On Monday I did MAN-AMS-NUE and noticed the following at MAN:

i) The KLM check in desks are near the AF check in desks.
ii) There is only one line for KLM check in - Elites and people who've actually paid business can forget it.
iii) There's quite a queue for the KLM flight.
iv) At the Air France check in desks, there were two economy lines, one elite line (all staffed) and no queues. They looked soooo efficient; hell they were even better looking.

NUE-AMS-MAN today:

i) The KLM check in desks are right next to the AF ones.
ii) There is a big KLM queue and no KLM staff in evidence - they turn up when they can be bothered - usually about an hour and 20 minutes before the flight.
iii) When they did bother to turn up, the Elite queue was longer and took longer to process
iv) For all I know the Air France staff could have been there all day and not one person had to queue as I waited. They looked soooo efficient; hell they were even better looking.

Is this the awful future of these combined airlines? A choice of a budget carrier out of an Airport I like or full cost Airport out of Europe's second most hideous hub (lets face it, bad as it is CDG is not as LHR)?

I actually quite like travelling through CDG. The staff are at best indifferent, 2F is already looking worn, the shops are next to useless and the place has a general air of chaos... But the beauty of CDG is: you can get away with anything if you speak French and insist.

Standby on an earlier flight? 'Do you know who I am' upgrades? Carry-ons the size of a small house? Missed your flight and want rebooked for free? Fancy a cigarette and can't be bothered looking for the smoking area?

All of this is easy at Roissy...

mmm... this is most definitely NOT my experience of CDG, at least with AF: no standby on an earlier flight and most definitely no way AF would accept to rebook us for free (or even standby) on a later flight having arrived 1 (yes, one) minute after check-in deadline.
Being a native French speaker, I don't think that my French was at issue.

Lets face it, as large airports go AMS is in an entirely different (higher) league than CDG which is surely the only airport on the planet where the designers were more concerned with the fundemental Frenchness off the design rather than the comfort and safety of the passangers.

Yes, but what a work of art!

It would be a shame to have compromised the aesthetics of the place by worrying about such minutae as comfort, efficiency, and safety.

When I first walked through the F-gates/check-in area I thought I stepped into The Future (circa 1970).

All of this is also easy at AMS... with one exeption... the smoking part. Oh, and you'll have to speak Dutch in order to accomplish all this.

BTW, I liked your "the size of a small house" comment... ^