Review of Air France Hop flight from Paris to Bologna in Economy

Introduction

This story is that of the second segment of the LJU-BLQ air route via CDG:

AF proposed this time the upgrade at 89 €, a frankly exaggerated amount to take advantage of the AF lounge, to which we also already had access, to have the same adjoining seats due to the 2 + 2 seat layout (unless I could convince my wife that I did not need her to prepare a FR in business class), and to have a cold meal, due to the lack of an oven in the Embraer. Furthermore, we would have the choice between the 2D-2F seats (with adverse lighting conditions on the landscape) or 1A-1C (which mandates putting our stuff in the overhead bins for take-off and landing. Thank you, but no thank you!

Note the presence of a possible high status PAX in 1D, since seat 1F is neutralized, many holes in rows 8 to 20, and a possible weight centering constraint in rows 5 to 7.

One of AF's former twin lounges at terminal 2F

At the end of the previous FR, I left you at the airside path in Terminal 2F. This chapter is history, because as you probably all know, AF inaugurated a new lounge at Terminal 2F on August 19, replacing the twin lounges at piers 2F1 and 2F2. From now on, the only reason for us to go down this moving walkway will be to go to the toilets.
Has Paris Aéroport removed the words "& lounge" and 休息室 from the signage here?

The entrance of the lounge was at the end of the pier on the lower levels.

Seen from the exit: the reception desk on the left and on the right a hostess who rushes to help you scan on one of the terminals behind the right door post.

In the center, a disinfectant gel dispenser, labelled to not contain alcohol.

Our visit to the lounge begins with a brief, but pleasant meeting with Flight Reporter Okapi, that I knew to be present thanks to the Airport Meetup feature of Flight Report. He was with his family so we did not spend much time with him and went downstairs. The food counter is again self-serve and the waiting line has disappeared.

This was the offering in early afternoon, to be compared to what AF now offers in its brand new Terminal 2F lounge.

The coffee machine hasn't changed for ages

Okapi once explained me how to do it, but the spout of this coffee machine stubbornly refused to be lowered to limit splashing.

My selection (and a glimpse of that of my wife who went for a refill later): this was no great French gastronomy, but it would allow us to skip dinner on our arrival…

… helped by some snacks, but don't worry, we left some for the others!

For dessert, I took some of this decent chocolate cake, and some of this fruit salad (mostly pineapple slices).

Chilled drinks

An example of the tarmac view from the lower level of this now disused lounge.

Boarding: the counter displays QR codes providing links to websites for filling on line Covid forms for various countries, as well as to the more generic Traveldoc information website. No, there is no flight to Russia or the United Kingdom (this terminal is for Schengen Area flights only), even less to Peru, but a connecting flight to AMS is possible.

Boarding on a remote parking spot

Stairs, damn it! We landed from LJU at Terminal 2G, had to transfer by bus to this terminal, and now we have to re-transfer by bus to the same Terminal 2G for our flight to BLQ. This is not a fatality, because E190s are compatible with the jetbridges of Terminal 2F.

Some comfort (thi is indeed the PAXbus for Bologna) and some worry (in case of a road accident, if the driver has fainted or worse, it will be impossible for us to break a window to escape the wreck a few seconds before it ignites – an interesting variation of the typical the disaster movie.)

With two PAX already seated in the back seat, we saw no need to reduce the social distancing among Skypriority PAXes.

Qatar Airways 777-300ER at Terminal 2E

Hop!'s famr of Embraers at the Terminal 2G parking area

Confirmation that this is indeed an E-170

Door shot (and close-up on the type of the aircraft)

Fuselage shot

A twin parked at next gate

The cabin of the Hop! E170

Pitch and width between armrests identical to those of the E190: it's comfortable by Economy standards

And like in the E190, the absence of a central support allows us to fit a small piece of hand luggage between our respective feet.

On the other hand, the window alignment stinks! Unlike in the E190, the front row windows are too far back relative to the seats. This does not prevent from seeing the landscape, but it does get in the way. (picture taken in flight)

The PSU, identical to that of the E-190

No real recline of the backrest (if I remember correctly), despite the presence of this button, which is better for the passenger seated behind.

The safety card, both sides

The upgrade offer did not attract many passengers: a flight attendant stored in 2D-2F seats luggage that could not fit in the luggage compartments in the back.

Departing from the gate has been delayed by 18 minutes

Taxiing towards the southern runways

Take-off run

A twin lands at the same time

In flight: Franco-Swiss-Italian geography course

The heart shaped Circuit Carole (a motorcycle racing facility)

The junction between the A1 (on the right) and the A3 (on the left), south of CDG

LBG

From left to right, the Stade de France, the railway tracks from the Gare du Nord, and the loop of the Seine at Gennevilliers and the homonymous island. In the background, beyond the the ring express road, Paris, whose urban density stands out clearly compared to that the inner suburbs.

Zoom (and image processing) on Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the center and the Arc de Triomphe a little in the foreground. The white cross-shaped structure, to the left of the Eiffel Tower, is a temporary structure intended to host events during the renovation of the Grand Palais.

In the foreground, the Port of Gennevilliers, bordered by the A86

The north part of the ring road, in the bottom of the picture. From left to right further away, the Sacré Coeur (not very visible), the green spot of the Montmartre cemetery and the tracks coming from Gare St Lazare. Going upstream on the Seine River, it appears as diagonal from the lower right quarter to the top left (but it is the Marne River, shortly before its confluence, that we see at the left edge of the photo), then goes back to the right in the upper quarter of the photo. The light spot at the top right is the perimeter of ORY.

