04 March 2016

An easy-peasy return

It's funny how transatlantic flights are so different each time you take one. The plane that I flew on from Atlanta to Paris, arriving yesterday morning, was much more comfortable than the one I was on for the trip over to Atlanta two weeks earlier. Both planes were Air France 777s (Boeing models).

Mainly, the seat was much less like an instrument of torture this time. After I arrived in North Carolina on February 16, my back was aching and grabby for the whole time I was there. And my left hip joint was stiff and painful too. I had to be really careful how I moved, especially when I went to sit down or stand back up. I groaned and moaned the whole time I was there. It was the airline seat that did me in.

A shore bird and some oysters in Calico Creek in Morehead City, N.C.

The seat on yesterday's plane was a very different story. It was comfortable if not luxurious-feeling. Yesterday's 777 was obviously an older model, or at least the interior was older. The seatback screens that I watched a couple of movies on was a lot smaller than, and not as sharp as, the screen on the other 777. There was more leg room too.

The food yesterday was worse. That's often the case on the U.S.-to-France flights, because the food served on those is made (i.e. "manufactured") in the U.S. On the France-to-U.S. flights, the food trays are prepared in France, and you can tell the difference. On yesterday's flight, they served a wedge of cheese that was a "cheese spread Brie-flavored" product. In other words, it was some chemical concoction that they slapped the name Brie on. The main course, pasty pasta in a gloppy sauce, was awful.

An ocean-going ship in the port at Morehead City, one of N.C.'s two deep-water seaports

I suppose one of the factors that made the return flight so much more pleasant than the flight over was the amount of time I spent on the plane. Just before we took off, the pilot announced that the flight time from Atlanta to Paris would be 7½ hours. The flight time on the trip over to Atlanta had been 9½ hours. Strong west-to-east winds over eastern North America and the north Atlantic Ocean meant we had to fight a significant head wind in one direction but we benefited from a nice tail wind on the way back.

At CDG airport north of Paris, I had to walk for what seemed to be a couple of miles through the airport to get from the arrival gate to baggage claim. I needed the exercise, I'm sure. The passport control lines were short and I zipped through. Maybe I walked faster than my fellow passengers, and I knew the way.

In the U.S. I was not able to check in for my flight on line because I didn't have a return ticket from France back to the U.S. Of course I didn't — I live here in France. The computer didn't understand that. Even at the airport in N.C., the airline clerk wanted to know if I had a return ticket or a date set for my return. That's because you're not allowed, as a tourist, to spend more than three months in France unless you have applied for and can show that you have a long-stay visa. Tourists need to have a return ticket.

The calm, clear waters of Bogue Sound in Morehead City, N.C.

I explained to the clerk that I live in France and that I was returning home. Finally, I dug around in my computer bag and found my French carte de résident, which is good until 2019. That satisfied the guy, and he urged me, trying to be helpful, to be sure to show that card to the border policeman in Paris who would be examining my passport on arrival. I've never done that before, and didn't do it this time either. The French border guard always just glances at my passport to check the photo against my face and looks at the passport's expiration date. Then he stamps my entry date onto a passport page chosen at random, and I'm in.

Anyway, here I am at home. I know I'm here because there's a leaden gray sky and it's spitting rain. It's almost cold outside. The man on TV is speaking French. It's time to go walk with Callie. I feel good, having slept from 9:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. Time to get busy.

17 comments:

  1. Good to have you back home safely. As we are English and resident in France we wonder IF there is a 'Brexit' vote in the UK, how our one-way tickets might be viewed. There ! I managed to call our former home England, Britain and the United Kingdom in one sentence.

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    1. I had never before been asked about having a return ticket when I was leaving the U.S., and I've been living in France for 13 years and traveling every year at least once. The French government must have imposed new ticketing requirements on the airlines after the two terrorist attacks in Paris last year.

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  2. Glad you're back safe.
    Shame about the weather though, I was envious of your warmer weather over there. We have snow flurries here in the UK today.

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    1. The weather here in Saint-Aignan is miserable.

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    2. And in GP, Jean... and everywhere in between...
      just stay comfortable with the manically grinning LuLu!!

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  3. Whenever I have to visit Europe, the flight time is usually so much longer from Los Angeles, and therefore the torture becomes a lot more intense :( It's also a long flight to fly across the Pacific to get to Asia. So I'm never a fan of air travel.

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    1. There was a time when air travel was exciting and fun. Now is it is stressful and depressing. You can't stop progress...

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  4. Back to the familiarity of home and France...........more familiar and comfortable than your home town in the US?

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    1. Both places are familiar and comfortable in their own way.

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  5. I have never been able to check in online for my return to France. I always go the day before to the airport to get my boarding passes. Luckily, my family is in a small city in the U.S. and that's a simple task.
    I have never been asked for my carte de séjour, but then I always just hand it over with my passport. Sometimes, when the personnel directing passengers see the carte, they tell me go into the shorter/faster EU passport line. And the last time, I got a "welcome home" and big smile from the French immigration official. It was Nov. 16, and a welcome break in the tension everywhere.
    Unfortunately, the "improvements" the airlines make to the planes are to reduce weight and squeeze in more people. So an older plane seat probably has more padding and is slightly bigger than a new one. Just wait--there are patents to replace the overhead bins with double-decker seating (you don't mind having somebody's feet in front of your face for 10 hours do you?) as well as to get rid of seats altogether and have people stand, leaning against panels with little shelves, like bar stools.

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    1. I'll have to try using the EU passports line next time, even though the all passports line yesterday at Roissy was no problem. I just waltzed through. I agree with you too about the airlines "maximizing" passenger numbers by reducing leg room and also by making the aisles narrower and narrower. Having a larger TV screen is supposed to mitigate the discomfort, I guess.

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  6. And, was Callie excited to see you? :)

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    1. She was. I've been on two walks with her already, both in... the rain.

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  7. I was given to understand that the importance of that return booking is that you are not a terrorist just needing a ticket to get on a plane. You have to sort of prove that you are truly a traveler on your way somewhere then home again.

    I am looking forward to that .. I need to be on my way somewhere again :)
    As beautiful as NC is ... weren't you very happy and relieved to be Home again ? :)

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  8. You took some very nice photos in NC. Glad your flight was good, fyi the weather in Alabama was just like yours today- we even had sleet for a while! Going to CA today and they are expecting...rain! Pfft!

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  9. "Instrument of torture"....that made me laugh. Danny always pops a couple ibuprofen before boarding.

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  10. Welcome home, Ken... grim init!?
    That ship at least looks as though it might be doing something toward global warmin'... it is loaded with wind-turbine masts.... may well have the other components tucked away in the holds.

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