1986: Air UK CDG-NCL
In a delightful little F27. I was 11, and this was my first time flying in a prop. The fact we were below the clouds and casting a shadow on the ground most of the way completely mesmerised me. I was also stunned that anywhere as exotic as Paris had a direct flight to Newcastle...
Aérogare 1, in those days, felt like something out of another world. They had a Maxim's in the basement, and the bouncy travelators were like a fairground attraction to someone my age. Sadly, this was also ETA's heyday, so there were armed soldiers all over the terminal, holding their guns up, not by their sides. This wasn't so unusual for me - my school (in France) had had bomb threats that year, and we had to show ID and be searched to gain access.
The food service was small, but lovely. We had different varieties of open sandwiches - creme fraiche (in those days!) with fruit - I remember even my 11-year-old fussy self being impressed.
The flight was just a bit too long for an F27, so we had to touch down at STN for refuelling. Now, this was in the days when STN was nothing but a piece of tarmac and a shed somewhere in Essex. We finally got to NCL, and wandered up to the terminal to find our bags in a neat pile as we got to luggage reclaim. This was before the days of the Metro making it as far as the airport, so we took the little shuttle bus to Bank Foot and headed off home...
I fondly remember this flight. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and a welcome change from the zoo of LHR T1 domestic non-shuttle ("8, 9, 10, Newcastle we're the pits" as it was known), and AF from LHR T2 (even though I was always impressed AF gave me a bottle of wine for lunch, and had a tendency to run almost-empty Tri-Stars LHR-CDG, which meant I didn't have to battle my little Sister for a window seat).