AF5869 CDG - SOU 20-DEC-2006

There are two recurring dreams I have. One relates to arriving in an exam room having done no work or revision, and the other involves boarding an aircraft that then drives around but never actually takes to the air. I must at some stage have fallen foul of the 'Friday's dream on Saturday told always comes true no matter how old' as the latter certainly came true on this leg of the trip to Paris.

As this was the first day of the great pea souper we'd come close to heading into Paris to get the Eurostar but had figured that reduced the chances of another expensed night in Paris so instead opted to take our chances at CDG. Here we found no sense of angst or panic, and were quickly through check in and security to the cool and airy delights of Terminal 2F. Cool and airy fine, but all we could find to eat was at some truly horrible fast food joint hidden under the stairs that made any UK airport eatery shine in comparison.

Anyway, having supped a beer and passed some time we made our way down to the gate to be greeted by a passenger who had been stranded there for nigh on 24 hours, was a little stir crazy and took on the role of the narrator of the Ancient Mariner regaling us with tales of slaughtered albatross and flights cancelled at the very last minute.

Eventually a bus turned up and we were ushered on for a 20 minute drive aroud the airport, then onto a twin turbo prop job that then proceeded to do the 20 minute drive we'd just done (only in the reverse direction...yes, passed that cement mixer...oh, there's the gate we just left from...) plus another 20 minutes to find a runway. Even the pilot felt moved to state that he wan't aware that he'd be asked to drive to Southampton.

Thankfully we were in the year not too long after scheduled departure, and were supping a g & t and eating a madeleine (made a change from pretzels) as we passed over the channel. Lots of shipping lights to note, before beginning our decent into the bright lights of the south coast. A rather heavy landing, and then a swift disembark into a terminal full of disappointed humanity being told their flights out were cancelled, at which point we began to realise how lucky we'd been.

For the next couple of days we then monitored the flight situation as a good many of the people on site were due to fly north on the Friday. I'd opted to have the train take the strain, which work like a charm until I got back to Huntingdon only to find no vehicle access to the station due to an accident, thick fog and a gridlocked one way system. Took me almost as long to get the few miles to home as it had taken me to get from Waterloo to Huntingdon...

Paul