear the crew were all French, but have picked up their English from their Irish crewmates.

“ Wud yer pleeze tek a zeet and wud yer be sure te poot yer bags under zee zeet in front of you”
Very funny, and the safety announcement wasn’t any better :)  It was done in English and French, and as usual I counted the seat backs to the nearest exit, which was 5 in front of me to the front doors (no wing exits as the wing is on top :-)).

The delay was around 10 minutes before we started to push back, which I wasn’t too bothered about given my 90 minute connection in Paris.We began to taxi to the active, which was 33 today.

We held short for a while before the announcement came “Cabin crew seats for takeoff”, and we taxied onto the active and immediately began our takeoff roll.

We accelerated very rapidly and were airborne before the cross runway.  The second we lifted off the wind caught us from the left and we crabbed to port to counteract the wind.  We climbed out straight ahead for a while, before beginning a right turn around to take the Honiley SID.The cabin crew began the service immediately, and started to make their way along the cabin with free drinks and sandwiches.  This came as somewhat as a surprise in the era of “pay for everything”, but we could have any drink (including alcohol) and any sandwich. 

We broke through the cloud which was by now solid.The cabin crew got to my row and I took a ham sandwich and decided to get into the French spirit with a small bottle of French White Wine.  That went down very well.  As I drank it I looked out of the window and there was a completely circular break in the cloud surrounding what looked like a row of large warehouses.  Closer inspection revealed this to be Heathrow and Terminal 5 –it was very strange that the only break in the cloud was over Heathrow.  Environmentalists would probably have us believe that is because of the CO2 of all those horrible, noisy jets :-).

The cloud continued as we carried on towards France.  The captain came on and announced we were at 27,000ft overhead Brighton, and we would be coasting in overhead Dieppe.  We had a 100mph tailwind which was shaving time off of our arrival and because of that we would be arriving around 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

A couple of minutes later and about halfway across the Channel  the engines throttled back and we began our descent down towards the land of the baguette.  Again, the captain came on to say we were in the descent and the weather in Paris was exactly the same as it was at Birmingham.  
The seatbelt sign came on and we began a series of right turns, followed by a sharp right immediately followed by a sharp left, immediately followed by the engines throttling right back.  “That’ll be the ILS then” I thought.  A few moments later I heard a clunk and on looking out of the window could see the main gear doors opening as the wheels came down.  Off to our left was another aircraft and on approach to the southerly runways, but as it was dark all I could see was lights.  Down below us cars cruised along the brightly lit motorways on the wrong side of the road, always a clear sign that you have arrived abroad.The approach was smooth and we were soon overhead the threshold of runway 27R.  We flared and touched down smoothly, before gently slowing down and exiting 2/3 of the way along the runway.

We then began our lengthy taxi to Terminal 2E, which took us to the far side of the airport, ending up on a remote stand.  We deplaned down the steps and onto a bus, which took us on a lovely tour past AF 747s, 777s and A340s.  We eventually pulled up outside Terminal 2E and went up the stairs, following the signs for connections.  

We came out near the baggage claim, but it wasn’t clear if we needed to collect our bags here or not.  I asked an AF rep who advised we didn’t need to collect.  Fair enough, the next stop was to get to Terminal 2G, which I had assumed was in the same complex as 2E.  Wrong again.  We had to get on a bus which took us the length of the airport across to 2G, which is actually about a mile from the main terminals.

We arrived to find a newly built terminal (so new in fact, that they appeared to not have taken the green, orange, red and blue film from the windows).  It looked like a giant traffic light from outside.On entering I headed for departures, and went through security.  I had to remove my shoes, make sure everything was out of my pockets, laptop out, watch off, glasses off.  I was glad I didn’t have a belt as they would have had that as well :-)

Went through without a problem and into a huge lounge with really hard, uncomfortable seats.  It was now 20:45, 50 minutes before my flight was due to leave.  Fortunately it was showing as on time.  Within minutes we were called for boarding, which took me by surprise, as it was still 45 minutes before departure.  Surely it wouldn’t take this long to load 100 passengers onto an A318?
On going down to the gate and walking through the doors I was hit by a little excitement – all I could see were Fokker 100s, CRJs and Embraer 170s.  Either one would be a good aircraft to get as I have only flown an F100 once, and never on a CRJ or a 170.  Excitement soon turned out to disappointment however, as we were ushered towards a bus with a sign declaring “BREST” on the front.  

The bus filled with passengers, then the doors closed before more passengers came out of the terminal, so we waited for them.  How exciting I thought, maybe we’re being taken to a really cool aircraft or something.  

