Review of Air France flight Stockholm → Paris in Economy

This is the return flight of a business trip to Stockholm. The report of the other flight, in somewhat similar travel conditions although in Business class, is here (CDG - ARN with SK).

The trip to ARN began with a long descent on one of these escalators that the Swedes build in one throw all the way down their deep tunnels.

Reaching the platform with raw granite ceilings decorated with blue trees at a T-Centralen station, a.k.a. Stockholm’s central train station.

… from which I climbed with a long escalator from the deep subway tunnel

An reached the platform of the Arlanda Express, expensive at 540 SEK round trip, but nevertheless twice cheaper than a taxi, with a flat 520 SEK one way fare.

The train reaches in 20 minutes the Arlanda-South platform. Did I forget to mention that the Swedes like escalators reaching all the way from their deep rail tunnels ?

This escalator actually connected to another, of ridiculous small length by Swedish rail station escalator standards. (It nevertheless dwarfs the famous six-step escalator in TPE’s Terminal 2,)

The corridors to Terminal 2 provide a view of the control tower on one side

And some Scandinavian aircraft, like this Norwegian 738

The vertical stabilizer of this one honors the memory of Fridtjof Nansen, highlighted as a courageous polar explorer, but I remember him more as the statesman who provided relief to hundreds of thousands of people who had not chosen to travel.

A Danish Air Transport ATR 42, and a Saab 340 belonging to NextJet, which does not make her a jet aircraft .

An orange lighting alongside the corridor to Terminal 2, with a ground staff on a scooter,

The next corridor had neither color nor scooter

SAS ATR72, with lots of reflections on the window

There had been warnings of strikes of the French air traffic controllers and pilots on Friday, and I was flying one day earlier than originally planned. Packing five days of work into four had made me so busy that I had forgotten to check in on line, and when I reached these machines, there were only a few middle seats left available. That was my only failure in that business trip, and it was a tolerable one.

A short wait at the safety check, and a lucky draw at the explosive detection test lottery, which did not slow down the whole process. I was airside in the immediate vicinity of the largest duty-free shop of that terminal which offered a large variety of items, most of which were not Swedish and can be found in most airport duty-free shops.

Flying home one day early was no excuse in the eyes of my wife to not bring back a typical Swedish souvenir, of the edible kind, whose specifications exclude the use of cocoa beans, or any gaming use.

Only after going through the shops twice did I eventually find a well hidden section in this one

… where I found a selection of trout and salmon, smoked and marinated, at the same price as in my local department store, but it was not the same quality. These packages are sized to fit precisely in a standard hand luggage.

After buying this souvenir of no interest for Flight Reporters, I reverted to an activity of no interest to my wife : plane spotting.

Air Berlin A320

Amapola Flyg Fokker 50, a freight airline

Finnair A319

British Airways B767

And freight aircraftin the distance (two B757 and a BAE-146)

The far end of the terminal where Gate 67 was located was quite empty when I got there

This small rocket was the only play facility installed for kids – I doubt they would be interested beyond the age of 3 or 4.

There were sets of F-type power ports, but they were poorly located because they were close to one seat only, like here.

The flight was full, and even more than full, because the staff at the gate starts by looking a passenger willing to take the next morning flight, the dinner, a comfortable hotel and the breakfast courtesy of AF, in this nice city of Stockholm where the the temperature was 25°C, versus 11°c and a rotten weather in Paris (these were not the exact words, but close enough). I guess that the passenger who was selected was more attracted by 250 EUR cash or a 300 EUR voucher for an AF flight within one year than by the prospect of waking up early enough to take the 6:30 am flight the next day.

The staff said nothing of the rumors of a strike of the air traffic controllers and of the AF pilots because by that time, the French government had already caved in.

I did not know what my wife’s reaction would be if I called to tell her that I had accepted 250 EUR from a young Swedish girl to spend the night in a good hotel in Stockholm, rather than with her in Paris, and I chose not to volunteer.

Since the plane was 100% full, I did wait for the last moment to stand in line for boarding, expecting difficulties to find space for my hand luggage in the overhead bins.

The flight was announced with a ten minute delay: boarding of the non-Skypriority passengers started a few minutes before the theoretical closure of the boarding gate.

I was unable to determine if this ground staff was on a ladder or stretching out through a cockpit window.

The cabin had the old seats, with their famous square cup holders for round cubs (which nevertheless fit well inside), and a rather comfortable upholstery.

They can recline, not by that much, but more than the more recent seats which do not recline at all.

The head rests and the antimacassars

This accessory was useful in the time when passengers were allowed to smoke on CDG-ARN flights because the scheduled flight time was more than 2h30’ (this is an old grievance dating back from last century, when I flew on the last non-smoking row, just ahead of the first smoking row).

The seat’s width was standard, but felt narrower than my usual window seat, because the middle seat has no extra space aisle- or cabin wall – side.

I did not measure precisely the seat pitch which was decent

This old 747-200 seen from the aircraft window has been transformed into a hotel, with outrageous prices with regards to the comfort of the rooms.

I had been wise to wait a quarter of an hour in line for boarding : there was some space left for my hand luggage a few rows behind mine, but for the last passengers to board, it was another story. In French, and then in English strewn with Gallicisms, the female captain asks repeatedly the passengers to please hurry up, to please place some of their hand luggage under the seat in front of them to leave space in the overhead bins, so that the flight would not miss its takeoff slot and be severely delayed. The passengers were not very cooperative, not to mention those on exit rows who had kept luggage with them.

