I recently undertook two impromptu trips, the first to Washington DC and the second to Amsterdam, to visit my family and friends over a long weekend. This is the second in a series of three lounge reviews covering my second impromptu trip to Amsterdam. I previously published my review of the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK Terminal 4, near gate B31 and KLM Crown Lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam Airport, which I was able to enter on my flight from New York to Amsterdam thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status benefits.

In this review I will review the second of two lounges I was able to visit on my return flight, which brought me from Amsterdam back to New York via Paris. Again thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status benefits, I was able to enter the Air France Lounge at CDG’s Terminal 2E, Hall M in the non-Shengen part of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG). Note that Paris CDG has three lounges in the non-Shengen Terminal 2E, one in each ‘Hall’, or concourse of the terminal (which are lettered K, L and M). These are separate buildings so you’ll typically end up in the lounge of the ‘hall’ where your flight departs from.

Briefly, I thought the Air France Lounge at CDG’s Terminal 2E, Hall M was a very nice lounge, with the typical style of effortless elegance that Air France lounges are known for, a space that’s also large enough to accomodate all the passengers that use it, and a great selection of French food at the buffet.

1. What got me into this lounge?
2. Access eligibility
3. Location and hours
4. Seating and design
5. Food and drinks
6. Restrooms and showers
7. Summary

What got me into this lounge?

I recently took two short trips, the first of which I already reported on by way of two Admirals Club reviews (at JFK Terminal 8 and at DCA’s Terminal 2, E-gates). I didn’t report on the flights as such beyond explaining how I booked them, since it was all in economy and otherwise completely unremarkable.

Here I will now report on the second trip: a quick trip back the Netherlands to visit family and friends. This is one of three reviews, since in this trip I was able to visit three lounges: since I’ve made it to Flying Blue Gold, that also means that if I fly SkyTeam airlines, I will get a bunch of benefits, including priority services, a free checked bag, free seat selection, and lounge access. Like with the first trip, I flew all economy, which I won’t be reviewing.

I booked a basic economy ticket flying from New York-JFK to Amsterdam AMS with KLM, and then on the return flying first from Amsterdam AMS via Paris CDG to New York-JFK, with Air France. Obviously these are all SkyTeam airlines, and so my Flying Blue Gold status granted me the aforementioned perks. I was able to visit the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK Terminal 4, then the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS), and finally the Air France Lounge at Paris CDG Terminal 2E, Hall M. In this review I will cover the second of those: the Air France Lounge at CDG’s Terminal 2E, Hall M in the non-Shengen part of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG).

Access eligibility

Air France Lounges can generally be accessed in a variety of ways:

• Complimentary access is provided to all passengers flying on a same-day flight with Air France-KLM or a SkyTeam partner in business class.
• Complimentary access is also provided to any Flying Blue member at Gold level or higher, regardless of the cabin in which the passenger flies.
• Access is also provided to SkyTeam Elite Plus members, as long as they are transferring between a domestic and International flight that are within 24 hours of each other.
• Finally, a lounge pass can be purchased by anybody for varying amounts on a space-available basis. Last I checked the price I was hired was about 100 Euros.

Location and hours

This lounge is open every day from 5:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

My previous flight from Amsterdam had arrived at Terminal 2F, so I had to transfer first. To get to Terminal 2E’s Hall M, you have to go to the eastern part of the terminal , where the walking bridge to Terminal 2e, Hall L is also located. Here you take an elevator down to. Shuttle bus, which drives a loop between Terminal 2F and Terminal 2E’s Halls M and L. Strangely, while trying to confirm the exact stops of this bus after the fact, I didn’t see any mention of its existence on CDG’s website. Rather confusing. So you’ll just have to believe me…

Regardless, once you get to Hall M, enter the terminal and go up the escalators you’ll find that you don’t need to go through security again. Once you are ip to the main departures floor, you’ll start to see signs for the lounge (‘salon’). Follow these to the main hall of the concourse, and you’ll see another set of sign gage hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the terminal.

