Catching a train and renting a car

Be gentle folks. Bev looks to be a less experienced international traveler.

I just hope she does not have to drive far after reaching Reims, because being fresh and alert after her overnight flight are contradictory concepts.

After landing you will go through immigration. That takes the most time and it can range from a few minutes to a couple of hours depending on how many planes have landed recently. Then you pick up luggage and go through customs. That is a simple walk through the Green door - Nothing to Declare. The problem with booking a train departure after arrival is the number of variables that are unpredictable. Is your plane on time?? If late - how late? How long is the line at immigration? Any problems with luggage? It is generally not a good idea to book a tight train connection. If you do, then book a wide window of maybe four or five hours. But that is not fool proof either. Last year we had booked the next flight with a six hour window so we thought we were covered. And then the original flight from the US was cancelled. Didn't arrive until two days later.

You don't need additional insurance to rent a car but you do have to assume or accept additional risk. And relying on your credit card is not the best option either.

Bev, you don't have to worry about customs. Long queues are not part and parcel of customs assuming you have nothing to declare.

As for car rental insurance, first check to see what insurance is covered overseas by the credit card you use to pay for the car rental.

I haven't gone through customs/immigration in Paris because I carry on only and I've flown through Iceland and get my passport stamped for Schengen there. Without any luggage or customs wait at all, it's still a full hour before I'm on an RER going downtown.

The comment about going gentle on you is because many of us, myself included, are going to talk about being realistic in your plans. Trying to do too much will turn any vacation into a death march, so give yourself way more time than you need to reduce stress and plan times with nothing to do.

Your first day, the day you land, is a special case. Even if you get some sleep on your flight, it's virtually certain you will arrive jet lagged and sleep deprived. This makes people less aware of their surroundings (more vulnerable to thieves and getting lost) as well as more short-tempered/grumpy. It's not a good day to drive as studies show driving when very tired is as bad as, or worse than, driving drunk.

Getting on a train isn't as much of an issue as long as you understand you may get lost getting there - so don't schedule tightly at all. Better to get there early, and take a nice walk outside in the sun while waiting, than miss your train when you're groggy.

My personal plan has always been to spend a couple nights (or more) where I land to give myself at least one full day to adjust my internal clock. There are far worse things than spending time in Paris.

Deep breath. OK, Joe

Bev, firstly, are you flying into CDG from North America, and is this your first time? Because of the way you worded your post, it seems that way.

When you arrive, you proceed directly to Immigration/Passport control, where your passport will be inspected and stamped. You then go to the luggage hall to collect your checked bags. Unless you are bringing in goods that you have to declare, you then go through the "nothing to declare" door into the arrivals hall. No one can predict with accuracy how long this might take. It depends on how many international flights have landed just in front of you, how many Immigration officials are available for processing, and a number of other factors. Plus, you never know if your flight will arrive on time. For these reasons, it's generally not recommended to buy your day of arrival train tickets in advance. When you get to the train station, buy a ticket for the next available train. By the way, it's TGV.

You may be unfamiliar with the effects of jet lag, especially on a long transoceanic flight. It can leave you sleep deprived, with a fuzzy head, and slowed reactions. Driving on the day of arrival, except for very short distances, is usually actively discouraged. It can be akin to impaired driving. Where are you spending your first night? Can you train there and pick up your rental the next day?

I'll let someone else write about rental cars, AutoEurope, and credit card insurance coverage.

Bev,

1) It's a TGV (= Train à Grande Vitesse = High Speed Train). They are run by SNCF (= Société nationale des chemins de fer français = French National Railway Company).

2) Do not confuse customs and immigration
Immigration = Check on people, whether you are allowed to enter the country and if so for how long. This is where they examine and if necessary stamp your passport.
Customs = Check on goods, whether you are trying to bring anything into the country which is banned, or which needs customs duties (taxes) paying.

When you land the sequence is: Disembark - Immigration - luggage pick-up - customs - exit to public areas.
Immigration is the main problem. Wait can take 10 minutes to over an hour.
Customs has to be after luggage pick-up as they are concerned with what is in your bags. But, customs takes no time at all, you walk just walk through the green *nothing to declare" door. They only stop a random selection of people. 99.9% just walk through without stopping.

The usual advice is not to buy tickets in advance for a fixed time train after an intercontinental flight. Too many things can go wrong, The flight could be 1+ hours late (common for an intercontinental flight). Immigration could be bad (over 1 hour). and you still need to get to the station (inter-terminal transfer). Just buy at the station and accept you have to pay the higher price - sorry.