We pulled away, and came tantalisingly close to a Baboo EMB-190, but drove straight past, before going past more CRJs, more F100s, some ERJs, even a couple of ATRs, but alas we went straight past them all.  We kept on going, and soon were at the Terminal 2E bus stop I had got off the bus at before.  Why couldn’t I just have waited here?  We kept on going and going, through the main terminals and out the other side, across taxiways, giving way to 747s as we went, before we went on again.  It was beginning to get tiring as we had been driving for about 15 minutes by this point.  Each time we got close to an aircraft, everyone started to head for the door, before we drove past and a collective sigh hit the entire bus.  This had turned into laughter by the time we got to the remote apron, which was on the northern edge of the airport.  There, sitting on stand with APU running, lights on and stairs attached, was our scheduled A318.  After a 20 minute bus ride we had finally arrived on stand.

 

Date	22 February 2009
Airline	Air France
Flight Number	AF7732
From	Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG)
To	Brest Guipavas (BES)
Aircraft	Airbus A318
Registration	F-GUGC
STD/ATD	21:20 / 21:32
STA/ATA	22:35 / 22:45
Flight Time	1:13

 

We disembarked the bus and made our way up the covered stairs to the front door.  We had a convenient pause at the top which offered an excellent view into the flight deck on this baby bus.  The captain and first officer were sharing a joke while looking at a map of CDG (probably trying to work out if we’d have been quicker walking from the terminal), and I could see the flightplan loaded on the EHSI, showing a climb out to the west, before heading northwest and then directly west towards Brest.  The FCU showed our initial cleared altitude was 11,000ft.  We were directed to our seats by a friendly FA.  First impression for this smallest of Airbuses was that it wasn’t actually that much smaller inside.  The shorter length really wasn’t evident compared to say an A319.  Leg room was amazing, on a normal economy seat I could have my legs straight out in front and under the seat in front, and I’m 6’3” tall.

We sat and waited, and waited further.  About 15 minutes later it was our departure time, and we were still waiting.  Another bus then turned up full of passengers, which would have also had to make the long drive across the airport.  By the time these passengers were onboard we were maybe 90% full, with a lot of families and connecting passengers onboard.The crew came around handing out packs to the children, a nice touch that I haven’t seen in many years on an airline.
The captain came on in French to apologise for the delay and that we would be on our way shortly.  Flight time would be approx 55 minutes for this sector.  As we began our taxi out the flight deck door was left open, giving a good view of Airbus ops for real (as opposed to on Flight Simulator!).  The taxi was long, and the door was shut on the way to the runway.  

The lights were dimmed and the individual reading lights were all LEDs which meant they didn’t interfere with the view out of the window.As we approached the active I sighed as I saw the huge line of aircraft in front of us.  It was now 21:50, and we were still at the tail end of the queue.  There was a Sun D’or 757 alongside us, which was interesting as I thought that airline had disappeared years ago.  Evidentally not :-).

We finally lined up on 26R at 22:00, and began our takeoff roll.  The roll was very short and we were soon airborne into the night.  We climbed out to the north of Paris and got a brilliant view of the entire city and the Eiffel Tower lit up in the centre.  I was surprised I could see it from this altitude but it was very clear.  As we drew alongside the tower we entered cloud and came out the other side.

The view above the cloud was just as good.  Even though it was 10pm and pitch black, above the cloud, the clouds were lit up an electric orange colour in patches, lit by the streetlights below.  Amazing view, I could tell when we had left the city as the cloud went dark again!The cabin service started soon after, and being almost at the front of the plane it wasn’t long before they got to my row.  They didn’t have wine on this flight, but they did have Heineken.  The FA was very friendly and helped me to ask for what I needed in French, as she didn’t understand me first time.  Even though the flight was full, the crew still had time for everyone and were very nice.
The cloud below had cleared by this point, and we were over the coast, cutting across to the south of the Channel Islands towards Brittany.  The engines soon throttled back and we began the descent into Brest.  The seatbelt signs came on as we hit 10,000ft, and in the clear sky we could see all the towns and villages linked by main roads, down below lit very clearly.

The crew soon took their seats and the slats and landing gear came down, followed by the lights being dimmed for landing.We touched down pretty firmly onto runway 26L at Brest, and the thrust reversers were immediately engaged as we slowed rapidly to make the sole exit halfway along the runway, presumably so we didn’t have to backtrack.We were welcomed to Brest and in seconds we were docked to the airbridge at the brand new terminal building, alongside an AF A320 at the side of us.

