First Time through Charles de Gaulle Airport

It was a very short turn-around between the Bermuda cruise which ended on the 13th and this trip which started on the 19th. Some of our children came down after the cruise and helped get things done around the house. Lynde came and vacuumed several days (to help with A's allergy to cats) and I got together a list of what I was taking and we got me packed.

I thought I would have the scooter charger in the suitcase so we left room for it. Then I thought that maybe the battery charger would set off the TSA and make them think the suitcase had a bomb.

Bob brought the charger up in the battery box so that if we had to carry the battery on the plane, we could put it in the battery box. This proved to be a bad idea. But I jettisoned all the things I usually carry in the computer bag except the computer and my medicine container (with the pills arranged by day) so that I could put the charger into the computer bag and it wouldn't be too heavy. I added the multi-national plug outlet and the power strip so that we could charge the scooter, between flights if we needed to. I also added the short extension cord to the suitcase, and took all the excess stuff from my pocketbook and put that in the suitcase too. The limit for a suitcase on BA is 70 lbs but I am sure my suitcase does not weigh that much. It may be a little over 50 lbs and that is heavy enough.

I had some €s from our trip last winter, and Bob got me some US cash too.

A had three suitcases and I was not sure that she could manage all three with my stuff so I suggested that she put all the Paris things in two of the suitcases and that Bob would ship the third one home to our daughter. And it was done. And it was good. I also gave her the camera J used for her to use on the trip, since while cell phones are good, a camera is really better.

On the night of the 18th, I had trouble sleeping, thinking of all the things I should do in the morning. In the morning, I
a) Called the credit card companies to tell them I was traveling
b) Called the GW hospital billing place to ask them if they had billed our secondary insurance. (And found that they had, and I didn't owe any money even though they sent me a bill)
c) Organized my pocketbook and computer bag and checked the packing list
d) Put the pills in the pill carrier
e) Did last minute computer emails etc
f) Took a shower dressed and got ready to leave.

Salt dome as we left town

We left the house a little before 5 and Bob dropped us off at Terminal C (American Airlines) when I told him it was Terminal E (British Airways) where we needed to be. He put together the scooter, put my pocketbook and computer bag on it and told me to go into the terminal and A followed pulling our two large suitcases with the backpack on her back. Then of course we had to walk down to terminal E.

We went to the priority check-in line and one of the ladies picked up the suitcases and she checked both of them in on my ticket. Then they tried to tell me that I had to check the scooter, but I resisted. Eventually they tagged it so that if the cabin crew would not take the scooter into the closet (which I knew they could do as I have done it many times before), that it could be gate checked.

Then we went through security. They had me walk through a magnetic door (and I didn't set off any alarms - they kept asking me if I had any metal parts or a pacemaker) and then they patted down the scooter and we retrieved our stuff.

We went to the lounge to wait and I got a smoked salmon sandwich, not remembering that I really don't like smoked salmon, and also some chicken noodle soup, which it was too bad that A couldn't eat because of the noodles. She has a gluten allergy and can't eat anything made of wheat flour, so she had a hard time finding anything. I also had some kind of mixed juice.

First class lounge

We left the lounge a little before the time boarding was to start, and found the gate and I parked us in the handicapped holding area.

Waiting at the Gate

Eventually I spoke to the gate agents, and one of them men looked at the scooter and took the battery out (everyone is completely spooked by the words LITHIUM ION) and took a photo of it with his cell phone. After some to and fro, I said we would fold up the scooter and he could take it down to the cabin crew if I could have a wheelchair to go down the ramp. So I commandeered a wheelchair and A folded the scooter to closet size and they took it away. And then they brought the battery back to me for me to carry. But I had no place to put it as there was not room in my computer bag for both the charger and the battery. Plus my computer bag was already pretty heavy.

The wheelchair guy took me down to the door of he plane and I tipped him $2. The cabin crew took my pocketbook, computer bag and cane and helped me to my seat. A was held up a little bit because she didn't realize that she had to show her passport again to get on.

A in the opposite seat

The seats would lie flat, but there was no place to put anything. The seats on KLM were much better. The windows were auto-darkening (you pushed a button under each window to darken or lighten) but I really didn't see the difference between dark and not-dark because it was dark outside by this time. I don't know if it was raining or not, but there were raindrops on the window.

Raindrops on the window

Taking off

They took away my pocketbook and put it in the overhead and then they gave me a card to fill out about what I wanted for breakfast and I didn't have a pen. I didn't realize that the packet they gave me had a pen in it - they were all shut with a plastic cord over the zipper - the kind of thing that they put price tags on clothes in the store with.

We were late taking off - I don't know why. Maybe because of the rain. We were supposed to leave at 9:10 and we pushed away from the gate at 9:14 and did not take off until 10ish.

While I was waiting, I played trivia. If you got a certain number correct you could go to the next level. So I got to level 4 and I missed more than 2 questions (out of 20) so I had to stop there but I had a high score of 120,690 and the next highest was 36,000

Trivia scores

After take-off they came and asked me what I wanted for dinner and I couldn't find the menu so I just said beef.

Butternut squash soup

And I got the butternut squash soup and the bread pudding.

