My friend Yves picked me up from the train station in Paris. I was very grateful to have someone help me get to my hostel since I wasn't too excited about taking my 50 pound suitcase on the metro by myself. We stopped at a Christmas market to get some sausage and then headed out towards the Louvre since my hostel was in that district. Once we dropped off my stuff we walked around the area and did some shopping since DeeDee and Shaylee wouldn't be meeting me until later.
Once they arrived we went out to eat and then headed out to see the Champs Elysees in its Christmas glory. The Champs Elysees is long street of shops that ends at the Arc de Triomphe. At Christmastime, it is supposed to be the most beautifully decorated road and they even put up a ferris wheel at the other end.
The next day, bright and early and with some help and directions from DeeDee I headed out towards Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport. First I had to take the metro and then the RER (all with lots of luggage) because CDG is actually a half an hour by train outside of Paris. Once I got there, I found out that my flight was cancelled, but there was another one through my company AerLingus at the same time. So I went to that gate and found a rather large line. I came to learn that since CDG was closed on Sunday, there were people who had been stuck at the airport since then (My flight was supposed to be on a Tuesday) so they had cancelled ours for them. I wasn't too worried since I figured AerLingus would get us on another flight shortly. There was supposed to be two other flights that day and they told us they were sending bigger planes so we hoped we could get on if we waited long enough.
AerLingus is an Irish airline so most of the planes come from Dublin and have connections in Dublin. Unfortunately for us it was at this time that Dublin closed due to a huge snowstorm. Now they had over three flights worth of people waiting for seats. There were many empty promises and miscommunications along the way since there were no AerLingus employees in CDG as it was sub-run by another company. We were being told to rebook our flights online. We were told that once we got to Dublin, they'd take good care of us since that's where AerLingus headquarters are located. I was lucky enough to find one on the 24th, but for most everything was booked until after Christmas. Even then I was worried that Dublin would close again or they'd cancel the flight. Plus that would be three nights in CDG.
I quickly made friends with a group of college students. Most of us were study abroad students trying to get home for the holidays who were too poor to go stay in a hotel and had too much stuff with them to want to take the train again. They didn't offer us hotels, they said that we could send in receipts later, which didn't really help when we didn't have to money to buy it then. Knowing that no flights were leaving until the next day, we got $10 food vouchers and took turns watching each others stuff. The airport didn't like us all sleeping there and queuing so they blocked off a section for us and gave us what I call my little survival kit and what were basically yoga mats for the night.
It included a blanket, toothpaste/ toothbrush, eyemask, earplugs, water, facewips and socks!
After a poor nights sleep we woke up at four in the morning to start a line, which turned out to be pointless because when the next flight came, they only took people who had tickets. They had cancelled our flight for others, but they wouldn't do the same for us! They had to have security guards come and then they started making a waiting list. Priority was to families and everything was by how long you had been waiting. Basically, I was at the end of the list and there were hundreds of people waiting.
It was then that I learned of an escape plan. One of the people I had been waiting with had gone up to AirFrance who is partnered with AerLingus and found a seat on a flight. He explained to me what to do. First I had to find open flights online. We searched and found a few (All of them were about $6000 to buy that day, but since it would transferring the ticket, we wouldn't have to pay that) Then when we went up to the AirFrance ticket office the women at the desk said they really needed to help their customers and couldn't be finding tickets for the four hundred people waiting downstairs, BUT since we were there she said she would help. I was sooo grateful! Then she found me a flight, for that day, three hours from that time. I took the reservations, then I had to run down to AerLingus and get it confirmed that they would switch me over. Luckily the line was composed of my newly made friends and they let me cut them knowing that I didn't have much time.
By the time I had my tickets I had two hours until my flight which was in a different terminal. I took the tram and once I was there I was searching for the place to check my baggage and found myself looking at a huge line. I walked close to the front and asked a french father and daughter what the line was for. They said all flights for AirFrance check their baggage from that line. I was getting a little panicky that I wouldn't make it through the line on time, but they assured me their flight was even earlier than mine and told me to stay with them in line. I was so grateful to them. It turns out they were going to New York City for the holidays and here all I wanted was to get home.
Once through the long line, next was security and then to find my gate. I made it just in time for what was supposed to be the boarding time. It was a little delayed for which I was actually relieved. I immediately got on my computer and told my mom, "Get in the car, I have a flight!" since they had to drive to Chicago to pick me up.
Once on the plane (I didn't get my hopes up or relax until we had actually taken off, since it was looking pretty foggy outside), I learned just how good of luck I had. The AirFrance lady had booked me the last seat on the flight and it was business class! They hung up my coat, gave me an even nicer care kit (with more socks!), had a spot for me to put my shoes and the chairs were the most comfortable thing ever with foot rests and a remote control to adjust the settings. I was sooo happy and everyone noticed too, a woman told me, "Someone's happy" and I explained my situation to her. The hostesses overheard and started flocking to me in disbelief and sympathy. They told me, "We are going to take such good care of you, we'll get you some food and you'll sleep well..." It was AWESOME! I talked to my neighbor who was an Austrian man who now lives in Florida. When it was mealtime I couldn't believe that I had a whole menu and I could get anything, for FREE!!! So I decided to have a bordeaux wine to say goodbye to Pau. I also ate fois gras and caviar, and other delicious things. The dessert was amazing and when I told the hostess this, she offered me more! haha Before and after the meals we received hot towels to wipe our hands and face. Then for breakfast we had oranges with cinnamon on them, which was surprisingly good and some kind of fish. I traded my fish for my neighbor's cookie. :]
After all of the food, I was getting tired so I decided to watch planet earth and then take a snooze. It felt so good to sleep on something so comfortable! I even used the eyemask. I also played a lot of hangman and solitaire on the computers. They had a cool function called Your Flight where you could see your trajectory or you could view the camera they had on the bottom of the plane to see the clouds below.
After we landed in Detriot I had 2 hours to get to my connection to Chicago. I had to pick up my baggage and declare it then recheck it, go through customs and then through security again. I made it with time to spare only to find out that my plane was having mechanical problems. My parents were already in Chicago and it was the last flight out to Chicago for the day. Luckily, they found us another plane and we took off two hours late, so neither I nor my parents had to spend another night in the airport. All my luggage arrived in tact, I got some Starbucks and we drove to Green Bay that night to stay at my Aunts. Then finally in the morning we drove to Marquette and I made it home at last!
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