I did a quick look-up for trains for a random date and saw the following:

Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle TGV 08:59, Reims 09:52 - The one you can get if everything is on time
Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle TGV 11:21, Reims 12:12
Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle TGV 12:44, Reims 14:31
Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle TGV 13:58, Reims 15:33

And more trains after that, so you have plenty of choice of trains

Insurance Third party insurance (insurance against damaging other cars and buildings and other people) is a legal requirement and will be included in the price. Insurance for damage to the hire car is between you and the renting company. I always get that, as otherwise any small dent is expensive. Insurance against injuries to you, or your fellow passengers, or lots luggage is your responsibility.

Hope this all helps.

Also, there tend to be a couple of different credit card insurance. The 'standard' car rental insurance tends to be Canada-USA specific. If you have a premium card with a big annual fee or pay an additional charge on many other credit cards, you can get a supplemental insurance policy that is good pretty much everywhere you'd drive (common exclusions- Ireland, Italy, and Australia because car rental law is different there) Instead of taking the car rental CDW/'Super Cover', that can run $20 per day, we use the American Express supplemental insurance that gives us $100K of coverage for $15 PER RENTAL. Other cards have similar options.

On driving when coming off a red eye. We're not as negative about it as some are here but do have realistic expectations about how your judgement is impaired at that point, and don't plan on either a long drive or a drive that requires making a lot of quick judgement calls while dealing with unfamiliar traffic signs and different traffic laws. (in other words, bring a GPS/sat nav/phone with maps software, and try to a route that gets you off center city surface streets and onto limited access roads where you can plunk yourself in the slow lane at the prevailing speed as soon as possible. If there's an easy place to pick up the car in the suburbs instead of a downtown train station, do suburbs or local airport. )

just a few post scripts.

Good news that if your flight is on time you will be an early bird and likely breeze through immigration.

Do you need that car on the first day? Can you get to your first-day destination without? Consider waiting until Day 2 if you can.

I don't know why people keep saying "immigration."

Because that's what it is called (legally). "Passport control" is an unofficial name.

Airport authorities make sure there are not enough agents at the windows when five flights arrive at the same time.

These people are not employed by the airport. They are "Immigration Officers", government employees with similar powers to the police. The government (taxpayers) pays these people, so there is never enough.
Most countries have two queues: Local citizens and foreigners. At Paris Charles de Gaulle the two options are "EU citizens" and "non-EU". EU goes faster and requires less officials because they just check you match your passport. The foreigners queue is slow because they have to decide whether to let you in or not. And foreigners are not voters, they can be ignored as long as the local citizens get through quickly.

Another, lesser issue to note is that many car rental offices in France close from noon to 2 PM, or something like that. Your car rental company is likely to list that right on their website when you reserve the car. BTW, just like in the USA, you need to check your lights and wipers before you take the car away. I've learned, the hard way, to check that the cigarette lighter fuse isn't blown, since the phone or GPS will need power.

We thought we had the TGV from CDG (to Tours) all scoped out. Then, there was an "abandoned bag" in the station, and it was closed down for 50 minutes or so. We were lucky enough not to miss our prepaid, non-changeable train.

Bev, please post again so that we know you're a real person. Have you ever rented a car in the U.S.? How did you decide on the CDW/Insurance issue when you were in the U.S.? Are you over 25? (Car rental rule question.) Do you have a car insurance policy in the U.S.?

You definitely want to rent that car in advance. Do it now online.

Others already mentioned jetlag concerns after flight + train, etc... so I won't.
I rented a car recently from a TGV station (Lyon not Reims but imagine it is similar)
Since no one mentioned this but covered the airport quite well.

When departing the train in Reims, there is likely a rental car counter at the station somewhere. Look for signs with a key and a car.
At least in Lyon there is an office and all of the major agencies are there but no cars right there nor a shuttle to a lot ; after filling out the paperwork I had to walk a couple of blocks with our luggage and then enter a multi-story parking garage that all of the rental car companies used to find our car.
Everything took a little while longer than typical airport rental where there is much more volume/employees but was fairly painless.
It was around lunch time but nothing in terms of the rentals was closed in Lyon at least (Lyon is much larger than Reims)

Lyon is also someplace that REALLY respects the institution of lunch.