Back in Paris by way of Saipan and South Korea and Frankfurt airport

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