I just returned from a week in Paris. I had a great time, and am happy to report I had no problems with anti-American behavior. Everytime I asked someone for directions or other assistance, the person I asked was very helpful. Several people even initiated offers of help.<BR><BR>Aside from a 1-day metro strike, everything went relatively smoothly. If it was not for seeing CNN every night, I would not have known a war was going on. I did see a demonstration march, but it was a march of labor unions, marching in solidarity with the metro union. All the banners and signs they carried had messages about wanting more money from the government (pensions, taxes, etc.). There were hundreds of people walking in this march, but I did not see a single anti-war sign.<BR><BR>A warning to anyone traveling to Paris: When you deplane, if you see shuttle buses taking passengers to the terminal, do not get on a bus without first asking an Air France employee whether you should do so. Ask about this even if you see all the other passengers getting on the buses. I made this mistake, only to find myself in a different terminal than my luggage went to. It took about 2 hours and a few miles of walking around Charles de Gaulle Airport before I was reunited with my luggage.

Thanks for the report. Glad you had a nice time. We are spending a day and night there on our return from Italy this summer, so thanks SO much for the heads up on the shuttle!<BR><BR>I know we will have to take a shuttle to our connecting flight when going in to Europe, and hadn't thought of not &quot;following along&quot; with the crowd. We'll be sure to ask where we need to go.<BR><BR><BR>

One more airline advisory: When you arrive at the airline ticket counter, always verify that the seat you are given matches the type you reserved.<BR><BR>I had a Delta/Air France ticket with reserved aisle seats. This is what happened on trip back to the USA:<BR><BR>Air France cancelled an earlier flight and put all its passengers on my flight. When I arrived at the airport TWO AND A HALF HOURS EARLY, Air France had already given away my seat. I did not realize this until I got on the plane. To make matters worse, I was given a middle seat, between 2 overweight men. If my body had been cut in half, there would still not have been enough room for me to sit there. The stewards told me the plane was completely full, not a single empty seat. I refused to try sitting down, and kept standing in the aisle. Fortunately there was a &quot;no show&quot; and an aisle seat opened up. <BR><BR>Lesson to be learned: It is a lot easier contesting seats when at the ticket counter than when on the plane. When you are given a boarding pass, always confirm the seat location.<BR><BR>By the way: I have to modify my statement about &quot;no problems with anti-American behavior&quot; in France, because I think there is a good chance my American nationality contributed to this seat re-assignment. Airlines often reassign seats of late-arriving passengers, but I never before heard of reserved seats being reassigned several hours before departure time.

I have had reserved seats reassigned before departure on American airlines and I'm an American. They do it a lot. I've also had it happen on other American carriers and BA won't even give you a reserved seat often. I think they often do it to accommodate families or something because once I looked to see who was in my seat, and it was a family with a small child--I was relegated to a middle seat when I'd reserved a window. I've had AF move my seat around but I was given the same type, I don't know why they did it that time.<BR><BR>I wouldn't expect to see an anti-war sign in the middle of a local union labor march, those are different demonostrations.<BR>

I still think my nationality may have contributed to my seat reassignment. I was on an Air France airline, not an American airline. The person Air France gave my seat to was an Indian (she was wearing a sari). She was not with a family, so this was not a matter of the airline wanting to keep families together. This occurred was at the height of the anti-American fervor in France.

I mentioned the demonstration march only to show that there were thousands of French more concerned about economic matters than about Iraq. This was a very public march that was followed by journalists and television cameras. If Iraq had been such an emotional issue for these marchers, at least a few of them would have been wearing peace signs. I saw none.

While I am on the subject: During my week in Paris I read about a poll Le Monde magazine had taken about French views of Iraq. The article said &quot;only 53%&quot; of the French supported what the USA did, and &quot;almost 33%&quot; supported Chirac's position. Remove the &quot;only&quot; and &quot;almost&quot; from this article (which was very biased against the USA), the numbers show that if Chiraq had been running for re-election that week, he would have been defeated. My impression was that the French are far more concerned about the domestic economy than with Chirac's foreign policy.