CDG connection 7 hours 5 minutes, leave airport in rental car?

I wouldn't chance it. Your appetite for stress and risk may well be different than mine.

My rough estimate of time is you need to allow 3hrs to do the outward processing to go to the US. Driving time looks to be 2.5 hrs,( r/t total) plus the check out- check in time for the rental car, plus refueling. Depending on the 'when', you would be doing this, you might end up with 60 minutes at the battlefield. Depending on traffic you could have even less.

Not the kind of stress I would want.

The cost of a lounge pass is probably less than a rental car. This would be my choice.

Is there not a way to fly to your destination without such a long layover--even if it means flying through another gateway airport? We've been there many times, and not found it nearly as interesting a place to spend time as other airports.

CDG is on my airport list to avoid--along with ORD and JFK.

I won’t book this unless I can use the time somehow productively.

And we always need to consider the possibility of the unlikely-but not impossible- happening such as a delay in checking the rental car in or out, or even a minor car accident fouling up the timing of making a flight.

In the US you can pick up your rental car in 5 minutes; this has never been the case for us in Europe where it has taken as much as an hour to get the car and drop off and getting a receipt showing it is gassed and undamaged is also time consuming. This is a recipe for disaster.

I admire your courage for even thinking about doing this, but I wouldn't advise it. A more daring traveler than I might consider going into Paris for a few hours, but I wouldn't do that either with luggage, security, and possible transport delays. I'd go for the lounge pass or look for a shorter connection elsewhere. But, like I said, I admire your courage.

Absolutely no way! Especially in that direction, since if you leave the airport you'll need to be back at CDG 2.5-3 hours before your outbound flight... So you realistically only have about 3 available hours outside of the airport.

I know that you are an IDP skeptic but in this case you might want to arm yourself with one - you won't want to spend an extra second convincing a rental agent or police - you will be really really tight on time.

But the adrenalin rush from the stress might be worth it....

I’ll trust the locals as I only have experience with CDG T1 but it seems doable, an hour drive each way 1-1/2 hours there and back with 3 hours to spare. Adding fuel and waiting for return go over are both optional. Also if there is a long line to get a car the idea can be aborted with nothing lost.

Another option is lunch at a good restaurant in Roissy Ville but it doesn’t open until noon and there would be only 3 hours left of the connection time.

These people are suggesting 7 hours is time for quite a bit:

https://wandervingjews.com/7-hour-layover-in-paris/

Nigel: I now have a European-style license with the Vienna Convention numbers on it.

Starting with 7 hours

Need to be at airport 3 hours prior to US-bound flight

Leaves 4 hours

I usually count an hour after deplaning to walking out the front door of the terminal - you don't have to go through immigration, coming from another Schengen member state, so let's say 30 minutes

Leaves 3.5 hours

Half an hour to find your way to the car rental place, stand in line, possibly get your rental car , let's generously say 30 minutes (this could take longer, and honestly to me this is the variable that is the most worries and most likely to take longer)

Leaves 3 hours (probably less if things don't go perfectly smoothly)

You say 1 hour to drive to Château-Thierry (seems optimistic to me, given the time to get out of the rental car parking lot, find your way etc but ok)

Leaves two hours

1.5 hours at the site

Leaves 30 minutes to get from Château-Thierry, gas up the car, and drive back onto the CDG compound, find the correct rental car return, turn in your rental car, and find your way back to your departing terminal. (You estimate an hour of driving time from C-T back to CDG).

This also assumes there are no traffic issues , especially accessing the airport itself (there are times when I have gotten to the access road to CDG and been stuck so long I wanted to bail and walk the rest of the way to the terminal).

Yes, it's possible that each of these elements takes less time than I am projecting, everything works smoothly, and you have a wonderful visit. But for my risk appetite, and with my knowledge of CDG and getting around in France, l wouldn't be confident enough to try it. As I said when I first responded, your risk appetite may well differ from mine.

(This doesn't even address the possibility of your inbound flight arriving late)

(Additionally, Via Michelin estimates driving time at just over an hour...)

Just to pile on here, it may not be a line at the rental car counter that takes a while. I have had reserved cars not be in the pick-up area at CDG and had to wait quite some time for someone to bring one back. I'm a huge history buff, but this doesn't sound worth the hassle. And it could make you some personal history that you'd rather not remember.