This was my first opportunity to fly Air France. The plane was a 747-400, an upgrade from the antique -100 that used to serve this route. Maybe I got lucky! I was in coach, since this was a long weekend mileage run. I did notice, however, in the second section of Business Class on the main deck, that it was configured 2-3-2 and I was thinking that I would not want to be in the middle seat if I had actually paid for a business class seat. Prior to borarding, I used my President's Club card to get into the Air France lounge, as I have previously. While I was in the entry line, they turned away a Delta flyer who had his club card. Apparently there is no reciprocal lounge privleges with their partnership.
Boarding was sort of a scrum. There appeared to be a low volume announcement about business class boarding, but everyone surged to the podium and it was first come, first served. The plane pushed back about 25 minutes late and were were 25 minutes late in arriving in Newark.
Shortly after take off, they came through with a drinks cart. Many people took champagne that was on it. This was followed by lunch. The choices were: Sauteed Turkey with Saint Menehould sauce,parslied potatoes OR Hake with cream sauce, basmati rice with diced potatoes. I had the turkey and thought it was very good. It was more like turkey chunks. There was a roll (cold), cheese, and desert was a champagne -style mouse with raisins. Again, very good.
After clean-up, the crew disappeared for hours, although you could go into the galley, past the closed curtain, and get what you wanted.
About an hour before landing, the drinks cart returned along with a snack (small finger sandwich, cheese, etc).
Finally, on landing, well before the plane came to a complete stop, half of the passengers jumped up and started unloading the overhead bins. US FA's would have had a coronary.
Overall, I would take AF again, rating them a lot closed to CO, which I generally take, than to NW.
If anyone has a yen to see Paris, go now! The place is jumping at at 6.8 ff to the $, it is VERY cheap.

[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 03-12-2000).]