We arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport around mid afternoon. It is the largest airport serving Paris and the second busiest passenger airport in Europe after London Heathrow which we’ll leave from on October 10th.

While researching things for our trip, I came across these bits of lovely information on the web:

“The Charles de Gaulle Airport is definitely the western world’s worst airport. A confusing circular mess of escalators, ‘satellite’ arrival/departure areas, spaces far too small for the number of passengers and cranky staff make it a place that is meant to be escaped as quickly as possible.”

Our experience at the airport was just fine. We didn’t have any problems at all finding our way out of the maze of buildings and as mentioned in the quote above, we didn’t even have to go through customs.

Before we left home, I spent some time trying to calculate how long it would take to get through customs, gather our luggage, find our train, and arrive at our hotel so I could figure out what, if any, excursions could be planned for our first night. During that bit of research I found this helpful information:

“Don’t despair – Paris gets much better once you get out of the airport. I have sometimes believed that customs/immigration at Charles de Gaulle aren’t that tough because anyone capable of finding their way out of the airport is intelligent enough to respect the country they’re in.”

We only had one small bit of problem and that was with the subway system which I’ll write about in another post. I won’t mention any names, but one of the above grandmas didn’t keep their subway ticket as instructed and one was a bit too quick to move before Michaela said which way to go and ended up having to walk DOWN the escalator…… more on that in a subway post to come.

History buff that I am, I also researched the airport’s namesake ahead of time and found that Charles de Gaulle was born in 1890. He chose a military career which eventually found him heading up the French resistance to the Nazis during WWII and creating the Fifth Republic of which is currently France’s second-longest lasting regime and will become the longest if it endures through 2028. Charles de Gaulle served as the President of the Fifth Republic until he resigned in 1969 after his proposal for Senate reorganization which would give the president more power was rejected. Upon his resignation, he voluntarily refused the retirement due a president and died destitute in 1970.

So. There is obviously a lot more to Charles de Gaulle than the brief paragraph I wrote above, but hey, we’re on vacation…er… I mean a living history field trip, but STILL….. we’re busy sight seeing so I’ll just list a couple more facts I found of interest:

*He served in WWI until he was captured by the Germans

*He foresaw and advocated for mechanised warfare which the Germans eventually used to defeat France.

*He opposed the Franco-German armistice in WWII and fled to London.

*After arriving in London, he organized the Free French forces and convinced several French colonies, the British, and forces within occupied France to his movement.

And, just to show everyone how much FUN history can be my favorite fact is:

*He was educated at an elite military school where he earned the nickname “The Great Asparagus” …….

……because of his height, high forehead, and nose. I immediately thought of Archibald from Veggietales. I’ll probably never forget these facts now that I have an image with which to associate them.

Hmmmm….. the description of Charles de Gaulle’s high forehead, height, and nose reminds me of a friend who fits that description and wouldn’t you know his family hails from France. Any local friends care to guess who I’m thinking of? Anyone care to join us in nicknaming him Archibald?