Dublin Marathon 2013: Layover at CDG, The Louvre and iPass Lounge CDG

Layover at CDG, The Louvre and iPass Lounge CDG!

I managed to get out of work at 3pm. It was a bit hard as I had some last minute things to do and cleaning up the rest of my office as it was my last day. It was hard to walk out of there after 5 years. I worked with amazing people there in all sorts of functions. I will miss using working with other people to organize charity events.

I made it home just short of 4pm and left for the airport at 4:30 for my 6:45pm flight. The bus between South Station and the airport was very slow due to traffic in the tunnel between South Boston and East Boston. Next time, I may use the blue line for Friday afternoons. Traffic didn’t look go elsewhere in Boston as well.

During the long bus ride, I found an old friend from BU. She was my wife’s roommate and we chatted during the entire time. It was good catching up with her.

Timeline

6:05pm – Arrived at airport. Check-in attendant said it was in final boarding. Minor freakout but knew it was fine. (turned out it was only in Group 2).
6:15pm – Got through Pre-check. Ran to the gate. Gate lice standing right by the gate agents scanning in people. The guy in front of me was pushing his way through as well. I would not have been so nice.
Plane took off on time. Got the beef fillet and managed to get about 3 hours of sleep. Managed to finish World War Z as the IFE was turned on before takeoff, which was awesome. Saw half of The Internship and fell asleep for the second half.
Wasted about two hours at CDG. An hour walking through the terminal, using some Wifi at the Sheraton and then taking the shuttle to Terminal 1.

Wasted another 30 minutes trying to check into my Dublin flight too early. Wanted to check in bag so I didn’t have to carry it around. Needed to walk around Paris with all my bags.
Lockers at CDG but need 6 hour minimum. Can’t do that with my 6 hour layover.
Purchased a roundtrip ticket to Paris. Got off by the Louvre and walked around.

Decided to go into the Louvre. Got in around 10:20am with no lines. Walked around for an hour before leaving to get a snack and go back to the airport for my 2:20pm flight (Separate post on the Louvre)

Caught the train at Châtelet-Les-Halles. Nice shopping mall downstairs adjacent to the train station. The train I caught ran express directly to CDG, which saved about 20 minutes from my trip to the airport. Got to CDG around 1pm and luckily the check-in line wasn’t too long. I got through immigration around 1:20.

Quick stop in the iPass Lounge, which was small. Bathrooms are outside the lounge. There was a decent food selection there with some free beer. The liquor selection was a bit limited.
Outside the lounge was a smoking room, which is open to the public.