AC880: Toronto - Charles de Gaulle

The adventures of flight AC880, which started Wednesday night at around 19h20, have finally come to an end. It all started with a simple announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen there are small "mechanical" problems with this flight, we should be able to leave after a short delay!" At 11 pm we learned that we wouldn't be leaving until 8 am the next morning, but they would gladly put us up in a hotel, we simply had to present ourselves to Gate N. I think someone forgot to tell AC how many people were on this flight, because for the first 35 minutes there were only 3-4 agents for the hundreds of guest.

After a bit of eye contact and some sarcasm, I found my group of people that I would be looking out for (and vice-versa) over the next few days. After 4 hours of waiting in various lines -hotel voucher, shuttle, check-in - we finally got into our rooms. The next day we were suppose to leave at 8, then 10 and finally by around 11:30 we were air born. There was a round of applauses when the first passengers boarded the plane. 

The flight itself was smooth - a couple of movies, a nice Bailey's coffee - I even managed to find a ride once we would land with one of my new group member's to my host family's apartment that way I wouldn't have to take a taxi because the trains don't run after 12 am. There was nothing else that could go wrong; I mean you would think that the airlines would pay attention to every detail of a flight that had already been delayed 12 hours....WRONG! 

When changing planes they left 2 full cargo containers in the broken plane and didn't tell anyone. Long story short, I was one of 60 people that didn't have my luggage, and one of two sets of guests that didn't have a fixed real temporary address in France, seeing as I'm hiking 800 km, so it was strongly suggested that I stay the night at the airport. The other couple in a similar situation are more or less my neighbours in Qc and they are trekking in the Alps with their 2 young children. 

Thankfully I wasn't alone there were about 8 of us having a sleepover at Charles-de-Gaulle and once again bonds were formed and great conversations, laughs, a few tears and a little drop in our sugars (me & another guest) were had. I can say this now, after sleeping 4 hours and having my luggage returned, I came to spend 3 days in Paris to discover a new city; instead I discovered new people and made a few new friends. 

So friends - those catching connecting flights to Iles Maurice, Vietnam, Portugal and Nairobi courage, vous êtes presque arrivés! Et, Stéphanie, Olivier et les deux petits aventuriers, amusez-vous et surtout bon voyage. J'ai hâte de voir vos photos en revenant à Québec.   

-Buen Camino