As I said in my review earlier this week, simply put Air France offers the best overall experience of any transatlantic European carrier at the moment. United Polaris lounges are no doubt a tad better than Air France’s folks, I won’t deny that. This lounge is located in the international departures area of Charles de Gaulle and is after passport control.
We were promptly admitted upon showing our boarding pass and the space is modern yet cozy.
Our flight to DFW was at 10:20 AM so we were probably there at the early end of the bank of flights departing CDG for North America. When you compare the LH lounges in Frankfurt, KLM lounges in Amsterdam, and the BA lounges in Heathrow to this place, it’s not even a fight. The lounge is bright, airy, and had plenty of seating to not seem congested.
The central table area is extremely well designed with power outlets and plenty of workspace.
And of course there was a decent amount of food available at the buffet, which is located on both sides of the lounge. There were croissants, muffins, cereals, as well as a few ways to order eggs.
They also seemed to have a decent collection of wines and spirits on offer in the center of the table area. I didn’t see anything too expensive or over the top, but they weren’t exactly the cheapest wines either.
I must say the lounge features PLENTY of seating in various ways. There’s also a children’s area with an available PS4 with games. And so though it was busy at times, the space looked like it could handle the crowd.
Located in the back are some napping rooms. If you are lucky you can find a private area where you can close the curtains and fall asleep.
The lounge features a Clarins Spa where I heard there were a few complimentary treatments available. It also had this cool engine from the Enterprise spaceship 🙂
Right next door to the spa were the showers. You don’t need to go to the front desk to use one. You can just walk in and find a vacant shower room. Everything should be ready for you:
Water temperature and pressure were great and I quite frankly didn’t want to leave the shower. This area is way above what BA offers in their lounges though Lufthansa I must say has some fancy showers in certain business class lounges.
Bottom Line:
Anyway, though we had a 3 hour layover, it certainly seemed to go by fast within this lounge. I really can’t say that’s the case at some of their competitors’ lounges where finding a seat is sometimes like playing musical chairs. The Air France Business Lounge in Hall L is probably one of the best business class lounges in Western Europe. It’s well designed, spacious, and full of all the required amenities for a layover. The food was pretty decent from what I saw was offered at breakfast. This is definitely one more reason to pick Air France over BA or Lufthansa.
