Review of Air France flight from Stockholm to Paris in Economy

This was the return of a business trip to Stockholm; the report of the outbound flight is here. Company rules mandate that I fly Economy inside Europe, possibly Premium Economy if there is no seat available in Economy, and Business class only if there is no other choice, so the chances that a 169 EUR J upgrade expense claim is accepted are negligible.

I would therefore not travel in the front this time

… nor in the middle, which was entirely unavailable (and undesirable, since it was overwing, for photographic reasons)

But in the rear. AF had pre-assigned me Seat 19A, but I found it too close to the wing and moved back to Seat 22F, on the right side to have the last of the sunset.

Out of curiosity, I tried to move back to Seat 19A,

… but you should not ask to much of AF’s website. On the way in, the seat change had failed miserably; on the way back, it worked only once. I wouldn’t have signed off this piece of software if I had been the validator.

A taxi ride to the airport with my colleagues.

No doubt we were in the direction of an airport

The landscape on the way was not fascinating and looked a lot like this (where there were buildings).

This 747-200 parked next to the expressway has been transformed into a hotel, or rather into a youth hostel with hotel rates (and in the upper deck, into a hotel with palace rates).

I let you check the rates, but I found that somechat expensive for claiming that you slept in a full flat berth in a 747.

The control tower

Arrival at ARN Terminal 5

The FIDS

A general view of the terminal

The reason the taxi dropped us at Terminal 5 was that one of us was leaving by a Norwegian flight, leaving much earlier than our AF flight. He checked himself on this machine,

.. chose his seat…

… and did not need to drop a checked luggage, since he had only a hand luggage.

All others walked afterwards to the other terminals. There is no Terminal 1: I understood from internet research that the original Terminal 1 was renamed Terminal 4 when the facilities were enlarged, in order to have a sequential numbering scheme. (Insiders are welcome to correct me)

Despite what was posted at Terminal 2, it would have taken me much less than 14 minutes to go from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2, if I had not stopped on the way here and there.

There were of course several stops for plane spotting reasons. Terminal 5 seemed to be reserved for Norwegian.

That is actually where most international flights (but not AF) are located, but at that time and from this side of the terminal, the only intruder was a TK aircraft. The difference was the red part was the tail, not the nose :)

Sky City, located between Terminals 4 and 5 is the landside shops area,

… with a direct access to main line and suburban trains taking a deviation of the Uppsala – Stockholm trunk line.

I could not show you a lounge, so this was a sample of the local food offering, with multicolored ice-creams :

.. rather generous sandwiches,

… and cakes not designed for weight watchers.

Only after having chosen and started to eat an ice-cream did a colleague reach the counter and find this sign. Who bothers about having cash in a country where everything can be paid with a credit card? The staff fiddled with the terminal, probably switched it of and on, and with a miracle of Swedish technological expertise, the terminal returned to normal, saving to my colleague the shame of withdrwaing cash at an ATM.

Apart from a left luggage facility that I did not explore, there were toilets of course. All the logos implied that Swedish men are able to change a baby’s diapers,

… and that was reminded by a pictogram for the men’s room. (I have conversely a serious doubt that French men who travel by plane can handle a baby’s elementary sanitary needs, based on CDG and AF’s signage).

The baby care equipment was limited to an extension of the surface where the sinks were located. It was very very far from what is offered in Japan (in NGO, for instance), with in particular baby holders to facilitate going oneself to the toilets.

The staff had vehicles to move around faster.

There was even a three-wheeler version to carry things

Some plane spotting on the way (at this stage, my colleagues had definitely abandoned all hopes of going throught the security check together). Terminal 5 was international, but there were quite a few Norwegian aircraft at Terminal 4 operating domestic flights to Northern Sweden.

Danish Air Transport ATR-72

BA E-170

A series of SAS 737

Sky Taxi Saab 340

The Nextjet Saab 340 had rather divesified liveries : there are three different ones in two pictures

It was time to reach Terminal 2 and obtain a BP

There were few people waiting at the manual counters

… but using a self check-in machine was faster (and it is not as camera-shy as a staff could legitimately be)

Fifteen language options…

… but only fourteen languages, because my frequent readers know that this is the choice between traditional ideograms (in use in Hong-Kong and Taiwan), and simplified ones (in use in Mainland China and Singapore), respectively. You can’t expect to find Taiwan’s flag for the first choice, but they could have used that of HK, which is politically correct, in order to differentiate both options.

AF grants one centimeter less in width of hand luggage, and yet mine seemed to fit better in this AF gauge than in that of Easyjet.

Both gauges are actually a few millimeters wider than the official limit, but the real difference was that that of AF does not have solid walls, which provides some extra space to fit the wheels and ahndles, whereas the EZY gauge tested on a preceding flight had solid walls which gave no such space bonus.