The lady next to me let me out to get my bag, and I helped another woman get her heavy bag down.  What do some people pack in their hand luggage!As we left the aircraft the captain and purser were saying goodbye, she remembered me and said goodbye in English!  

The terminal at Brest is amazing – very new and very clean inside.  We walked towards the belt and I saw an Air France CRJ with a panel missing and a couple of others dented on the port side of the nosecone.  I stopped to take a look and it had obviously hit something, however the steps were still attached and there were some mechanics taking a look at it.  Evidently it had only just happened.

The belt was quick and my bag came out quickly, I took it and went out to the taxi rank, where at 23:00 there were hardly any taxis.  After a few minutes one arrived and took the lady in front of me, the driver said he would call another one, and sure enough within minutes another cab had turned up to take me into Brest.

The drive in was interesting, doing 165kph along the main road into Brest, while the driver was talking on his phone (no hands free), but we were soon at the Oceania Hotel in Brest city centre, where I checked in and headed for my room, and after getting my key swapped I hit the bed at midnight.

========================

My training course in France went well, and by the Wednesday I was settling in nicely to the French way of life.  It was clear that the training on Friday would be finished way ahead of schedule, around 11am instead of 4pm as originally scheduled.  

As my flight wasn’t until 18:00, arriving back into the UK at 21:35, I decided to try and get an earlier flight back.There were three flights leaving Brest between 13:00 and 14:00, on Fokker 100, CRJ and F100 respectively.  I have only flown the F100 once, many years ago, but had never flown on a CRJ, so either combination would be good.

I called up AF/KLM who advised they couldn’t change the booking over the phone, best bet would be to try in Brest.  It was definitely possible she told me, but there would be a £40 fee.  

After training had finished I headed for the Air France office in Brest City Centre, where I found some very helpful and friendly staff.  They sat with me and went through the booking, before getting very confused over something.  Turned out that work had booked the flight through Expedia, so they could not make any changes on the flights!  Strange I thought, seeing as though they were the carrier, but hey.

I got back to my room and found a non-0870 number for Expedia to try.  I got through and the guy was unable to send me on the CRJ via Lyon, but I could get the 13:40 Fokker 100 flight out of Brest.  Brilliant, I thought, and the transaction went straight through.  I checked on Air France’s website, and they had only changed the first flight, not the second one.  So now I had a 6 hour wait in Paris Airport instead of Brest.  Fantastic.  So I called Expedia again, who after putting me on hold for 15 minutes advised me that sure enough the flight hadn’t been changed properly.  She would have to speak to their technical department and let me know when it had happened.  I asked her to call me back as it would be costing me a small fortune :-).

I finally got a call back an hour later to say that yes the flight had been changed, but it was now going to cost £104 to change.  She said her colleague was wrong to tell me £65 earlier on, but because it was their mistake she would process a refund for the extra £40 – the snag being this would take 28 days :-(.

What a pain in the backside just to come back on an earlier flight – if only AF had been able to do this in the first place it would have been a lot easier.  Ah well.  I was now booked on a Fokker jet and would be home a few hours earlier.

=====================

After the debacle of changing the flights, I checked in online and secured a seat near the back on the F100, and more importantly a seat with a window on the RJ100!  On the Friday we started the training at 10:00 and finished at 12:00, so I got a taxi from there to the airport which took 10 minutes, giving plenty of time to drop my bag and get through security for boarding at 13:30.

We arrived at the airport and I joined the queue for the bag drop, behind a group of very tall black people, who I assumed were some sort of sports team.  I dropped my bag onto the scales which had gained 5kg since my flight out with all the gifts I was bringing back, and the lady on the check in desk was very friendly.  She advised me that boarding would be in 50 minutes and that my bag was checked through all the way to Birmingham.  I walked around to try and find a Burger King or something for lunch, alas there was nothing landside apart from a Brasserie and a newsagent.  I headed upstairs to departures and went through security.

Security was again a breeze, the staff were again very friendly and I collected my bag before heading down to the gate.  The only aircraft on the ramp today was a Brit Air CRJ700, and on the freight apron there was a Europe Airpost 737.  At 12.40, and bang on time, my flight arrived from Paris and taxied in.  It was a Fokker 100, as scheduled.

