So last Saturday I decide, since the weather was bad here in Paris and I couldn't face a weekend stuck in my room with only CNN for company, to go back and see the family, aho are in the UK until next week, when we move into our new apartment.

I got a cheap flight, and set my alarm so I'd just be able to slip out of the hotel ans onto the Air France bus, which leaves just up the road from Place d'Etoile. Easy, right?

Wrong. What I hadn't thought about in my stupidity was that Saturday was a national holiday for the end of WW2, complete with military parade up the Champs Elysées - which, fairly obviously, meant there was no bus. It was leaving from Porte Maillot, about 1km up the road.

I gamely took the Métro, and got the bus two buses after the one I'd originally planned to get, and got to Terminal 2 at CDG just after the gate closed. Bugger.

I went to the Air France Ticket office in full expectation of not being able to afford a new ticket. After all, these cheap tickets are non-refundable etc, etc. I got into the queue, and listened to the American woman in front of me, who from the sound of things was in pretty much the same situation.

She wanted to go to London, and it seemed her plane hadn't actually taken off yet, and why couldn't she be taken to the gate (the subtext being, of course, that she was the most impossibly important person in the world and she should be able to do whatever the hell she wanted because she damn well wanted to, regardless of her failings in actully getting to the check-in desk on time).

The Air France woman, understandably, was having none of it - and quite rightly too. She very firmly but very politely made it quite clear that this woman was going to have to buy a new ticket, and that all the shouting and foot stamping would not make the slightest bit of difference. She also seemed to have just the slightest flicker of a smile when she told this woman her ticket would cost €800. Which is full-price for the return journey, plus tax.

At which point the woman went off the scale. She got her cellphone out and started calling some friend of hers, telling her how pissed off she was with the shitty service she was getting from Air France in General and this employee in particular (bear in mind she's no more than 1m away from this employee at this point) and generally being about the most unpleasant person I've seen in a long time.

She eventually went on her way, hopefully for a long lie down and some therapy, and soon it was my turn. Now I'm not saying I did anything particularly charming, but I just told the same person what had happened and said I'd like to get on the next flight, but it depended on what it cost.

She sorted out a very good deal for me, whereby the tax and return fare I'd paid was transferred onto a new ticket, and I just paid the marginal cost for mu outward journey, which was about €140. Not cheap, but not the end of the world and it served me right for not getting up in time.

There's a valuable lesson there. It's just a shame that the person that needs it most wasn't around to see it.