The security check was no problem. An elderly passenger shortcut her line “because of her flight”, and then took some much time to put her hand luggage stuff on the conveyor that she was still there when I was out of it. After sliding doors isolating visually the security check area, I found myself in a corridor lined up with duty free shops.

… including one selling food products. Mrs Marathon knows very well that it exists.

I cannot imagine what he reaction would have been if I had use my Swedish food budget to buy an upgrade in J.

Especially since I would not compare Swedish smoked salmon with the meal served in J by AF and which is four times more expensive.

They do provide a vaguely insulating bag, but this item is compatible with the size of a hand luggage, and it traveled in mine, to avoid the risk of forgetting it in the bottom of an overhead luggage bin.

Some more plan spotting, with a good catch : EI-LNA, the first Norwegian Long Haul 787, registered in Ireland unlike the Norwegian Air Shuttle 737.

Anapola Flyg Fokker 50

DHL 767

Finnair Embraer

And last, a Helitrans Scottish Aviation Jetstream 31

There were quadruple Type F power ports here and there, like this one used by a passenger in a rather empty part of the terminal,

… but it’s a party of three people, those which are closest to your boarding gate are likely to be in high demand.

A business trip requires professional equipment to test the presence of power. Two laptops, plus another not connected here yet, and the inevitable camera battery charger, because according to a colleague, "Marathon, it’s a picture every three minutes or 30 meters, whichever comes first".

The wifi internet access was free for a duration that I forgot (three hours), but you needed to have a cell phone to receive a code by SMS.

I was maybe impatient, but I switched on again my phone

… mainly for displaying the corporate webpage.

AF’s aircraft had arrived meanwhile, and I rushed to the window, because it was not any aircraft.

The sharklet was a brand new thing at the tip of an Airbus at that time, which meant that this plane was brand new.

F-HEPG entered AF’s fleet on 18 October 2013, according to Airfleets : she was AF’s second newest A320 at the time of that flight.

The priorities were respected at boarding : Skypriority first, and then the cattle (which included me)

The cabin seen through the glass pane separating Row 1 from the aisle to the left front door.

This was Row 22

The seat pitch ? 23 cm was standard economy in France, but it was 4 cm less than in Mainland China.

The seats have a neat red zigzag decoration. Probably cheap to do and nevertheless efficient.

The plane seemed quite full, but not fully booked.

Note the hooks on each side of the middle seat for placing two vests – not three. It is an additional inconvenience for the passenger in the middle seat if they are used. It would have been better to have a hook on the right of each seat (and symmetrically on the left in the left half of the plane).

The cup holder has also disappeared. AF claimed maybe that they listened to their customers who made fun of these holders with square holes for round cups (which fit very well actually, because the cup’s plastic is thin enough to change shape).
Another sign of modernity is the arrival of the “electronic appliances" pictogram, precisely at the time when AF now authorizes their use at all times in “flight mode”. I expected no less of the people in charge of cabin layout design with AF, whose NEV 2/3/4 series seats were consistently one generation behind.
(In all fairness, I should mention that CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) rules prohibit the rules of cell phones at all times in flight, even in flight mode, and Chinese FAs are usually strict about it. For taking pictures, remember to bring a camera next time you fly in China.)

I did not test the seat’s reclining, but you can have a glimpse on one of my pictures.

A picture of the sharklet on the ground while they was enough light

You saw a KLM 737 behind

Despite my predictions, I succeded in taking a picture of the sharklet in flight. The red hue was due to the flashing red light: AF has yet to discover that a sharklet or a wingtip fence are great logo bearing surfaces.

The safety card.

… eand the high tech pictogram. AF has not reached the smartphone level, but it will come one day.

The meal tray arrived under a cellophane protection. I did not keep a memory of the FAs during that interaction, but nothing allows me to accuse them of being unfriendly or indifferent.

No problem for receiving a glass of apple juice and another of water.

On that 25 cm long tray, there was rice and chicken which I presumed to be Indian-style, having neither a deep expertise in this domain nor a menu which could replace it. A share of President brand Camembert cheese which is probably seldom on presidential tables, and a 15 x 3 x 2.5 cm bread, which looked more like Harry Potter’s wand (without its magic powers) than to my baker’s baguette.

The passenger in Seat 22C illustrated the fact that the dinner tray was as usual in Economy a nuisance once the meal had been eaten, but also that the amount of food and therefore the size of the tray was small enough to balance a laptop next to it on the tray table. This passenger had an aisle seat because his leg size was incompatible with the seat pitch, and his typing our minutes of meeting gave me time for taking pictures instead of working.