 

 

 

I decided to try and grab a sandwich from the sandwich shop, and had to pay €4.90 for a sandwich!  I went back to the gate, which was starting to fill up a bit now.  There were a few AF employees at the entrance to the airbridge, and one of them had three young children they were looking after.  You could tell that they really cared about the children, as the youngest started crying about not wanting to go on the plane, the lady picked him up and gave him a cuddle to comfort him, and took him for a walk to calm him down.

There was soon an announcement in French, for which I picked up “Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle” and “Porte 6” which was the gate I was at, so guessed it was for my flight.  At this point the parents with children walked down the airbridge, and passengers started to congregate at the gate.  I joined them, and after a few minutes we started walking down the airbridge to the aircraft.

 

 

Date	27 February 2009
Airline	Air France (opb Régional)
Flight Number	AF7739
From	Brest Guipavas (BES)
To	Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG)
Aircraft	Fokker 100
Registration	F-GPXL
STD/ATD	13:40 / 13:35
STA/ATA	15:00 / 14:57
Flight Time	1:22

 

As we boarded the aircraft, we were welcomed aboard by the captain and the chief steward.  I turned right and headed for the back.  First impressions of the F100 were that it was a little tired, but that is to be expected for a 16 year old aircraft.  This particular example has done the rounds a bit, it was delivered in 1993 to Palair Macedonia, before heading to TAM in 1996, and the now-defunct EUJet in 2004.  Air France/Regional did not take delivery until 2006.  

The aircraft was a little worn, with the overhead panels yellowed and faded.  The leather seats throughout the aircraft were comfortable, but starting to crack with age.  The aircraft was however very clean throughout, in common with my other flights on Air France over the last few days.

The seatback only came up to my shoulders though, so no chance of resting my head on this flight!  The window at the side of me was absolutely filthy, I had to hold the camera in portrait mode to get any chance of a good shot.  The window at the front of my row was cleaner, but meant I had to lean forward.

 

 

A guy got on and sat in the seat at the side of me, his wife further back.  He sat there reading “Le Monde” and whistling constantly.  Dear God I thought, please not an hour of this!  Fortunately however the flight was only two thirds full, and the guy headed for the back and sat with his wife shortly after.

The cabin crew were entirely male, and checked the cabin prior to departure.  The captain came on to welcome us aboard, and advised us that the flight across to Paris would take approx 55 minutes.  The cabin crew started their safety briefing and I was surprised that there was no exit at the back of the aircraft, despite there being a door there.  However, I noticed there was a sign on it saying “Not in use”, so unsure why that was there!

 
The engines were started and I looked back to see the fans starting to turn.  I was looking forward to hearing the Tays starting up, and sure enough the sound was really good.  We taxied out to the active and along the runway to backtrack.  At this point I noticed the only annoying bad thing about the engines was that at a certain low frequency the noise resonated through the cabin, similar to being at the back of an old bus in a high gear going up a steep hill.  It was that kind of low frequency noise that renders you completely deaf and rattles your teeth!  We did a U turn at the end of the runway, and soon we heard the timeless sound of the Tays spooling up, and we were on our way.

 

 

 

The takeoff wasn’t too powerful, and we rotated about halfway along the runway.  The engine sound then turned into the chainsaw type noise you get on an Airbus, however albeit at a lower frequency.  We got a good view over Brest and the Kergonan Industrial Park where my training was, before we hit cloud and turned right to fly back along the north coast.

 

 

 

 

 

We emerged from the cloud as the crew began their inflight service.  For today’s flight, this consisted of a drink and either a salty or sweet snack.  I chose the cheesy sticks again, with a glass of orange juice.  Alcohol was again served however as I would be driving home from the airport in the evening I declined.  I sat drinking my orange juice and looked out over the turquoise English Channel, and the numerous boats down below.  

 

 

We continued along a westerly track over the sea, and after a while of nothing but sea and sky the Channel Islands appeared in view.  First there was Guernsey a little further north, with the island of Sark just to the South East.  We then flew just to the south of Jersey, getting an amazing view of St Helier and the island’s beautiful sandy beaches.  I watched an ATR or a DHC-8 climb out of Jersey and head towards France beneath us.

Guernsey:

St Helier, Jersey:

 

Shortly after that we coasted in over the Normandy peninsular, and we were soon over the sea again.  

 

French Coast:

 

 

 

 

We flew over the Bay of the Seine, before coasting in over Le Havre, and turned right to head down towards Paris.  At this point, I observed several aircraft heading north-south across the coast, presumably towards the Mediterranean.  There was an easyJet A319, and a 757 of some description in the distance behind it.