Bread pudding

Then I realized that my pills were all in the computer bag in the overhead. I got them and took the morning pills out too. I made a trip to the bathroom, and then got ready to sleep. Unfortunately I didn't get the bed completely flat and so I gradually slid down so that my feet were against the bulkhead and my dress and all the blankets were twisted around me.

Footrest

So I got up and started over. I think we both slept a couple of hours.

Route screen

They waked us up about a hour from landing and gave us breakfast.

Breakfast

I had a scrambled egg wrap, some yogurt with granola and some croissants. I changed my watch and both cameras to the new time zone. The cell phones changed themselves.

Landing Heathrow

When we got to Heathrow (late - we landed close to 10), we waited until everyone was off and then A put the scooter together and put the battery in it and we put the computer bag and the pocket book and me on it and we started out to conquer Heathrow.

We followed the purple signs to "All gates". We had come in at an E gate and we were probably going to leave out of an A, or B gate. So we kept asking directions, and we went up and down elevators (in one case we got to the correct floor and then thought we had it wrong so we went back down and had to come back up again). At some point we went through an area where they investigated the scooter again. I told them that they could gate check the scooter if I could have a wheelchair to the plane. And that's what we decided to do. They said I could have the battery in the scooter or out of the scooter and I said IN. This proves that they could have left the battery in the scooter on the first flight too. They tagged the scooter with the gate check tags.

We had to get on a train to another section of Terminal 5 and then we had to go through security. This would have been quicker but we had put a coat on top of the computer so they made us wait for the computer to go through again. Then up another elevator to get to the Lounge.

From the heathrow lounge

Unfortunately the Lounge is not just for Club and First Class passengers - it is for all BA passengers. So it was very crowded and we could not find a seat in the area that had plugs where we could charge our electronics. We did find seats about 11:00 and we now had at least 2 hours to wait before our gate would be posted. I read my Kindle a bit and then I was too sleepy to read anymore and so both of us dozed while sitting there in the chairs for an hour or so.

Scooter in the bathroom

I went to the bathroom and told A that there was lunch items now so she went and got herself something.

Finally they posted the gate. And we found our way there (another elevator but no train this time). A folded the scooter flat, and they took it away and gave me a wheelchair to get to the plane. Again we took off late. They said it was because they were loading cargo.

A had the window and took photos.

Taking off from Heathrow

The arrow points to ?

We had an empty seat between us with a table thing on it. They gave us food - they had a gluten free sandwiches for A. I got the tea sandwiches and tea. There was a scone with clotted cream.

Landing at Charles de Gaulle

I had never been into France by air before. In 1964, I came both times by train. And I looked it up - Charles de Gaulle was President of France when I was there in 1964 and this airport was not built until 1974.

There was a wheelchair waiting for me with a tall black guy to push. A was practicing her French on him and he was helping her. We got our two suitcases and he put them on a luggage cart and then we had to go to a separate area to get the scooter. He just put it on the luggage cart folded and we went to find our driver - who was right there waiting. The wheelchair guy took me out to the car - it was a big Mercedes van with space for 6 people. I tipped the wheelchair guy €2

It took quite a while to drive in to the hotel which was the Renaissance La Parc Trocadero (a change from the original hotel)

Taking photos on the way from the airport

A was taking photos of graffiti with the camera on the sport mode

A.s photo of Graffitti

Homer Simpson and graffitti

The driver wasn't real chatty, but he did talk to us some. We got to the hotel and another car right in front of us parked in the place where one would unload people. So our driver had to unload us in the street, and the hotel people came out and helped me in. The van driver got away from us before I could give him a tip. A unfolded the scooter and then I could sit and register.

The guy registering us was really cute and spoke American English. I asked him and said he was American and French. Anyway I registered to get Marriott points (which I have not done until now as I rarely stay at a Marriott property) and we gave him our passports to scan, and then we were to go to the room. I had to get into a single chair lift to go down the three steps from the front desk level down to the street level

Single Chair lift

and there were two little steps to get off the left. The second one jolted the battery out of position and I had no more power. This caused a lot of confusion because the automatic door kept closing on me while I was trying to explain the problem.

There was a private party in the restaurant and bar which meant that we could not have dinner there as we had planned (since we did not think we would be in a frame of mind after the trip to go out), and we had to go through said private party in the garden area inside the hotel to get to our room. It was NOT a handicapped room. There is no place to turn the scooter around. I can drive the scooter in and that's it - I have to back out.

First room with scooter and my suitcase behind it

Normally this would not be a problem. But the room had a tub and there were no grab bars or place to sit and have a shower. And also there was no night stand or bedside table on one side of the bed and I really need as a minimum, a place to put my glasses at night. All we could find to serve the purpose of a nightstand was a square wastebasket, so we turned that upside down and I used the bottom of it to put things on. But that did not take care of the shower problem. There was also a very strange little shower attachment next to the toilet which I thought might be a bidet attachment, but I could not figure out how to use it. I thought I might have been able to use it to shower with but it would have been quite messy as there was no drain in the floor.

Anyway, we were there. I decided that I didn't want that much to eat, so we ordered a salad and strawberry sorbet

A.'s photos of our food

from room service and it was €55.
A,'s report on this day