Poor Mojo's Two Minute Hate

I have had the (unfortunate) opportunity to have connections through CDG airport over the years. Every time I have connected through there it has been an experience of pain, frustration, and misery. My latest connection there, on the way home from the Developer2006 Europe conference, was no different.

See, CDG is a big airport - second busiest in Europe (Heathrow is #1, Frankfurt is #3). But unlike all other international airports, CDG - for some unknown reason - rarely uses jetways for their flights, no matter how big the airplane. Instead they use stairs to load/unload planes. For instance, when I landed in CDG from Vienna, we were on a midsize jet - a MD88 I think, or something similar. When we landed the flight crew informed us that the airport had forgotten to send anyone out to drive the stairs up to the plane. Of course there are multiple individuals all standing around the plane - but none of them could drive the stairs. We were delayed for 30 minutes while waiting for the stair driver. When we got off the plane there was a guy at the bottom of the stairs there was a guy telling the people who had short connections to get on a special bus. They drove us for about 15 minutes ( ! ) to a little building that contained 3 gates only (WTF?). We went through security again, and they held the plane so we could get on. It was a a Boeing 747 - the big jumbo jet with two levels and stairs inside. We still had to walk up stairs (LONG stairs), however, to board the plane.