Alpine Summer

I really like planes. I love being up in the air and those sudden occasional feelings of weightlessness. But, it's been so long since I was up in a plane. Probably close to 15 years. The memories I have of flying are very distinct, but still very removed from time. So, the whole time I was waiting to get on the plane in Atlanta, Georgia, I was freaking out.

Okay, that's not exactly fair. I spent most of the time convincing myself that I was NOT freaking out. I think I can honestly say that I was more nervous about getting nervous than the actual flight.

Luke and I were quite separated on the plane. Because it was so full, no one was allowed seat change requests. I was in the first-to-last row of the plane. Each row had 9 seats split into sections of 3; all seats were labeled ABC EFG JKL. I found myself in B, between two other members of this program but by no one I knew. One of them was a self-proclaimed "big guy" and, the other commented, "I'm glad they gave me so much leg room; I'm 6'2" and have no where to sit." So, needless to say, the 5'4" girl in the middle was squished.

The plane was rather "high-tech". I use the term loosely just because, with all the advances in technology, it might not have been as impressive as I thought. We had little touch-sensitive TV screens in the backs of the seats in front of us, and we received complimentary headphones (( this impressed me, simply because so many people had told me you have to rent headphones on planes )), along with earplugs and a black-out mask. There were large screens in the aisles and a huge one at the front of the section for the security instructions. These also had a moment-by-moment map of where we were.

The television selection was pretty good. I didn't watch much, but they offered quite a bit. For example, you could watch McGyver, Frasier, or the old Mission Impossible series in English or French on the "series" channel. For movies, there were several French movies with subtitles, and "Match Point", "Brokeback Mountain", "Grease", and "Failure to Launch", all available dubbed. There were some rather creepy cartoons for kids, news and sports channels, and the same instantaneous map. They offered about 20 games (( played with a remote control that popped out of the armrest )), 25 music options, and a "How Are We Doing?"-esque questionnaire. After saying all that, I feel the need to mention that many of us agreed, should the plane go down, it's best that we at least be watching McGyver when it happens.

I've heard so many negative things about airline food, but they truly got a gold-star from me in this area. Since the flight, I've heard that the meals are one of the things in which Air France really takes pride. It was real food -- chicken with potatoes and green beans, shrimp salad, bread & butter, cheese, yogurt (( a little thicker than home but very tasty )), coffee cake, and your choice of beverage. Meals are already included in the ticket, at least ours' were. In the morning, we were served a breakfast of apple danish, fruit, and cheese.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take any pictures from the plane. I really wanted a few shots flying over Ireland, but I couldn't get a view (( I could barely see out as it was )), and "big guy" wasn't interested in helping me out.

I didn't get to sleep but about an hour on the flight. The back few rows seemed to not have air conditioning, so where Luke was complaining nine rows forward of being too cold, I was extremely hot. The flight was pretty bumpy. We flew through several storms so there was a lot of turbulence. The landing in Paris was wonderful; I hardly realized we had touched down. I've always heard my father say that "a good landing is any one you walk away from," so I was expecting much worse from such a large aircraft. After we landed and pulled into our departure "spot," we had nearly an hour of sitting. This may have been because they let everyone off from the front first. Whatever reason there was nearly raised my time in that tiny cramped area into double-digit hours; the total ended up being somewhere around 9 1/2.

Once off the plane, we boarded the bus of death. The driver seemed not to notice that about 20 more people got onto the bus than could actually fit. And then he dragged us about 5 miles to a terminal, including going through a construction site where the workers seemed quite unhappy about the big bus in their way. We walked up a few flights of stairs and into the customs. They looked at our passports one by one, but didn't stamp it because we didn't plan on leaving the airport. We found our terminal, which was forever away from where we were left off by the aforementioned bus of death, and went through to our gate. There, we got to sit for a couple hours.