CDG and KEF

Sadly, this is the last of my posts from Paris 2014. There will be more trips, but for now, this is all…

Interestingly, I did not realize prior to my outbound flight that Icelandair does not provide meals on its flights, despite being international. This was the first time I had flown Icelandair or on an international flight that didn’t feed me repeatedly; not too big of a deal, my outgoing flight was overnight so I slept most of it regardless. That may be why flights were so cheap, too – roughly $700 round trip to Paris with one stop in Iceland! Very affordable.

On my way back, though, once I got to CDG and past security, I needed something to tide me over the first flight. I noted that I had some Euros left and headed to the lone sandwich stand in my part of the airport – CDG needs to up its food game, the airports in the US are all about better eating now. Thankfully, for 9,80€ (roughly $11, 12 USD?) I had the option of a sandwich, a soda and a dessert. I chose the Parisienne sandwich (simple sandwich of ham and butter on baguette), orange soda (of course), and fromage blanc or the French version of panna cotta. The fromage blanc was too sour for my tastes, but the sandwich was lovely and satisfying in a very simple way. The orange soda was fine.

For whatever reason, when I travel, I can never get enough vegetables and my body freaks out if I don’t get enough veggie matter over a week. Wandering airports looking for fresh fruit and/or veggies is always stressful for me – especially internationally, where they don’t like you to try to bring fresh fruits/veggies through security… sigh. I wound up picking up a way overpriced crudite (it was thousands of krona… I don’t really know the exchange rate so I was whispering into my phone to quickly convert things, but in addition to the conversion rate, my CC charged me something stupid for a foreign transaction… bah!!). In any case, I got an actually pretty tasty, if ridiculously overpriced, vegetable plate of celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and grape tomatoes (I genuinely like all of those veggies to varying degrees) with a very lovely ranch style dip that tasted fresh.

While I wandered around, though, I kept coming across the same sandwich stand that had a bunch of seemingly random, very unappealing-to-the-American-palate style sandwiches. Curried chicken salad, and then tuna salad, and a lot of fish salad sandwiches – I can’t be troubled to risk a mayo-based “salad” sandwich before boarding a flight. My stomach will be very, very forceful in telling me something wasn’t good eats, and I couldn’t risk that happening during those times when you’re not allowed to get up -but this smoked lamb sandwich sounded interesting. It had peas and carrots on it, and a bit of mayo, but was actually really good! The lamb didn’t taste particularly gamey, but had a nice meatiness to it that I enjoyed, especially against the soft bread. A pretty solidly tasty sandwich… I would get that again if I can find one (it was one buried amongst many) the next time I’m at KEF (which will hopefully be at least 2x this year…).

Overall, once I got past my initial surprise of not being fed on my international flights, I was pleasantly surprised with the airport options – despite appearing pretty bleak. It wasn’t anything to really write home about (sorry that I’m writing it anyway!), but it was satisfactory. KEF also had a couple of fancier, more sit-down style places to get food (with real plates and silverware), but I didn’t have enough time for that so I had to make do with what was available. It was also a little stressful to not have krona, but credit cards resolve that pretty easily, and my smartphone took care of the conversion for me (with airport-provided WiFi).

I’ll just know for next time to definitely pack something to eat for my outgoing flight, and possibly pick something up before my return flight… but if not, I know I’ll have some reasonable options on the way back!

CDG / KEF
Airports