As the aeroplane descends into Charles de Gaulle airport, the massive glass cylinder that is Terminal 2E glistens in the afternoon sunshine.

But if the passengers sitting by the windows to the left of the aircraft are looking out for great swathes of debris and destruction, they do not see it.
The 30 m of roof that has collapsed is just a small part of the building.
Only the flashing lights of a few emergency vehicles suggest danger. It is hard to imagine how such a relatively small incident could lead to a 拢500m terminal being torn down.
At ground level on the side of the building that remains intact, four taxi drivers drink cans of
beer, smoke cigarettes and play cards.
Yards away from where they stand, four people were crushed to death last Sunday. The only signs that a clear-up operation is taking place over the other side of the building are a few scattered items of demolition equipment.
The inside of 2E is an eery sight, with empty coffee tables and queueless check-ins. The corridor linking 2F to 2E is cordoned off with fluorescent orange tape.
On one side is a booth selling rail tickets. About 20 m to the other side, stand guards in blue uniforms wielding batons.
An information officer stands at the corridor linking terminals 2A, B and C to 2E. She says that after the disaster last Sunday, employees were still allowed to walk around parts of 2E but when further cracks appeared on Monday, even they were refused permission to go there.
Now the only people that are allowed to prowl around are construction and engineering experts, trying to save what they can of what was once considered an astonishing building.