YYZ-CDG Trip Report
 

I recently spent some time in France and have to say that security at both YYZ (at the entrance to the MLL at T1) and CDG were normal. International flights have always had a higher level of scrutiny anyway, so perhaps the changes don't seem as drastic.

Do note that it takes a long, long time for your baggage to emerge on the belt at CDG (my orange priority tag going missing en route didn't help things ... argh!). The officer at passport control took the little card I filled, and that was that.

CDG also has what every airport should have: a high-speed rail terminal. I hopped aboard the TGV from Terminal 2, and was off to my final destination. Book your tickets on the web at www.voyages-sncf.com (in English!), and take advantage of the J30 and J8 (30 day and 8 day respectively) advance fares.

I also saw the new MLL at CDG for the first time and it's pretty sweet being able to have a "pain au chocolat" for breakfast before the flight.

I'll be keeping an eye out for future YYZ-CDG seat sales!

Tom

What was the military and police presence like just after passport control ?

When I went thru there in late September it was really heavy, relative to what I was used to seeing, even for Europe. Now having said that, I remember they had armed soldiers always patroling places like ZRH as far back as 1993. I'm just curious since it seems that security/baggage checks, etc seem to have fluctuated wildy from place to place since my last few trips in the last 3 weeks.

[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 10-12-2001).]

The Orange priority stickers have a habit of being torn off in YYZ. Particularily if you are connecting through. I have had mine "ripped" off every time. One time, one bag still had the sticker attached, but you could see that someone had tried to take it off [ripped only half way]. The bag-tag itself was untouched in all cases.

My last trip to Germany I saw that the police were wearing Flack-Jackets instead of bullet proof vests and one of each pair carried a machine gun. Other than that it was the normal tight security.

I flew into CDG last spring and my bags (with priority tags) took 1h50 to emerge (I was the last one waiting). Apparently there was a 'strike'. Ahh, France...

There were CRS police patrolling the airport in Paris--I don't remember spotting any machine gun toting police (those I saw in the train and subway stations!).

My bag took about an hour to come out--both the YUL and YYZ flights arrived at about the same time, and were unloaded one after the other. I'd been told that each bag was screened upon unloading, but I don't know if that's a fact.

Tom

We received our luggage when we landed in about 30 minutes...no tags were on it as I forgot about these...seems it wouldn't have mattered anyways though.