La Ferte Alais Q's

I am staying with my brother who happens to live in Paris :). Apparently the train will take about 1 hour from Paris to La Ferte Alais. Just to warn people it seems that some parts of the public transport system in France are on strike on monday.

Jonathan

How long do you expect it to take you to get there? and how are you travelling?

CM

Would like to see some pictures of the Museum aircraft as we are planning to visit during Paris Airsho Weekend.

Ta

for the moment the weather should be bad on the both days 🙁

According to to-day wearher forecast, the weather should be better on Sunday. I will check again to-morrow before deciding if I will go on Saturday or Sunday.
Would advise to check weather forecasts on French television websites.

Thanks all!,
It sounds like it will be a great day out providing the weather is ok.

Cheers

Jonathan

I’ve normally found there are plenty of airshow visitors on the train from Paris who know where they’re going.

As mentioned earlier, the airfield is on top of the hill that you can see clearly on the right of the train as it arrives from Paris.

I think it’s closer to 40 minutes walk than an hour – from memory, you come out of the station, across the car park and turn right along the road. At the first major junction you turn left – there’s a petrol station on the left-hand corner. This road passes a supermarket on the left and crosses a small river. Turn right at the end, then left at the first main junction, with a fire station on the left corner. If I’ve got that right then this is the access road to the airfield which initially goes uphill between two fields which are used as overflow show parking. Just as the road starts to wind a bit and head into a wooded area there will be some ‘layabouts’ siting on some rocks on the right. This is the pedestrian ticket barrier! Once through the rocks it’s an uphill hike through a forest path which leads out behind the hangars and, possibly, a further ticket check in case you sneaked up through the woods.

I would agree that the left end of the crowd line is a good place to be. The right end would be nice to get good views of the aircraft approaching over the edge of the hill and through the woods but the static aircraft are parked this end so you can’t get too close. Further along the runway there are a few VIP stands, plus the food concessions etc so the flightline is either obstructed or crowded. Further to the right it’s much quieter although, for picture-taking, you may miss more dramatic take-off or landing views. I normally go in this direction, near where the woods approach the crowdline.

Also note that it can be very long day – flying normally starts before 10:00 and goes on after 18:00 (with a break for lunch!) and the show does move at a fair pace, particularly in the afternoon.

Hope that helps

Tony Andrews

If they start from right to left, I normally stand at the far end aat the left side. Doing so, I shoot the aircraft while just leaving the ground, while rolling out during landing, and while they taxi back. This gives me 3 opertunities. The walk from the staion will be an hour or so. The airfield is on the hill you face while leaving the station. As no much people walk the route, it is better to follow the cars which will be standing motionless (most of the time) along the route. BW roger