May 8-9: Behind the Veil of Flying in Paris

Me in Atlanta

There’s just no way to make 20 hours in airplanes tolerable, even though Air France tries.  I had the idea of taking a picture of myself in each of the airports I went through on the way to Antananarivo, and I did pics in Atlanta and Montreal.  Unfortunately, I nearly missed my flight in Charles de Gaulle, getting to the gate as the last passengers were boarding, so no photo from there.  Sorry to whoever it was who told me to get some pics of myself on the trip.

Me in Montreal

I now join the club of those who hate Charles de Gaulle airport.  I get the design idea – lift the decorative façade of flying and have the passengers go through the guts of the airport seeing how it works behind the scenes.  A Brechtian approach to airport architecture?  It’s a fine and unique idea, but an airport should at least work before we move on to higher ideals, and I now conceded that Charles de Gaulle doesn’t.  I had to look at six different departure display listings to find mine (listings are by terminal rather than destination…and what’s the point of that?).  Then I took a bus through the airport guts, went through an ad hoc security set up, and took another bus to the plane.  Two hours behind the veil of flying is more than a passenger with a connection should have to deal with.

Me in Paris

The good news is that I made the flight AND found room in a bin for my bags.  I tried to stay awake en route in order to get my body more in sync with Madagascar time, but I failed miserably at that and kept waking myself up (and the Malagasy guy beside me) by snoring. 

I’d been warned to get a visa before arriving, and I was glad I did.  It took the baggage an hour to come out, and when it finally did, there were still people waiting in the line to get visas.  And there was only one plane at the airport at midnight.

The poor guy waiting to pick me up was still there, though, and he took me through the dark capital city to my hotel.  Antananarivo is an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of city, and aside from the action in the red zone, I didn’t see a person between the airport and the hotel.