The last night was short, as we had to get up early to be ready for the taxi which came to pick us up at 5 am. Last moments to check the house, and hop, in the taxi, the early hours of the day did not leave much space for more emotions, good so. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Nice airport, easy check in and happy to get rid of the eight large suitcases. We were asked to present our ESTAs, and all proud we declared that we are Visa E-2 holders. Finished the ESTAs ! Quick tour at the business lounge of Air France, where we saw the sun rising. Rose told us that we would see the sun set when arriving in Santa Barbara. Good thinking !
Connecting flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, on paper we had 1h40 to change. Very easy, as our Business reservations allowed us to cut the lines at customs. By changing in Paris, one does not have to pass security a second time (contrary to Heathrow), so it only took us 15 minutes to change from Terminal 2F to 2E (L). We travelled on a A380, therefore they had reserved two doors in the terminal. The organisation for check-in was ... - how to say it nicely - French (a real mess), and on top the "at door" security wanted to check the electronic equipment for aleatory passengers. Of course, it was meant for ... me. I saw BHE and the three children take the escalator to go to the upper deck of the A380, whilst emptying my two bags, turning on my phone, my tablet, my PC, getting body checked (front and rear) from top to bottom and took of my shoes to get them inspected. Never anyone looked more like a terrorist than me ....
Small disappointment, the business seats were not the new models yet, as only two of the nine A380 of Air France have already changed. But we managed to be comfortably installed and with www.seatguru.com we had well chosen our seats. And then, "your captain speaking" (a nice female voice), announcing us a technical problem. As always, not more details and the promised update ten minutes later, took much more time. A few updates later we learned that the broken part needed replacement (why not decide this from the start?) and we finally left with three hours delay. Three hours delay added to a 11h40 trip, when you have started the day ten hours earlier ... promised a long, long day.
The flight itself was pleasant. The service is less good than on Britsh Airways (which is less expensive) and especially the food is not up to it. We finally arrived with two hours delay at LAX, tired, but oh so happy.
I had prepared everybody that customs could take up to three hours. Better to get them in the right mood. Finally it was not bad at all. After queueing for 40 minutes, it was our turn to present ourselves to a welcoming female officer. We indicate to her that this is our first passage as E-2 Visa holders, she pulls up our file on her computer, takes fingerprints and pictures and wishes us a warm welcome. We found our eight suitcases, passed the control without problems and looked for our "taxi". A bit complicated, as our delay exceeded the arranged time. We call the compnay and finally our driver appears, shouting loud my name. BHE had reserved a nine passenger bus, I expected the worst. His reasoning was right, we needed space for the suitcases. But would this mean a mini school bus, with its basic comfort and no A/C, given that we already had 32°C? Finally it was quite comfortable and had A/C. The suspensions were not really of my taste, I felt like in a boat, and I didn't like the driving style of the driver. Given the traffic on late Friday afternoon, it didn't make much difference and we arrived at 7h45 pm at our new home.
Door to door : 23h45 ! The adventure has started! And the sun was just setting ...
(Source)
No comments:
Post a Comment