Anyway, when everything was at long last in place, after final hand luggage optimizations by FAs to avoid having to place some of them in the hold, it was a few minutes past the departure time, inclusive of the initial ten minute delay, and no time was wasted to pushback and taxi to the runway.
Some pictures taken from my middle seat : a KL 737.

Take-off of the preceding aircraft

Runway 08/26 that I have never seen being used

Looked this way, ARN is really in the middle of the forest (the facilities are under and on the other side of the plane).

I did not regret too much not having a window seat : the cloud cover began shortly after leaving ARN and never broke afterwards.
The meal before unwrapping

And after unwrapping

I did not cut open up this wrap in order to respect the sensitivity of my readers (insider joke). As a replacement, this was its official contents:

All that was decent, period, and was enough to make it to my home without feeling hungry.

Preparation of the cabin for landing

Landing, longish taxiing, last turn … the routine. I forgot to mention the plane's registration number although I had taken a picture for that. I confirm to RI 777 that I flew on F-GKXI ;)

There was no passport / ID check at the arrival, but there had been one at the gate together with the BPs.
Going down to the luggage delivery room.

Arrival at the taxi stand which is dramatically inefficient compared to the major Chinese airport and train station taxi stands.

The signage inside and outside the terminal remind to all that the language which is most read in the world is Chinese (and the most spoken one is Chinese Mandarin, the preeminent Chinese language out of scores of mutually unintelligible languages which are nevertheless written the same).

Flat rates for rides to Paris are something new for the taxis here, under pressure from Uber and the like.

A taxi driver speaking English (see the discreet pictogram above the rear door handle) was also something new to me here.

I was driven home by a taxi driver who was from Cambodia (not unusual), very friendly (not as usual as I wish they were) and female (very unusual). The taxis in Paris have a last reprieve before all must accept credit cards, and this was my only cash expense on that trip, since any expense, no matter how minimal, can be charged in Stockholm and I have yet to see a Swedish crown bill or coin.

This is the end of a the flight report, and the beginning of a bonus on an event in Paris which had been keeping the local media alive for the past two weeks.

This trip had saved me from running out of gas on my car (a labor dispute resulted in a growing number of gas stations being out of gas when I left to ARN), and I also avoided a possible plane cancellation by flying back one day early. The authorities can negotiate with trade unions, but not with the weather, and when I returned to Paris, the French had plenty of gas, and also plenty of water. Much too much water, actually.

The floods of the Seine River are not unusual in late spring, but those of June this year were exceptional. This restaurant on a converted barge was inaccessible, and its terrace on the river banks completely flooded.

The journalists were permanently in front of some flooded river bank, repeating the same information over and over again, like this one just upstream of the Invalides Bridge.

What was paralyzing the traffic on the Seine River was not much the strong current, but the reduced air draft under each bridge

These barges were unlikely to go anywhere as long as the water level was so high

These barges have been remodeled into bars and restaurants and never leave their moorings

But they are inaccessible, because the banks are flooded, and this helicopter on the bridge on that of the right won’t do to bring the customers on board.

There were guards here and there to secure the area, out of worries of looting when the water level decreases and before normal activity resumes.

Users of this barge wearing boots were making a cautious crossing on a temporary planks path to the bank.

The famous bateaux mouche oversized tourist boats, moored upstream form the Alma Bridge, were all stopped.

For the same reason : the air draft was not enough under the bridges

In case some visitors had not understood the situation, there was this notice in today’s three languages of tourism in Paris : French, English and Chinese. The latter was certainly not in the previous record setting flood of 1982, when the level reached the 6.15m mark.

The Alma Bridge is not the most beautiful in Paris, but it is always the focus of the media during Seine River floods.

The reason is that a traditional reference of the rise of the water level is where they reach on this statue of a Zouave, a light infantryman in traditional North African costume, and on the 4th June, 2016, there were crowds recording the scene with water reaching 6.20 m above normal level.

The Alma Bridge is always famous for it tunnel alongside the right bank where Diana, Princess of Whales, met with her death in 1997. This statue of a flame is unrelated to that event: this scale 1 replica of the flame of New York’s Statue of Liberty was offered to Paris in 1989 after the restoration work done at the time.

The Arts footbridge was closed to the public, out of fears for its structure due to the rise of the waters and strength of the current.

The Pont Neuf (i.e. New Bridge) was built in 1607, which makes it the oldest bridge in Paris, despite its name. The tour boats there are smaller than the ones at the Alma

But they too where stuck at their moorings, although that on the left might have made it under this bridge (possibly not the next ones, though).

The Pont Neuf, and the road signaling which is the only reminder that there is a two lane express way down there

No, the Paris City Hall was not doing any infrastructure work there, contrary to what this sign was claiming

The speed of the traffic has been reduced to weel below 30 km/h, and nobody will indeed take the Châtelet exit.

The ]Pont au Change ("Moneychangers’ Bridge"), between the right bank and the Cité Island

The Conciergerie on the left and the Court of Cassation on the right

And last, a view of Notre Dame Cathedral

You are probably not familiar with the Small Bridge (« Petit Pont ») ; this is what it looks like usually

This is the end of this bonus on the Seine River banks, a Unesco World Heritage site, on the day of its worst flood in the 21st century to date.

Thanks for reading me up to here !