siriosa 2000

heathrow-cdg monday 14 september
apparently the boarding pass delta let us print out the day before wouldn't have worked. signs instructed me to have a pass printed out by the airline, so i waited at the air france desk until the employee came back from some mysterious errand. (the alitalia employee assured me she wouldn't be gone long.)

she printed me a good one, and i amused myself until allowed into the boarding area. and then it turned out she was also on the plane. right, that's one of the benefits.

one takes a tram from the terminal to the baggage area/customs/sortie. my passport was stamped cdg a very bored fonctionnaire. customs was not interested in looking at anybody's luggage or asking any questions. they had a scary poster up (in english) about how buying counterfeit rolexes can get you jail time. (who knew?) i walked and i walked and i walked and i walked. the pitiless nature of french transit facilities was made abundantly clear. many of my favorite people would have required a wheelchair to navigate, and i saw none offered.

anyway. i stood in a very long line for a very long time to buy a ticket for the r.e.r. b train, which would go to very near where i'm staying. i could've stood in much shorter lines and bought one from a machine, but i also wanted a carte navigo, which allows you to use all of the transit on the inside of the peripherique for a week. the photograph i'd had taken and then cut down to french passport dimensions was, sadly, too big. perhaps i can get one taken next week.

i did pretty okay in mostly french, even though i was dead on my feet and about 50 i.q. points down from what i'm used to.