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new :
Futuroscope
Vulcania
Cité de l’éspace
- Space City
Marianne - a French national symbol,
with French definitive stamps
the calendar of the French
Revolution
Hermès scarves
la Belle Epoque
Grand Palais, Paris
the French umbrella &
Aurillac
travelling by rail
to and within France
short biography of Pierre
(Peter) Abelard
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arriving
at the dire charles de gaulle airport, paris
- the auroran sunset
[You will see no photos at all - it’s too depressing taking pictures
of ugliness.]
I have a new advertising slogan for the main Paris
airport:
“Nothing puts you in a bad mood like CDG. Come to Paris!”
They badly need new management, plus a redesign. Nothing
says “Welcome home” quite like an hour or two standing in
completely unnecessary and unmanaged queues for ‘security’,
followed by a total lack of security for your luggage. That has been sitting
waiting to be stolen because of the first folly, followed by illogical,
stupid, contradictory and missing signs. Add in a dose of surly, unhelpful
jobsworth staff, in a building so badly designed that you go deaf from
all the conversations.
Then when you think you have escaped, take a too full
train through the scarred landscape of pervasive property defacement (graffiti
‘artists’ are one of the few types I would happily shoot on
sight), suffering the advances of ever-present beggars who roam from carriage
to carriage with their intrusive ‘music’. Finally you arrive
in the world’s dirtiest station - the Gare du Nord, full of gangs
of dubious looking ‘youths’, usually loitering in the way
of exits, making clouds of noxious fumes with their little white dummies.
That last paragragh can’t really be blamed on
the CDG management, but it all adds to the whole “arriving in Paris”
experience.
No wonder I always used to go via Amsterdam’s
lovely calm and peaceful Schiphol Airport to reach the south of France
and avoid that damned place. Maybe if they paid me enough, I’d consider
fixing it for them - that sort of thing seems to be becoming my area of
expertise.
Everytime I come back to Paris, my mind boggles that
the world’s tourism capital can get away with such an appalling
first impression. Charles de Gaulle airport is a national disgrace.
And here is how Aéroports de Paris are currently
advertising themselves on (French) television. [video: 31 seconds]
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