The entrance to the lounge is in the far right corner of the main hall. The markings are not super obvious, but the red sign is a fairly clear demarcation. Enter through a hallway to reach the lobby, where you can simply scan your boarding pass through an automated gate. If you don’t have access yet and need to buy a day pass, you can do so at the counter.

Seating and design

The below map gives you a sense of how the lounge is setup. There’s roughly three zones, but it really feels like 2.5 zones: there is a dining area on the right (red), which is also where the main buffet is, and then the rest of the lounge is essentially a ‘lounge zone’ with parts dedicated to resting and parts that are meant for working, with seating arranged around tables and desks.

As you enter the lounge, you enter into the ‘true’ lounge area of the lounge, with various kinds of lounge chairs arranged with plenty of side tables. There are couches as well, arranged around rather beautiful light fixtures in the shape of trees, with elegant branches holding up the lighting. Look to the your left (or to your right) and you’ll see one of the main passages for walking.

Follow it and you will pass a few more of the lounge areas. As pr the floorplan, they are arranged in their own zones, with tall, floor-to-ceiling divisions creating smaller areas out of what would have otherwise been one large room. The seating throughout these areas is otherwise identical, with the same chairs, side tables, and ‘tree lighting couches’.

As you can see , there is some variation in color, including some chairs that deviate from the otherwise rather stereotypical choice of colors. Air France’ red, blue and white are all around, with the white being the main color, and blue and red used as accents throughout the lounge. There is deviation from that palette in some of the chairs, some of which are black or grey. Regardless, the chairs are otherwise mostly the same, and are quite comfortable.

As you pass through these first areas of the lounge, you’ll get to the dining part of the lounge. Here you will find a true dining setup, with comfortable chairs and tables, typically arranged in twos. Along windows there is also some high-top seating at the counter.

Passing through the dining area and towards the other side of the lounge, there is another walkway through which you can get from one far end to the lounge to the other. Along one side of this walkway is a lot more lounge seating, with the same signature seats and side tables as I showed earlier. These are mostly organized in quads. A little further down, where the seating area along the windows narrows, you’ll just find lounge seating arranged in twos. Regardless of the seating arrangement, this is a very nice place to sit, affording fantastic view of aircraft passing by!

I then followed the walkway to the other end of the lounge, where there is a section that is more dedicated to working. There are some interesting seating arrangements here that mimic communal office desks, but their arrangement is such that you’re never really with multiple people at a single table. Rather, the desks are setup like a fan of sorts, with the desks ‘fanning out’ from the center where they are all connected. There’s partitions as well to increase privacy.

I will say that it didn’t seem like many people were actually working…

Then at the end of the lounge are more lounge seating, as well as day beds. These come equipped with a side table and a little partition that also has plugs, so you can charge your devices.

After this you can pass back to the other walkway. Walking back towards the buffet, you’ll come across a customer service area with a pleasant, warm, wooden design, as well as a glass cabinet with Air France products that you can buy.

All in all, the lounge didn’t disappoint in its design. I’ve come to find that Air France lounges are minimalistic in their color palettes, which are combined with simple yet elegant architectural features. The arching windows and staircase in their Shengen lounge at CDG comes to mind. Compared to that, the Hall M lounge is a little bit more boring, but I still really liked the overall feel, the way spaces are partitioned, and the interesting couches with tree-shaped lighting at their center.

Also, importantly, throughout the hour or so that I was here (over lunchtime), the lounge never felt crowded or noisy, and there were plenty of seats available to accommodate everybody.

Food and drinks

This lounge has two buffets: the main one, and a smaller one. I will start with the main buffet, which also had all the hot food options. The buffet was located beside the dining area of the lounge, and consisted of a elongated table that had the main dishes and a cold bar, a second, smaller table with mostly bread and dessert, and then there were drinks setup along the wall.

At the close end of the buffet are little trays, plats and cutlery, and the next item are the main dishes. It did seem to me like the lunch service didn’t make full use of all the space available: look to the back of the two pots in the image below and you’ll see two spaces, meant for such pots, that are empty. It surprised me because there were plenty people trying to get food, so I’d expect the staff to utilize all available space.

The main dishes served today were scrambled eggs, steamed vegetables, and a delicious seafood dish that I don’t remember what it was, and that I know doesn’t look so appetizing. You’ll just have to trust me that it was very tasty!

