A country in a terminal

It&rsquos true. Flying into Paris and flying out of Paris are two entirely different things. Check-in bags multiply, hand luggage is not handy anymore and duty-free &mdash especially at the new Terminal 2E at the Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport &mdash is but another country. So it is with some relief that I stand in queue for Business/Sky Priority passengers with suitcases that weigh a shade over thirty-two kilos and an umbrella that has braved an unseasonably grey (early) summer in France.

The sky outside is as clear and blue as Lake Annecy today. But I&rsquom willing to weather the irony, and the disappointment of flying during the day (it&rsquos a pity, really, when one could have been walking up and down Champs-&Eacutelys&eacutees till midnight), because the check-in at CDG is quick and painless unlike our experience on the way in from Delhi to Nice via Paris. (Two PNR numbers for two separate legs of the journey had thrown the ground staff in Delhi into a tizzy when we asked to check the baggage right through to Nice.)

It helps that there are Ladur&eacutee macarons and window-shopping at Chanel, Dior, Herm&egraves and Miu Miu to look forward to. But first I must make a stop at the new (about a year old) Air France lounge in 2E &mdash a sprawling vision in white, only occasionally broken up by a life-like tree or by curved separators divvying up a space that could well have been the set for the new Star Trek Into Darkness. I grab some breakfast (the spread is almost as expansive as the lounge) and a bar stool to check my mail on one of the iPads placed at one end of the hall. But with time running out, soon I&rsquom back outside to take a turn about the terminal.

Predictably, there&rsquos enough to gawk at or buy, if you played a good hand at the Casino in Monte Carlo or won the French Lotto. For those less fortunate, there are other riches to explore, and for free. The Espace Mus&eacutees &mdash a self-contained but well laid out exhibition area where Rodin is holding court at the moment &mdash is a great place to count your pre-boarding minutes, for instance a space becoming of a city with over 150 museums to its name.