Turning left to fly around Paris, and zoom in on the port of Gennevilliers

Then zoom in on the Stade de France

LBG, this time seen from the south

View of the northern suburbs from the south

The Stade de France, surrounded by a maze of expressways and railways

The western half of CDG, with Terminal 1 at the edge of the photo on the left

Terminals 1 and 2

General view of CDG

For rail geeks: at Claye-Souilly (on the left), the the connections between the East Interconnection high speed line (from left to right) and the East high speed line (from bottom to top).

Marathon shot: it takes very clear weather and scrutiny to spot the four grass runways at Meaux-Esbly aerodrome (LFPE)…

… especially when Meaux, whose meander of the Marne is particularly identifiable, appears after, and not before.

Further upstream, La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, with Jouarre in the foreground, known for its Benedictine abbey

Château-Thierry, even further upstream

Vitry le François

St Dizier, with only part of its air base (BA 113, ak.a. LFSI), in the lower left corner of the picture

The weather does not always allow you to identify the landscapes: how can you manage in this jigsaw puzzle of white clouds and their dark shadows on the ground!

Nancy-Essey Airport (ENC), in natural colors

… and after increasing the contrast

The snack arrives: it is a (small) berry ice cream, accompanied for me by a coffee and a glass of water

The packaging of the ice specifies that it must be stored at -18 ° C, but it sticks so much to the lips and tongue that I suspect the E170 to have been equipped to convey doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, at the time when they had to be stored at -70 ° C ^^. In short, it is much too cold.
(An insider explained to me that airlines use dry ice for refrigeration on board: there must have been too much of it.)

But never mind, all it takes is to dip it very briefly in the glass of water (which is cool, nothing more) for this ice cream to be pleasantly consumable.

In the meantime, we pass Saint Dié des Vosges in the distance

I admit that I did not immediately spot the 870-meter runway at Saint-Dié airfield (LFGY), and that it takes some goodwill to identify it in this magnificaiton. At that time, I was busy defrosting an ice cream just enough…

Gerardmer and its lake

We then arrive in the Alsace plain, with Colmar-Meyenheim Air Base 132 of (LFSC), just above the reactor in the picture above.

Zoom on LFSC

The Rhine and its side canal, and the right bank, therefore on the German side, the Bremgarten airfield (EDTG).

The Black Forest, at the right end of the photo

Arrival in Switzerland, with Zurich, and of course, on the left edge of the photo below…

ZRH

Lake Zürich, in the center of the photo

ake Zug and one end of Lake Lucerne, lower right

Lucerne, right in front of the reactor, and Lake Lucerne

Upstream of Lake Lucerne

The upper Rhine valley, east of the Oberalp pass above which is its source

Locarno, at the northern end of Lake Maggiore

At the upstream end of the lake…

… Locarno airport (ZJI)

The Ticino valley, upstream from Lake Maggiore.

Bellinzona

The northern end of Lake Como

The northern half of Lake Como

Lake Lugano in the foreground, and Lake Como

Lake Como, almost entirely

Lecco, at the south-eastern end of Lake Como, and from top to bottom the lakes of Garlate, Annone and Pusiano

Close-up on Lake Pusiano

The agglomeration of Bergamo

Close-up on Bergamo airport (BGY), used as Milan bis airport by LCC, in natural colors…

… and after image processing

The Po, near Casalmaggiore on the left to Guastalla on the right

Overview of Reggio Emilia, in the plain

Reggio d'Emilia

The historic center

And the airfield (LIDE), for a grand total of eleven airfields seen on the course (LBG, LFPE, LFSI, ENC, LFGY, LFSC, EDTG, ZRH, ZJI, BGY, LIDE): it had been a long time since I had had last had spotted that many during a single flight!
There were a lot of lakes, too, but they are much easier to spot and identify.

Rubiera

To the north-west of Rubiera, a wetland classified as a nature reserve also serving as a retention basin for the Secchia river.

Modena: general view

The historic heart of the city

Zoom on the Ducal Palace of Modena

… and on the cathedral, listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco

On the ground at BLQ

BLQ is to the north-west of Bologna, which we will not see, landing on runway 12. We therefore go directly to the time after the aircraft has come to a complete stop away from the terminal.
I was there at the level of row 7 because this was there that I found room in the overhead bins for one of our two pieces of hand luggage; I was lucky that the passengers who had already stood up let me sneak back to retrieve it before the plane's door was opened.

Deplaning of a PRM, or bringing catering in?

Departure of the PAXbus: note the very agricultural looking tarmac vehicule on the right.

RAM 738

End of pushback of a KLM 737-700

Ryanair 738

Going quickly through the luggage delivery hall

And in the middle of a long corridor, a checkpoint delimited by straps, with a single employee. I had my passport in my hand, the paper prints of our health passes and our dPLF (Digital Passenger Locator Form): she didn't even stop me, much less my wife. who only had her passport in her hand, obviously considering that sanitary documents with the correct headers were legitimate.
(The printouts on paper were to avoid the admittedly low risk of a broken or discharged smartphone. In fact, I would probably have spent more time showing our QR codes, which subsequently and unexpectedly justified printing them.)

Arrival at the car rental counter: our vacation would have been possible (and considerably cheaper) by public transport, but local transportation would have taken much longer.

Thanks for reading me; your comments are welcome!

Bonus: Fifteen centuries of mosaics in Ravenna

Bologna was only the closest airport: our final destination was Ravenna, a must-see city for this very mosaic-oriented week, and that is the subject of the bonus that I am offering you.