Arrived early this morning in Paris CDG and i take back most of my gripes about customs here. the thing is, in my past experiences, customs clearance at the CDG always led to rage and temper tantrums because of the impossibly painful waiting time and chaos that follow your arrival. Even the french get confused. In one of our earlier trips where two plane-loads of passengers were mobbing their way into the counters sans forming lines, i threw a tantrum and my hubby, who's usually predisposed to calmness and collectedness, almost flew into a fit of rage.

But not today. Today, April 26 2006, was a good day. we breezed right into customs, and then right out of it, in a matter of five minutes.

And the customs guy actually smiled AND spoke english... at 6:30 A.M.

Le official de Customs: "bonjour madame. you from singapour?"
"Yes, i am," I smiled back.
Le official de Customs, avec a twinkle in his eye: "And your profession eez la tai tai? what eez a tai tai?"
"Une madamoiselle de leisure," i replied after some thought.
Le official de Customs, smiling flirtatiously: "Ah! Mais bien sur! (but of course!)"

After some further cheeky chit chat, he cleared me and as i stepped away from the window, my husband stepped forward for his turn.

Le official de Customs (in french): "You are French?"
Monsieur Tonque: "Oui."
Le official de Customs: "But you are in the non-European passport-holder line?"
Monsieur Tonque: "Oui. (and he pointed at me) And that is my wife you were so friendly with."

There are supposed to be two things that any visitor to Paris CDG should be able to count on. One: the customs guy will flirt. Two: gaining entry through customs will up your blood pressure to hazardous levels. Though I must say i'm rather taken with the change to the second count. And I suspect it has more to do with our flying on Singapore Airlines instead of the usual AirFrance.

Besides, I don't care much for fromage... so move it all you want.