We flew overhead Rouen before beginning our descent.  
Rouen:

At this point the cloud started rolling in and was completely overcast down below.  The crew swept the cabin and took their seats as we made several turns to the left and right.  I looked out the window and there was a 757 descending alongside us, with an A320 slightly further forward and lower.  I figured we were on the ILS at this point, even though the cloud was still a long way below us.  

Believe it or not – we were established on the ILS at this point and the landing gear was about to come down:

 

The gear came down as we continued the approach, and the flaps went fully down slowing us down with a lot of force.We entered the cloud, and it got quite bumpy.  We emerged from the cloud at maybe 500ft above ground level, into a foggy, miserable Paris afternoon.
Into the murk:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flared over the threshold of runway 27L, before touching down with a bump.  The spoilers went up and reverse thrust came on, and we slowed down quickly before pulling off on a high speed taxiway to the left.  

 

An Aeroflot A321 was just touching down as we pulled off the runway.I noticed where we were on the airport, to the north west of Terminal 1.  Great, I thought, now knowing that 2G is in the south east corner of the airport.  We taxied around T1, and down towards the central terminal area (2A-G).  We taxied along the north of those terminals, before going down the southbound taxiways at the far end.  We then pulled onto stand at 2G next to the FlyBaboo ERJ-190, where there were several vehicles and a bus waiting, and a guy to marshall us in.  

 

The engines were shut down, and shortly after we made our way along the aircraft and down the stairs, across to the Air France bus that was waiting.  We waited on the bus while the group of unaccompanied children were enjoying a visit to the flight deck.  

I was starting to get a little concerned as it was now 15:10, and my next flight was due to board at 15:30, for a departure at 16:05.  I still had to get to Terminal 2G, before getting the transfer bus across the airport to 2E, getting through security and down to the gate.  It was looking very tight now.

The bus took us straight to 2G, and we had to wait while the unaccompanied minors were taken off the bus first.  I managed to run past them in the terminal, and out to the front of the building, to get the transfer bus.

I got on the bus which was waiting, and we sat for ages outside the terminal.  Every time we started to set off, somebody else ran out and the bus stopped to let them on.  We eventually set off and went really slowly across the airport.  It was the most frustrating bus journey ever, as she was stopping to let everybody out at junctions, and generally taking it really slowly!

We pulled up outside Terminal 2E at 15:25, giving me 5 minutes to get through security before they started boarding.  I ran up to security, and found a choice of 3 lines.  One was for a flight to Peking, one to Dakar, and the other one seemingly for everywhere else.  I headed for that one, and was told to go to the other line.  I was confused, and asked him which one, he looked at my boarding pass and said “Just come through”, and let me through.  I then got to the next queue, for the actual security screen.  I went to the first one I found, which was a mistake.  There were two people in front of me, a woman with a baby and an elderly woman.  The woman with the baby spent ages taking the baby out of her carrier, before having to take her belt off, shoes off, empty her pockets, and finally go through.  She then set the machine off and had to be scanned, so we waited again.  

Next was the elderly woman – she had to take her belt off, jewellery off, shoes off, and then set of the machine, so again I had to wait while she was scanned.  I was then pushed out of the way by a big black woman who walked straight through, and was told to wait by the security guy.  She then went through and set off the machine, so she got searched, amongst a lot of “tsch”ing and sucking of teeth.  For crying out loud I thought, it was now 15:35 and I was starting to worry.  I finally got through and set the machine off.  I got searched, was cleared, grabbed my bag, coat and laptop from the belt and legged it down to the departure screens.  As I put my laptop back in the bag, I noticed the screen for my flight said “Embarquement/Boarding”.  Crap, I thought.  I started to run down toward the gates, and fortunately as luck would have it, gate E47 was the first on the right hand side.  There was a queue of people moving through the gate having their boarding cards checked.  At least I’d made it. 

As I stood in the line, I noticed that there was no plane outside the window.  Indeed, there was not even an apron – just a car park and a road.  Fair enough, I thought, it’s another bus transfer.  I had come to expect nothing less from CDG now :-)

We made our way down some steps to a waiting bus.  I boarded and took situ next to the front doors to get a good chance of boarding early and being able to stow my bag overhead.
The bus set off and headed through the terminal area, past AF 777s and A340s.  We drove for around 10 minutes, heading in the general direction of Terminal 2G.  Why on earth do they do this!  We pulled up alongside our RJ85, EI-RJZ, which would be our ride to Birmingham.

