Parc de Belleville - Paris, France - 9-20-16

Four days wasn’t near enough in Paris but the plan is the plan.

I checked out of my hotel on rue Blanche Wednesday morning and headed for Orly. It was a triple play. The #2 Metro to the RER B commuter train and then a seamless connection to the “OrlyVal” (an unmanned tram that goes fast).

It took an hour and fifteen minutes door to door from the 9th to Orly. And that’s with pretty thick rush-hour hustle/bustle.

Both major Paris airports have excellent public transit options. Well-marked and affordable, there’s no reason not to use the trains unless your luggage makes navigation of stairs difficult.

At Orly, I caught an Air France flight to Toulouse. I flew standby at a reduced cost thanks to the travel privileges tied to my job. This aspect of my processing was somewhat complicated. I did the check-in and bag tag on a stand-alone machine like everybody else but when I attempted to drop the suitcase, the technology blocked me. After intervention from a human, I was instructed to go to a special “zone” mainly set up for passengers with oversized luggage. The airline also used this space to clear standbys. I was instructed that I wouldn’t be considered for clearance until 30 minutes prior to departure. I was way early. At some point, a neatly-dressed older worker approached me to see which flight I was waiting for.

Air France has at least hourly service to Toulouse from Orly – so the guy moved me up to the trip one hour earlier. When I asked if this would create a conflict with my already-tagged bag for the later flight, he said it wasn’t a problem.

When I reached Toulouse, it was not a shock my bag didn’t join me. But it also didn’t make the next one. I was in no hurry – so it wasn’t a big deal – but the way it all went down suggests to me that Air France’s baggage stats probably aren’t all that great.

I had an exit row seat on the Airbus 320. The flight lasted just 60 minutes.

On Tuesday, I went to Parc des Princes for PSG-Dijon Ligue 1 action.

You might say there wasn’t a whole lot of mustard on this one.

Despite a sluggish start in league play, PSG toyed with Dijon in a flavorless and plain 3-nil victory for Paris.

St.G’s first goal came on a Dijon flub job. Adam Lang redirected a Maxwell looper past his own keeper Baptiste Reynet. It was an ugly-looking score. Edinson Cavani got PSG’s second goal on a PK after a foul in the box on a darting Adrien Rabiot.

Flashy Hatem Ben Arfa is a 14 mil Euros piece added this year but he’s so deep in the doghouse of PSG entraineur Unai Emery that he didn’t play in this one. Cavani seemed to generate the most noise when he touched the ball Tuesday night.

Attendance was 42,484 but there were lots of empty seats. I paid 28 euros at the box office for my seat in the corner (about even with goal line) about halfway up.

Policemen bearing heavy weaponry and military-like garb were impossible to miss outside the venue. I had a sandwich, soda and fudge brownie at the match for 9 E.

The vibe and venue were so-so. PSG has been so stacked in recent years relative to the rest of league membership, it’s hard to get too excited about their dominance.

While I can’t attend the match, I’ll be rooting for Toulouse FC and their magical coach Pascal Dupraz to knock off PSG on Friday night here in Toulouse.

1 thought on “

  1. Good to hear about your trip. It sounds like everything is going great. Have a good rest of the trip. Love Dad

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