22nd September

Let me start today post by thanking Stéphane B. who emailed me the reported 777-200 yeasterday is N777AS, a model 24E/ER, delivered new to Mid East Jets by Boeing and custom modified for business and corporate use.

Clear sky, hight visibility and temperatures in excess to 25° Celsius are the masterwords in terms of meteorology. On the con side, and didacted by predominent westerly winds, runways in use at CDG and LBG are 26/08 and 27/09. When observed from either Nanterre or Reuil-Malmaison, aircrafts off from those airports are see climbing to cruise level instead of seen while on finals when easterly winds prevail.

To make matters a little bit worse, bus 304 is trapped in a traffic jam when entering the motorway. This part of the ride last a real eternity instead of a couple of minutes. To avoid complete boredom, I observe passengers sitting in the cubicle located at the far end of the riders' cabin. An High School girl is sitting right on my left. She is concentrating on her previous lesson in Mathematics as transcripted in her large sized copy-book. She goes back and forth from histograms to tables, but reconciling figures laid in the latters with axis and probability plots doesn't look to be her favoured exercise. Next to her and probably a classmate, another teen age girl is grappling with her latest lesson of English. But Tetris on embush in the cell-phone proves to be too tantalizing. Behind them, a lady in her 40s is reading the french translation of Julie & Julia. In the meantime, the bus driver resorts in steering the articulated bus on the emergency lane in order to reach the access road to downtown Nanterre.

Bus 304 in action

Once at the station, I select a Saint-Germain bound ZEBU train as today's first improvised stage with the intent of leaving

at Reuil-Malmaison, home of Heinken, Unilever, Wolters Kluwer, Exxon and Astra-Zeneca as far the head-quarters of their french subsisdiaries are concerned.

Once there, I can see a Pilatus PC-12 climbing to cruise level and

a Boeing 737-800 showing up with blended winglets and soaring above.

An Agusta A.109 donning a dark green and grey battle dress on a similar pattern of the one illustrated by Mr François-Xavier Simon is hovering afar

Back at the cybercafé, teen-aged network-gamers have been litterally crashing at the upperfloor since the previous Sunday. I can't resist figuring out on them to another gentleman of the same age as I. I come pretending they are unable to even recount by writting their day(s) dedicated to network gaming. Personnally I am even sure that 7 year-old Cameroonian schoolchildren attending Ecole de Saint-Dominique-Savio at Douala are more fluent in French reading and writting.

21st September

Cloud base is low, and worst, light is hazy.

Circus is moving to another location and more shows. A Scania tractor is pulling a set of two trailers. The longest is loaded with the structure of the big-top, the shortest accomodates the cash-teller stand The driver gives us a texbook lesson of driving in fitting the towing-attachment within the surrounding traffic.

My monday's laundry had barely started that a typical French lady in her 50s entered the shop and then came to me .... She soon asked wether I was a staff member, to which I voiced a negative answer.She then said her daughter-in-law had troubles in making her washing machine work and wanted to know how is the going at the shop's fleet members. Not willing to act as an instructor onbehalf of this Frenchwoman who is supposed to have attended school until at least the mendatory age of 16 after-all, I just answered she can just read as everything is clearly printed. At the same time, I was buying my powder and bleacher. She looked at me pressing the keys on the figures'pad and then attempted "When you press on the key, do you press the number of the machine you want, uh. She then went on "I am sorry, I don't know"

Then I answered a little bit dryly :"So did I the first time I came in". She dared retorting half ironically/half bad humored "How lovely you can be, we need people like you !". I snapped back she should go back to elementary school.

I then went to the post office about a hundred yards away and when I was over with depositing some money.

I noticed a low flying Boeing 777-200,

That was on short finals to Le Bourget and barely visible owing to the persitent haze. Given the position and altitude of the girl, this was frustrating as the buildings across the street were clearly visible. By sunny weather, I would have attempted to do a picture. Sporting Qatar Airways' livery and operated on behalf of the country's VIP Royal Flight,

Qatar Amiri Flight's Airbus A340-500 emerged from the viel of haze on her turn and in same conditions as the Boeing mighty twinjet. Soon trailed by a

Cessna C-560XL and a Cessna C-550.

Light got worse afterwards.Having to put the clean laundry back in armoiry was coming as handy.

Visibility improves again, enough to oberve a MEA/Middle East Airlines Airbus A330-200 banking on her starboard wing while on descent to CDG, while introducing herself as CEDAR-Jet plus the flight number to the ATC/Air Traffic Controllers in charge of handling her..

