Air France A319 economy class, Paris to Stockholm
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| Paris (CDG) to Stockholm (ARN) |
Date: 2018-05-12
Flight number: Air France AF1462
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Registration: F-GRHY
Age of aircraft: 16½ years
Duration of flight: 2:21 (gate to gate)
Seat: 15F (economy class)
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| Seat map with my seat (15F) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com |
It was time to head back home again after three great days in Paris. It really is a phenomenal city! Just like when we arrived, we took the train between the city centre and CDG, but this time it wasn't as crowded. We got to the airport with plenty of time before scheduled time of departure, and since we had done our fair share of walking in Paris, I wasn't really in the mood for running around the airport, but settled in a quiet spot to have some food and await boarding.
Terminal 2 is kind of grey, but there is still some natural light coming in. The piers are huge, and the gate areas sort of flow into each other. I'm not really a big fan, but it's still way better than many other airports (Berlin TXL, for example).
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| One of the huge piers at CDG terminal 2 |
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| Gloomy evening at CDG |
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| A €2,40 tabbouleh - watch and learn, OSL! |
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| Gate F33 ready for boarding |
Boarding was called right on time, and pushback was punctual as well. As we had taken our seats, the pilot announced that we were "expecting some turbulence on today's flight". Luckily however, there was basically no turbulence at all (although the ascent out of CDG was a little bit bumpy before we pushed through the clouds).
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| Walking down the jet bridge |
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| Looking for row 15 |
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| Found it! This is my home for the next two and a half hours... |
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| Airbus 321 from Joon, a subsidiary of Air France |
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| Leg room was the same as the previous flight. Go figure! |
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| Air France country... |
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| I LOVE the light blue Korean Air livery - I'd love to fly with them one day! |
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| At the runway - this view always gets me excited! |
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| Au revoir, Paris! |
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| Pushing through the clouds |
Since the sun had started to set, I sat glued to the window for the first portion of the flight, while there still was some sunlight left. Lots of other aircraft to look at, and it was a gorgeous evening at 39.000 feet, with cotton candy clouds below us and a soft light that kept changing colours by the minute.
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| Still climbing steadily |
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| There's actually some daylight left up here! |
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| Such a gorgeous evening above the clouds! |
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| OK, one last look out the window! |
Half an hour after take off, the cabin crew started the snack service. (You can't really call it dinner service, but it was perfectly enough for this short flight.) At about this time, the person in 16F put his or her foot on my armrest, just like when I flew on Austrian Airlines from VIE to OSL in April. I hate when that happens - feet should be on the floor, or at least in the row in which the feet's owner is sitting...
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| Eagerly awaiting the snack service |
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| A certain Charlton Heston line from "The Planet of the Apes" always comes to mind when this happens. But I think my mom reads this blog, so I won't write it ;) |
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| Not Feuillade-approved! |
What I did approve of was the snack. A calzone-like sandwich with gorgonzola cheese and mushroom, some apple slices and a jar of mashed apples. And apple juice. I know, Air France seem to have this thing with apples...
I like the fact that Air France seem to serve foods that are an acquired taste. The dried figs on the flight from Stockholm, or this mushroom/gorgonzola sandwich are not exactly everyone's cup of tea (and it's definitely not kid-friendly food). But they don't seem to care that much, and since the food was good on both flights, I'm not complaining. I like that they do their own thing (and I eat basically everything except coriander/cilantro, so I'm not that likely to complain).
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| Mushroom/gorgonzola sandwich |
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| Apple slices |
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| Feuillade-approved! |
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| After the orange juice on the previous flight, it was back to normal again with this apple juice :) |
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| Mashed apples - this seemed like a really odd choice to me... why would you serve this without anything to accompany it? |
After eating, I thought I'd check out the inflight magazine. It turns out that Air France do their own thing regarding that as well. Lots of ads for French high-end designer products, and I gave up after a couple of pages. Where were the airplanes and the route maps? And photo opportunities were next to zero now, as the sun had set. Not much to do but sit back and enjoying the remainder of this short flight. The descent started soon enough.
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| Inflight magazine... |
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| Nope, there don't seem to be any route maps in this magazine... |
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| Photo opportunities next to zero now - it's impossible to avoid reflections... |
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| ...or is it? My cell phone camera isn't that good, but this is a way to avoid the reflections! |
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| The result... |
The only bad thing about this flight was the heat - it was starting to get unbearably hot towards the end of the flight, and the small air vent didn't really help, as my jeans were starting to stick to my thighs. But just as I started to get really bothered by the heat, we started our descent towards ARN, so I didn't have to suffer for that long at least. We landed ahead of schedule (on what I perceived as runway 19R), and after a few minutes of taxiing, we were back at T2. When it comes to arriving at ARN, I definitely prefer T2 over T5, as it is a small terminal, and getting out of the terminal is easily and quickly done. Especially when you don't have any checked luggage to collect. This had been a great trip. Thank you, Paris and Air France. Until next time!
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| Back at ARN terminal 2, and next to a KLM B737 again - is that a sign..? |
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| Thanks for this ride, F-GRHY! |
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