In short: a bit of a mess, and not a wise decision if you have a tight CDG layover.

The inter-France E190 flight was a no-go from check-in despite my pleading. Their rationale was simply it was “not allowed at our airport.” (Ironically the E190 is a wide and spacious seat, so of course it would have not been a problem.)

They did however suggest we just check the seat to pick up in Paris and go from there. Since we had a 2.5 hour layover, we decided to chance that. (Side note: on this flight, they also did not allow families with young children to board early — I asked specifically at the gate and was told to wait until my Zone was called.) On arrival at CDG, I left the family to transit terminals airside and exited to baggage claim to fetch the car seat. It came out pretty quickly in the “oversized bags” area.

Car seat in hand, I was able to re-enter security, transit to the international terminal, and meet them at the lounge/gate for our international segment.

I did get a number of “hmmms” from AF agents along the way about the seat going onboard. In the CDG lounge, the car seat became the topic of a hushed conversation and a lot of pointing from the lounge dragons, but no fire was breathed. At the gate, the GA raised an eyebrow, but I explained we had it on the 777 on the way over without issue and she waived it through. Onboard, one FA did come by to ask if it was FAA compliant, but he was otherwise pleasant.

Having the car seat for our 2 (almost 3) year old was a game changer. He sat still. He slept. He felt safe and comfortable. The 777 was tight though — in rear-facing the seat in front couldn’t recline. In forward-facing, he could reach the seat in front with his feet. (Thankfully we had put our easy going 5 year old in the seat in front, so we were too worried about these issues!) I couldn’t imagine as a parent of 3 kids that we could do a flight of this length with as much peace/quiet/comfort without being able to take a car seat for this little boy! Glad it worked out in the end.