Charles de Gaulle Wat?

One nice thing about writing a month afterwards is that I can compress down time. In this case, a week spent in the US moving bags around, complaining about my shoulder, and waiting for the airplane gods to send me to Spain. I missed and ended up in Paris, but felt so intent on making it to Barcelona that I bought a flight, in cash, at CDG.

I decided to spend my five hours at the airport wisely. I spent half an hour wandering around Terminal 1, half an hour eating, and with rather a lot more time to kill I decided to busk. I'd even found the perfect spot - a little tunnel in the walkway to Terminal 3. Great sound, a bit narrow, but just enough to play and have people pass with their bags and trolleys. Probably a silly idea. I didn't even write notes afterwards

Essentially it was practice time in public. Everyone - everyone - was very confused. Police passed and looked amused and confused. Pilots and stewards passed and couldn't decide whether to giggle, smile, frown disapprovingly or ignore me and ended up with the most split expressions on their faces. Passengers looked generally miffed, in a hurry, or surprised and happy. Everyone was in a rush. Quite a lot of Airport employees (security, food services, gate agents, etc.) passed more than once and offered charming words. No one said anything negative. A few people took photos. One group asked me to play Arabic music, but I sadly couldn't oblige. Families tried to whizz past. A lot of suspicion. I played Ysaye three or four times just to practice, which was great fun. I even felt able to relax enough to play it properly. (I realized the source of my shoulder troubles is bad violin technique caused by nervousness when busking.) In the end i just got one tiny tip, but I enjoyed and amused myself quite thoroughly.



Earnings: 0,30€, 1.5 hours