Image by waitscm

Approaching Paris from the air on a clear day, you can make out the Montparnasse tower, Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower; like giant toys knocked about on a playing carpet of white and grey rooftops.

I often forget that terminal one at Charles-de-Gaulle-airport is one of the ugliest airport terminals in the world. With the building sitting there on the tarmac, round and grey and illuminated by a band of red neon lights on its equator, I expect a squadron of Tie-fighters to accompany my airbus when it lands, protecting this French outpost of the Galactic Empire.

Taxiing towards the terminal, I see the decommissioned Concorde on her stand, on guard duty like so many old Spitfires at the gates of Royal Airforce airfields. But this machine only reminds me of another Concorde, also frozen in time, ascending on a tail of flames on its way to inevitable doom. Maybe Air France should have chosen another make of plane to guard their airport.

The last time I landed in CDG was in 2008. Then, there was a dead pigeon lying on the safety nets covering the open inner courtyard of the terminal. Three years later, there’s another dead pigeon lying in the exact same spot. Traveling on the escalator, I wonder if it’s the same.