 

 

 

Date	27 February 2009
Airline	Air France (opb Cityjet)
Flight Number	AF5136
From	Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG)
To	Birmingham (BHX)
Aircraft	Avro RJ85
Registration	EI-RJZ
STD/ATD	16:05 / 16:15
STA/ATA	16:35 / 16:27
Flight Time	1:12

 

 

I climbed the steps and was welcomed aboard by the friendly stewardesses.  I turned right and headed down towards row 8.  Although this row actually had a window, it was below the wing and as such the overhead lockers were barely tall enough to fit an envelope.  I had to put it two rows behind, before taking my seat in 8F.

 

I had a good view of the back of the engines, which was a damn site more than I could see on the way out.  Once we got settled in, the crew came around with fresh wipes for everyone, a nice touch and well needed after my run through the airport.

The Dutch captain welcomed us aboard in both English and French.  The doors were soon closed and the crew began their safety demonstration as the engines were started.
We began our lengthy taxi to runway 27L, and took our place in the queue behind an Air France 777 and an Air France ERJ-145.  After a couple of minutes wait, we lined up and the engines spooled up for takeoff.

 

 

 

The takeoff roll was typically short for the RJ85, and we were soon climbing up into the low cloud, which had now cleared slightly from the foggy conditions we experienced on the approach an hour earlier.  We turned right after takeoff, heading up towards Dieppe.  

 

 

 

The cabin crew began the inflight service straightaway, with three trollies working their way down the cabin.  It must be very rushed to offer food and drink to every seat, but the crew coped admirably.  I again decided against alcohol, although I was offered “Red or white wine sir?”.  I took an orange juice and had a choice of a salmon Panini or cheese and ham sandwich.  I took the salmon as I had cheese and ham on the way out.  I was then offered a tea or coffee and took a cup of coffee.

 

 

At this point we were over open countryside in the north of France, almost at Dieppe.  It started to cloud over down below, and I settled down with my orange juice.  The cloud broke and we were overhead the English Channel, with several boats travelling east and west down below.  

 

Soon after, I saw landfall and we coasted in slightly to the west of Lydd and its airfield.

 

 

 

We continued north across the patchwork Kent countryside down below, which looked particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.  Out in the distance I could see the Isle of Sheppey, with Kent on the right hand side and Essex on the left. 

 

 

The River Thames started to take shape, and after a couple of minutes I could see the M25 snaking round to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge across the Thames, with Tilbury Docks on the banks of the river.

 

We continued towards Central London, before getting the most amazing view of the City.  The River Thames snaked through, past London City Airport, the Thames Barrier and the Millennium Dome/O2 Arena.  In the “U” of the river, the Docklands were clearly visible, with Canary Wharf and the other skyscrapers where I imagined many stressed out bankers were losing yet more money for the country.  It was like the credits of “Eastenders” :-).  Really a brilliant view, many of us were taking photos out of the window at this stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued into north London, before the cloud started to build up below us.  It was the last sight of the ground we’d have until our approach!

 

 

The descent began just north of London, and the crew rushed through the cabin to collect our rubbish.  The seatbelt signs soon came on and the flaps came down, slowing us down very quickly.  We descended through a thin layer of cloud and emerged just to the south of Coventry, with the airport in the distance.

 

 

 

The approach continued past Kenilworth and turning right onto our final approach path for runway 33 at Birmingham.  The final approach took us on the usual route, over Hampton-in-Arden and the M42, over the A45 and the “Total” garage, and over the threshold of runway 33.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We floated over the runway, and touched down in one of the smoothest landings I have experienced in a long time.  We braked gently and exited the runway after the fire station, to taxi back to Terminal 2.  We pulled onto stand next to a Ryanair 737 and the engines shut down.I waited until the majority had gone before getting up as I needed my bag from behind me, but a kind gentleman let me out, and then lifted my bag down for me.  I said thank you and made my way to the front of the aircraft, where the crew thanked me for flying with Air France.  I stepped out onto the airbridge, which was very steep as it was quite low to reach down to the tiny Avro!

I made my way through passport control, and to the baggage claim.  My bag was quick off the belt, and I went through the EU channel of customs and out into arrivals.

I walked over to the multi storey car park and got in the car, and set off on journey home which was quite quick this evening, just over an hour.  It was made all the quicker by listening to Scott Mills interviewing Mr T on the radio :-).

All in all, I was most impressed by Air France.  I had heard some bad things about them, but was most impressed by every aspect of the flights.  Connecting at CDG is a complete pain in the backside between terminals, but I imagine if you are not switching terminals it's not too bad.
I can also say that the flight from CDG is, so far, one of the nicest flights I've experienced.