Next up is the cold bar, serving a variety of cold cuts, cheeses and salads. I appreciate that Air France also provides some ‘pure’ ingredients, so you can combine as you wish with the cold cuts to make a sandwich of your own. But I also enjoyed the salads very much.

The other table at the buffet primarily has a selection of desserts. A lot of these appear to be baked, but there are also a variety of mousses and what I think are yoghurts. I’m not sure if this selection is specific to lunch service and are replaced with different kinds of desserts for dinner, but that’s what I would expect based on what I saw the the Air France lounge at JFK. Even so, I thought the collection of little glass cups filled with a variety of things was very pretty to look at.

Also here in a section with a variety of breads, including buns and baguettes. Here’s a shocker though: there were not croissants!

Then, finally, along the wall is a variety of drinks. The presentation of these was a little lackluster I find, and could have been spruced up a little. That said, there were a variety of wines (mostly French, as you’d expect), as well as variety of liquors.

Then there was also a fridge with a variety of canned juices and sodas, a water dispenser, and an espresso machine.

That was the main buffet, but there is a secondary one to the other end of the lounge. This one is more about bites and drinks rather than a full meal, as you can surmise from the selection of foods.

In terms of drinks, you’ll find all the sodas, wines, beers and hot drink options you’d have found at the main buffet, except, it seems, for the liquor. Then you can also see that there is a smaller variety of breads, but at least here they did offer croissants! Finally…

In terms of the food (besides breads and croissants) there are the same general variety of fruits, baked desserts, yoghurts, and a smaller selection of salads, cold cuts and cheeses. Enough to make yourself a little sandwich, but no hot options.

Overall, I much enjoyed the food on offer. I ended up with a selection of hot and cold options, and thought they all were quite good. Besides the taste I liked how the food was fresh, from the breads, to the fruits, to the other options, I thought the food quality was good.

Restrooms and showers

There is one set of men’s and women’s restrooms in this lounge, close to the lounge entrance. You enter into what is essentially one room, with sinks to the left. The design was elegant in its own way, but it did feel a little dark and murky, and perhaps a little simple. Stalls were to the right, and then urinals were an immediate right from the entrance. All pretty standard. But it’s a far cry from the beautiful restrooms at the Shengen Air France Lounge at CDG.

Like many Air France lounges, this lounge had a Clarins spa. The reception is at the counter seen below, with an iPad to allow you to sign up for any of several facials. I had one at the JFK Air France Lounge, which was great. However, you ought to reserve as soon as you come in because the wait time can be quite long. When I arrived, there wasn’t any slot available before my departure, so I skipped it.

As you can see, the opening times are a little strange as well, closing as early as 1:30pm. I’m not so sure why they wouldn’t be open until the lounge closes, as this basically guarantees that passengers departing in the afternoon wouldn’t be able to enjoy this service. Meanwhile, at the JFK Air France Lounge, I had a facial at 9pm!

This same area also has showers, which weren’t being used much when I visited. They are all roughly the same in size and layout, with a large shower stall at the very back, with glass doors. I liked that these can be closed entirely, as I don’t like this trend where the shower stall has an open end. In my mind, you just end up making everything wet… There’s also a toiler, a sink with a large counter, towels and a variety of amenities.

Overall, the restrooms at this lounge were fine, but I had come to expect a little more after visiting the Air France lounge at CDG’s Terminal 2F (Shengen). The showers are quite large, which is very nice, and appeared to be clean and in good condition.

Summary

In this review I provided my thoughts on one of the three Air France lounges at CDG’s Terminal 2E: the location at Hall M, from where my flight to New York-JFK departed. Overall, this is a nice lounge. I liked the design, which in usual Air France style, had a quality of elegance to it that came from a minimalist color palette and flowing designs of the walls and furniture. The sitting areas are comfortable and pleasant, and despite the lounge getting busy at times, it never felt crowded thanks to ample seating and spacing between seats. Finally, the food was fresh and tasty, and there were enough options to choose from. Overall, this lounge is a nice place to relax before your flight.