On y va! (Return to Mordor)

Alarm clock was set for 6 am.  I'm uploading all of yesterday's pictures, because Citizen M has fabulously fast WiFi.
That, showering, and packing the 2 panniers and my backpack specifically for today's journey takes all the time before I have to find my way to the airport. No time for breakfast. Which is probably a good thing, because Citizen M, while providing cheapish accommodation, charges fancy restaurant prices for their not that exciting food (exception was a big glass of excellent Sauvignon Blanc for 4 Euro 50.

The hotel entrance is probably less than 1000 meters from Terminal 3, but again CDG is has developed in such a cancer-growth fashion that I wouldn't have found T3 without the blue line in Google Maps.

Checking in the bicycle is comparatively easy here. No waiting for the baggage handlers but quite some waiting for the counter staff to bring themselves up to regulations.  But every single one of the people behind the counters are SOOO NICE ! 

 Finally I have my boarding pass and get to catch up on breakfast. Hey, it's after 9 am so I can have my mini-bottle. Too bad it doesn't taste very good.

Yes, that's a Concorde in this illegally taken picture

 The lovely Air Transat employee in the picture below is doing her best to let me know that taking pictures is INTERDIT !

Not just in China ! NO taking pictures of planes !  The RETARDED thing is: there is a fence RIGHT behind the Concorde, from which a person with a telephoto lens could get much better pictures of the Air Transat plane, AND perfectly legally !

The flight is pretty much eventless (the usual cheapo routine of not getting enough food) but there is one scary thing that happens in Calgary.

This flight is scheduled to stop in Calgary to dump half its passengers (It is surprising how many people are willing to travel from Paris to Calgary !!).  We're in the final approach, wheels are down, etc etc and there is so little space between the tires and the runway that I expect that touch-down-shake in my butt any millisecond now.  But what I get is a giant shove in my back with a simultaneous increase in noise level and distance between my window and the runway.

HOLY FRICK !
I've only ever seen that in video clips (HERE is a good example) and didn't think that I'd ever be on one of those planes.