by | August 5th, 2005
The first thing one notices about Charles de Gaulle airport and Frankfurt’s huge airport is that Europe is beginning to look a little shabby and outdated after spending some time in South Korea’s relatively new airport at Incheon outside of Seoul (constructed in 2001). If you ever needed to catch a few hours sleep in between flight connections, there’s no place better than Incheon’s Transit Hotel where you can book a room right in the transit section without ever having to recheck your baggage or go through additional security checks.
Of course, I’m thrilled to be back at CDG, Charles de Gaulle, but okay Europe, don’t let Korea leave you behind in the dust!
{ 3 comments }
As a recent resident of Paris and a permanent resident of Seoul and a frequent traveller, I must say CDG is a huge letdown from a city that receives more tourists than any other. It’s shabby, dirty, inefficient, difficult to transfer between terminals, easy to lose luggage (in spite of a private company that handles transits), dangerous (proven from the crash of 2E), and finally unfriendly. I love Paris, I do speak French without a noticeable accent, and I had one of the most wonderful stays possible as a study abroader there with French friends made, but sorry, the final note of my séjour was marred by the staff members of CDG and Air France. In sum, CDG, in essence, has a Parisian character, which really works both ways, good and bad.
Meanwhile, ICN is a very clean airport, and I hope its present lack of character will be fixed by a long and hard search for one. On any given day, though, I’d take a characterless ICN over an overly-spicy CDG, if you ask me.
Was reading some past posts from your blog, and got the idea that you are a fellow Rochesterian. Is this true? What are the chances? Paris, Seoul, Rochester…
Jay, yes it’s true!
Yes indeed the Paris CDG 1 airport is really a shame. CDG 2 however, is much better.
You’re so right! We flew out of CDG 2 last week. It seems to be much tidier than CDG1 one of the bathrooms even have stall frescos of cows grazing in green pastures that look like a Norman landscape. Have the Normans’ left their aesthetic perspective on the CDG 2 loos?
Chris
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