I haven't landed in CDG for several years (flying on AA), my recollection was that if I had to be bussed from a remote point on the tarmac, the bus was raised from the ground to the boarding door so pax didn't have to negotiate stairs.
This sounds like IAD.
I've had intraEU AF flights from CDG T2 that were parked very close to the gate, but instead of boarding through a jetway, we were forced to go down some stairs in the terminal, walk just a short distance on the tarmac, and then climb a set of portable stairs to board the aircraft, which IIRC was an A320.