I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Milion Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
After arriving too late at the Hilton Madrid and then again too late at the Marriott CDG Airport to sit in the sauna, it was lovely to finally sit in one for 20 minutes inside the Air France Lounge sauna in CDG Terminal 2E.
The Refreshing Sauna Air France Lounge (CDG – 2E)
I won’t rehash here the importance I place in a sauna beyond saying I consider it very healthy and it is a daily part of my routine at home. When I choose hotels, that is one of the amenities I always look for.
We left our hotel at 5:30 am from our hotel and were through passport control and security by 6:00 am at CDG. Our flight to Tunis was departing from Terminal 2E, so we made use of the lovely Air France Lounge in 2E thanks to my SAS Gold status.
My agenda was clear: a beeline for the sauna. There are only two (one for each gender) and I hoped that the men’s sauna would be empty. It was.
The sauna suite includes a changing area, a huge walk-in shower, and then the sauna itself, which is big enough for four people, though you have it all to yourself for 40 minutes (available on a first-come, first-served basis with no sign-ups).
We hopped in and I loved that the temperature was hovering above 80ºC. It felt great to sweat it out for 20 minutes (Augustine tells me he enjoys the sauna and often asks to accompany me at home, but needed a five-minute break in the middle).
It was so refreshing to step out of the sauna, shower, and finally feel awake after a sleepless night.
We then enjoyed a nice breakfast in the lounge before boarding our flight to Tunis.
My favorite part of the trip thus far has been this moment…what fun to enjoy a sauna in an airport lounge with my son!
@Matthew: I may be a bit slow today but are you really “live blogging” on this trip? From reading your posts, you left home on November 19 so 8 days ago. Today you are posting from Paris which from your initial post should be Day 4 of your trip. Am I missing something or you are already back home and this is no longer “live blogging”?
I’ve fallen behind, indeed, but I’m going through this report in a live blog style. It will never be a 100% live trip report for my own safety, but this style is a bit different than my usual trip reports (several weeks or sometimes months after the trip). Unfortunately, all the flights and lack of internet has meant that I have not been able to stay 100% up to date, but we are getting there.
Awesome. Hope you and Augustine made back home safely and will be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with family.
What time was your flight to Tunis? Seems like you sacrificed some extra sleeping time for your son to go the sauna instead. He probably could have used the extra 30-40 minutes on top of the 3.5 hours at the Marriott.
The flight was at 7:25 am, but the last time I took this flight, I got caught in the immigration line between 2E and 2F and almost missed the flight. This time, I was not about to take that chance. The sauna was a nice bonus, but it was not the reason we left the hotel at 5:30 am.