Sunday, November 29, 2015

Paris CDG spotting LFPG/CDG 2015.06.22

Monday came quickly. Three nights in Paris have passed since my arrival. During that time I've been at Le Bourget for the Air Show and at Orly airport for some spotting. This was supposed to be my last day in Paris, after the night I had to catch the flight back home. So we decided, together with my friend, to go for a little spotting at CDG - which is the main airport in the Paris metro area. After planning nearly everything out before arriving to France we knew that the distances were huge and without a car it would be nearly impossible to get some decent results. We did rent a car the day before (it was needed at ORY) and had a schedule of what arrives or departs when so that we could have a chance of catching everything (or at least most of the things) we came here for, which was: Air Tahiti Nui A340, LaCompagnie 757, the Air France 747s and A340s, UA/AA 757s and other plane+livery connections that are usually unavailable in Warsaw. To the "cooler" things we got I could add: FedEx 777s, UIA 767, TK A330, SAS retro jet, Egyptair 777, Air Transat A310 and more! Well, I can't say I am disappointed with the results. Although the weather was from the poor kind, in the morning full overcast, and later during the day rain came so we started spending more and more time in the car :P (of course lets add the trips for food to nearby villages).
Overall, Roissy offers a wide range of pretty good spotting locations, but to get to them easily you need a car transport. There are, more or less, a couple of parking spots in the area of mosts of the spots. If you are interested in a decent guide check this spotterguide out. It did help me out with a couple of problems. And remember about the permit, we did encounter a check during our stay.
Have a look what came out of my camera:

F-HPJD
F-HBLA

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Orly spotting and the Concorde; LFPO/ORY 2015.06.21

After a day at Le Bourget I went for a full spotting day at Orly. The second biggest airport in Paris. The highlights I wanted to get were a couple of different charter planes (like Air Caraibes or Corsair), some African airlines (like Air Algerie or Royal Air Maroc) and of course the Cubana Ilyushin 96 and the Open Skies Boeing 757. So before the trip, together with my friend, we did some research about where to spot, about at what time do the planes we wanted to catch land or depart. Apart of those gems, which we did manage finally to catch, there is a tonne of Air France planes (but not as much as at CDG) and Transavia. A pro tip: getting around without a car would be time-consuming and tiring. The distances between spots are not small so if you would decide to spot on foot, you would be rather stuck at one place only for most of the time, or would loose some of the planes during moving from a spot to another. So we did rent one that morning, which was a great thing to do! After a good day we wanted to see the Concorde standing next to the airport. Luck wanted that the man responsible for the complex, which it was part of, saw us and invited us inside. He gave us a private tour around the Concorde, which was, frankly A-MAZ-ING! The complex is called Musée Delta and is currently struggling with some land problems. The museum is open every Wednesday and Saturday between 2pm and 6pm and has a entrance fee of 3€. I strongly recommend visiting it during your stay in Paris! A fantastic place it is!

PS. Yes, the heat haze did some harm to a couple of the pics - sorry for that