Misadventures

Well, we've begun our journey and as things go, we've stumbled into a few misadventures.

Our seats on AirFrance were what I'm going to call "Not-Coach." They were an upgrade but they were certainly not First or even Business Class. So they were not as comfortable as we'd hoped.  We did, however, snag the front exit row with loads of leg-room - in fact, there was a full six feet of room in front of our seats.

To our side was a young couple with two children, one an infant and the other a precocious and high-energy boy of about three. They colonized the three center seats and bulkheads, and also part of the floor space in front of us and on the starboard side.  Anyone with kids - that's the section to get  for future overseas flights!

Our plane was a giant two-decker Airbus, the biggest plane in the world, I think. It lumbered like an ocean liner down the runway.

We arrived at DeGaulle with just minutes to spare for our Venice connection, and that's where things went wrong. Following a confusion of signs, we searched for Terminal D, trekking for miles along moving walkways. We followed the signs and even the beckoning of uniformed employees, and found ourselves in a scrum of people going through passport check. "Is this right?" we wondered. Other passengers talked to staff about making connections, so we thought, weird as it seemed, this was the right place.

Yet after the stern-faced French policeman stamped our passports to enter France, we followed the signs and found ourselves out at baggage claim - on the street. What?

By this time, for sure we had missed our connection. I still don't know how we ended up there, but now our concern was to find AirFrance and get another flight. A kind person at the Info Counter sent us to AirFrance Customer Service....who sent us to another AirFrance Customer Service counter....where we waited....and waited....and then were finally helped by a pleasant young woman who promptly put us on the next Venice flight and upgraded us to Business Class!

"Just across from that sign, you can go up to the Business Lounge," she said.

Which is where we are now.

Of course, this plays a bit of havoc with our Venice connection to the watertaxi and our rendez-vous with our landlady - so the adventure continues.