I wrote most of the last few blog entries sitting in the observation lounge of Orly Airport. To get to Naples I have to fly from Geneva to Paris, wait around for 4-5 hours, and then it’s off to Italy.

Easyjet from Geneva was weird. I wanted to get their early, but the first free shuttle was at 5:20am. It only takes 5 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport (if that) so I had about 20 minutes to check in. Easyjet closes check in 30 minutes before flight time, so I figured I had plenty of time to make the 6:30 departure. And since this is Switzerland, the bus left promptly at 5:20 (I watched the driver’s clock change). I should point out that my wake up call was five minutes late, however.

My first mistake was to go to the Easyjet counter. Most airports have counters per airline, and Geneva is no different, but if you are going to France you have to go to a completely special section of the airport. I figured out later that coming from Geneva there are no customs to go through on the French side, so they do it before you leave.

It was apparently too early for customs, as the booths were empty, so I made it without incident to the “French Quarter” of the Geneva airport. It wasn’t as crowded as the other Easyjet counter, but I still had to wait in line for access to a ticket kiosk.

The kiosk was solely in French, but having seen them before I knew what to expect. Well, except for the end. This is where I made my second mistake. I got to the part about baggage, but I couldn’t understand if the question was “Have your bags been with you the whole time” or “Have the bags been out of your possession”. In any case, “Oui” was the wrong answer, and the kiosk basically shouted at me (as much as a computer terminal display can shout) that I must see an agent immediately.

The agent was nice and she seemed to understand my plight, or at least she understood it enough to take my suitcase and give me a boarding pass.

On to mistake number three.

Now I needed to find the gate. I saw a big yellow sign pointing to “A” “B” and “C” so I went that way. “That way” turned out to be a maze of twisty passages (that all looked alike) punctuated by the occasional duty free shop. When I finally emerged I saw a table of yellow “embarkation” cards, so I took one and filled it out. When I finally made it past the area with the table I found myself right back where I started – at the French Easyjet ticket counter.

Reassessing the situation, I noticed that there were two sets of metal detectors built into a glass wall at one end of the area, and then I figured out that, hey, I probably need to go through those sliding doors with the guards ‘n stuff.

I made it through security (so much easier than in the US) and located the gate for my flight. Getting to the plane, however, involved taking a bus to another building and climbing a set of stairs to the jetway. This flight was, luckily, free of children, and I found a nice window seat in the back.

Arrival at Orly was just like arriving anywhere in the US. Customs having been “handled” in Geneva, I found myself in the Terminal proper quiet quickly, and found my luggage waiting for me on the baggage carousel.

So I now had five hours to kill. I can’t check my case back in until 10:30, so I found a cafe, spent over 5 euros for a Diet Coke and a croissant, and sat down to write to you, my one loyal reader (grin)