I was thirsty when entering the plane ; two cups of drink would have been enough, but there was that stodgy cake, which gave me an opportunity to test the FA call button once the aisle had been cleared of the trolley. 6"30 for a amiling FA to come up to my seat : it was an excellent score, but it took him more than two minutes to come back with a glass of water.

My neighbor went to the toilets and I took this opportunity to do the same for an urgent Flight Reporter’s photographic need in a new aircraft.

A revolution in the graphic chart : the toilet seat cover is dark gray, not light gray. We’ll probably get used and eventually fed up with it, but I find it has some class (Economy class, though).

What had not changed with AF was the feminine nature of baby care tasks

But AF had nevertheless doubts about the qualifications of mothers in flight

There was a 110 V power port compatible with plugs type A and C, and as always a recommendation not to through your syringe of insulin (or any other drug) in the general garbage container, but in a specific one to be requested from the FAs.

The presence of an ashtray may seem weird in a plane where smoking is prohibited, and on an airline where smoking has been banned for good some 15 years ago, “especially in the toilets where smoking could interfere with the fire detection systems”, but a Flight Reporter taught me that they are actually compulsory.

I had the impression that this screw had been incorrectly positioned and damaged this corner metal part.

Outside, the discreet screw head on the left, allows a FA to unlock the door with a simple screwdriver.

The galley in the rear of the aircraft. See the FA who was reading a magazine, an overwhelming task which probably explained that she had no time to offer coffee or tea in Economy on that flight.

Landing on time, but a long taxi to reach our final parking. A last view of the sharklet

The electronic equipment prohibition sign remained on long after the aircraft had reached her final position.

The captain was a woman, who saluted with a wide smile the deplaning passengers. The crew deserved a bonus for that.
Swiss time in the luggage delivery room.

Better be in good health, because I of course took the lift which reached the far end of the parking lot. Note that according to Aéroports de Paris, when a family goes to the airport to meet a traveler, it’s up to the mother to take the hand of the kid.

Like on low cost airlines, the passengers have only one hand luggage. A laptop case is not considered.

Anyway, after a long walk in the flowered nature of CDG2’s underground levels

.. I found my car where I had left it around here.

This is the end of this flight report ; what follows focuses on a city which is seldom described in FR tourist bonuses : Paris.
The architects who designed the Institute of the Arab World, located alongside the left bank of the Seine River opposite Saint Louis Island, have been awarded the prestigious Silver T-Square Prize ( Prix d'architecture de l'Équerre d'argent) in 1987.

It façade is made of mashrabiya which work like the diaphragms of camera lenses (the real ones, which you can remove from a camera body^^)

Apart from its valuable exhibits (for a fee), the building has a freely accessible terrace at the top floor wich provides a spectacular view of the center of paris. This is Saint Louis Island, linked to the left bank of the Seine River by the the Tournelle and Sully bridges.

There is much to see further in the distance, with from right to left (i.e. from north-east to north-ouest), the so-called Romainville transmission tower, which is not located in that suburb but in Les Lilas.

The Genius of Freedom on the top of the July Column, erected on Bastille square to commemorate the riots of 1830 which toppled King Charles X.

The building bridging the diminutive Bretonvilliers Street in St Louis Island, and
St Paul St Louis Church behind on the left on the other river bank.

St Gervais St Protais Church, the blue pipes of the Pompidou Center (a modern art museum) and the Sacred Heart Basilica on top of the Montmartre hill.

The Tower St Jacques and St Eustache Church.

The statue of Ste Geneviève, at the top of a 15 meter high column. Nearly in its axis, topped with a pointed golden roof, the Clock Tour, at the extremity of the Conciergerie, and ot its left, the dome of the Paris Trade Court.

And last, Notre Dame Cathedral, similar to a stone vessel at the tip of the Cité Island (« Ile de la Cité »)

The same, from the Tournelle Bridge,

How many locks had been placed by lovers on the Tournelle Bridge ? I heard that there had been around 700,000 of them on the Arts Footbridge,… until a section of the railing broke due to the sheer weight of these locks, and the police decided to remove all of them.

The cathedral of Paris was restored in the mid 19th century under the leadership of architect Viollet-le-Duc (who managed many other heritage restoration projects). Located under the dark spire added by Viollet-le-Duc, one of the statues of the twelve Apostles is special.

The top one represents St Thomas, saint patron of the architects, represented with the looks of Viollet-le-Duc, turning around to look at his masterpiece.

The square in front of the cathedral and its facade

The gargoyles overhead

On the square itself,

… this is the traditional reference point of distances to Paris, and of the distance markers alongside the roads radiating from Paris.

You need to have a rock hard faith to come and pray in the cathedral, in spite of the constant flow of tourists.

Admiring these stained glass windows can help forget the background noise of the visitors

The rose window of the facade, partially masked by the organ.

This is the end of this report, thanks for having the patience of reading me up to here !