We will be traveling from Avignon to Paris on July 16. Our plane doesn't leave until 1215p on the 17th. I was thinking of making a night stop in Dijon and catching the 7-9a train on the 17th, that goes right into CDG. One, is that enough time and two, is there another place to stop instead of Dijon?
We will be spending some time in Paris before going on our Rhone cruise, and do not want to stay the night in CDG hotel on the return if we can help it.
Best thing IMO is to arrive in Paris on July 16th if your flight on the 17th. You never know what might happen to the trains on the 17th. There is only one scheduled train on the 17th that can get you to CDG on time. What will you do if it is canceled or severely delayed?
I'm kinda with JHK on the staying in Paris the night before. Train delays, I imagine, are rare, but if something does happen and you don't have a backup way to get there - we had almost a two hour train delay once in Nice because of torrential rains, and once on the high speed train to Avignon from Paris someone committed suicide by train and tho we were still moving, we were almost three hours late getting to Avignon - had we something important transportation wise, we would have been in big trouble.
Depends on your risk tolerance. I routinely drive 3 hours to Chicago for international flights, and I suppose something could happen on the way. Super safe types go the night before and stay in a hotel near the airport. A resident of Dijon, taking a flight to North America, probably wouldn't think twice about taking the morning train to CDG. You will have time before to get a heads up on any job actions or scheduled track work. You do have a back-up train at 7:24 to Gare de Lyon and continuing on to CDG by RER. Gets you there an hour later, but still more than 2 hours before your flight time.
You could do this time wise but as other posters have noted, you are at the whim of the train. We ran into strikes last summer. Maybe check on that action, it's usually findable, although sudden work actions do occur. If you decide to go to Paris, no reason to stay at CDG. Enjoy an evening in Paris, airport the next morning.
I would probably do it and accept the associated risks. To cover myself I would probably make sure that I knew the hours of various rental car companies in case of strike, etc. and perhaps the bus schedules. If all rental offices don't open until 9, the risk of loss would be higher than if they opened at 7.
CDG airport hotels are filled with French people, so many do go up the night before. People in my in-laws' northern Burgundy village would typically start driving the 2.5 hour trip at 4 am for a noon flight if they didn't go up the night before.
Thank you so much for the quick replies.
We have tickets that allows us to stand-by for another flight if needed. I think we may try it and change to the day before if something looks like it will cause a delay. I would just like to see another city in France while we are there. The ticket prices for the train will probably not change as all the discount seats are gone anyway from Avignon to Paris, on 7/16.
We can still buy discounted tickets from Avignon to Dijon and Dijon to CDG so I would like to go ahead and buy them.
If you can think of another city that may be closer to Paris, I would love to know. They may have an earlier train to CDG or at least more train choices.
Thank you again.
I would choose Lyon over Dijon for this purpose. I like it better, the overall trip time is shorter, and there are more direct trains.
12:15 PM is tight, though. And the Dijon train gets you in an hour earlier, all else equal.