By the circus' side, a final towing attachment was being set. This time, the first trailer hosted the Camel and the Dromaderies, while the other accomodated another Dromadery and a party of Llamas. The latters seized the opportunity to sound some kind of protests over their conditions of travel, even though they travelled on board "Convoi Exceptionnel", the french translator for outsize towing, as specified by the yellow marquee on the back !

But the trailer driver settled the matter soon by artfully mingling his 24 wheels amid the surrounding street traffic

.Next to a countless ride courtesy of Bus 304, I was back at the station and observed a team of maintenance workers on location at SNCF's side, before heading to La Défense

September 14th

Weather is a mix of thick clouds and clear sky,
Runways in use for CDG and LBG are 08/26 & 09/27

About 9.00am and time to go to Colombes for the weekly laundry. Getting there is first by catching bus # 304 until the 4-Chemins (4-Lanes) stop where some fanciful buildings attracted my attention to the extent of picturing some close ups on architectural details

Stretching over a long way across the rims of Colombes, Avenue Charles DeGaulle still looks like a batterfield as work for extending tramway T2 from current terminus at La Défense to Bézons through Colombes keep going on and are due to be completed in 2011.

Pavements are also still missing their coverings, but the district's House of Culture is ready to welcome the first day's patrons

The small billboard in front of the entrance gives details on what's up until work in the vicinity is complete.

Reaching the laundrymat is made in no time.

Machine 13 starts working

Aircraft observation can begin

First to emerge from the clouds was a Swiss-made single engined turboprop powered Pilatus PC-12 heading to Le Bourget. As with others pictures of aircrafts illustrated, Andrés Contador's shot is to show how the aircraft showed up when seen in action.

Making it to base at Roissy/CDG, an Air France Boeing 777-228ER hovers on the opposite direction. In the meantime, a young congenial lady in her early 30s comes in the outlet with two quilts. A younger lady of African ancestry in her 20s came in next with a 15 gallon trolley-bag containing the family laundry of the past week. While she makes her best to stuff machines 14 and 15, my washing is over and I transfer my belongings to the dryer which gets set for a 30 minute long session. The young African Queen is quick to get some of the bag content in the machine I just cleared , yet, there is still much waiting in the trolley bag ! Upfront,

LBG vectors an HB/Switezerland-registered Beechcraft King Air 90 and a then

a King Air 200 registered in Germany.

In the meantime, the African Queen meets a friend with whom she reviews small miseries in working places while another PC-12 and

a Falcon 2000 come next to LBG.On the other hand, Roissy/CDG gets an all-white Airbus A319

and a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400F, coming up with the original shorter hump & upper deck looks to be vectored to runway 08/26 given the sharp bank on its right side and then closer position from where I stand. The laundry was soon dry and ready to be bagged. This done, I started walking back to base.

I noticed this recently built appartment building. The satelitte dishes vectored in the same direction give a clue that many residents keep up strong connections with North Africa, as they allow getting the TV broadcasts from across the Mediterranean Sea. The 8.00PM/20.00 news broadcast of the Algerian TV channels are among the most widely watched programs.

While walking towards 4-lanes' plazza, the small but shinning die cast statue of this gated appartment complex attracted by attention.

Back at base to store my clean laundry in the armoiry, I am now waiting for my first-ever appointment with a psychologist due for 11.30am. I am rather surprised by her questions which sound more doctor like. A congenial woman in her 40s, she then accepts answering some questions coming to mind. For instance, becoming a psycho requires a 5 year long proper course at the faculty, she travelled to Senegal, Benin and North Africa among others, next to passing her exams, she mostly worked with state-owned practices and non-profit social focused societies. She offers me to see her again whenever I wish. I answer back with a yes-maybe and pay tribute to her choice in picking up her today's assignment. I elaborated that given my temper, I would have required time to do a fact-finding tour on location and then issued a clear No.

Lunch time comes fast and while walking to the dinning-hall,

I notice a Canadian built Bombardier BD-700 Global Challenger flying overhead to LBG. There it will mingle its wings with arch rivals such as the Dassault Falcon 900 and 7X and the Gulfstream Vs, all coming with hight speed and extended overwater operational range .

Afternoon starts by observing a BAE/British Aerospace HS-125 (or a Raytheon Hawker 800 as the aircraft was rebranded when Beechcraft's parent company Raytheon purshased the product from the British aircraft manufacturer)

another Falcon 2000 which lowers its wheels and a classic Cessna 550 Citation II, which is referred as the "Slow-tation" alongwith the C-500, by some sharp-tongued professionnals.

Thank you for reading and keeping in the story. Till the next