CDG-->Loire Valley via train->rental car

Looking at Friday May 20 (a date I picked out of thin air), There is a TGV at 2:57 pm with a connection at Marne La Vallee Chessy that will get you to St Pierre des Corps at 6:00 pm. A small issue is that you have a 1 1/2 hour wait at Marne La Vallee Chessy, which is basically Disneyland Paris.

Another option is to pack the family in a taxi from the official taxi rank and go to Gare Montparnasse in Paris (58 EUR fixed price). There are direct trains to St Pierre des Corps, at 2:19 pm, 3:29 pm, 4:31 pm, all taking 1 hour to get to St Pierre des Corps.

Assuming you are using the sncf website, and not a 3rd party. There probably won't be many trains going from CDG to St PdC. Most trains will be from Gare Montparnasse. It may be (much) faster to take a taxi from the airport (probably about half an hour, fixed price) to Gare Montparnasse. I picked a couple of random Fridays and saw a 13:30 (probably too early) and a 14:19 departure. The train trip itself is only about an hour, so the 14:19 would get you there early enough to get to the rental company. There's a later train that gets in at 17:35.

Given the uncertainty of arrival times, passport control, etc, it's probably advisable to wait until you get through passport control to buy your train tickets.

Not easy to offer suggestions without knowing your travel date (a Friday?). However, I might take a taxi to Gare Austerlitz (58€) and travel directly to Amboise. The direct trains take about 90 minutes, some stop in Orléans, tickets are available for a little as 19€.

Pickup a rental the next morning at Amboise.

CJean and Tocard have both offered good ideas, but I wouldn't count on making it to Gare de Montparnasse in 30 minutes in a taxi. I would count on 45 minutes and know that it might well take an hour,

And count at least another half hour to buy tickets from a machine and find your platform. The station is huge.

That little train directly to Amboise sounds good to me. Gare d’Austerlitz is smaller than Montparnasse. Pick up the car the next day.

On a Friday afternoon, I would not leave buying TGV tickets to the last minute. Trains do get full, especially this year: SNCF has not gone back to pre-Covid levels of service yet. The direct train to Amboise could be a better bet (and I do not think that it can get full, although reservation policy might have changed), however, be aware that the station is a little outside of town, so you might want to check with your hotel to arrange transportation from there. Picking up a rental car the next day in St. Pierre des C. will not be difficult if you opt for that.

Gare d'Austerlitz is much easier to deal with than Gare de Montparnasse is, although those TER trains can get crowded (I was on one that went through Amboise on Saturday morning, and it was jam-packed).

On the other hand, they don't sell out, and are cheaper. And you get to Amboise and where you want to be your first night.

(And Gare d'Austerlitz is closer to CDG than Gare de Montparnasse is, thus making that part of the trip a little easier too. Not a huge amount closer, but enough to make a difference).

Thank you all for the wonderful advice! We concluded that this travel sequence introduced a little more complication than we're looking for, so we decided to rejigger our schedule a bit. I really do appreciate the wonderful problem solving that all of you offered!

Paul I walked myself through literally the same process you're going through. Family of four, touch down 11:15 a.m. at CDG, want to go to Amboise.

We are seasoned at Europe travel with this being my 13th or 14th trip, and the 7th trip in the last 8 summers.

Trying to avoid going in to Paris and using the TVG station at CDG to go to Amboise is a massive time suck. You spend way too much time waiting around in stations for trains.

If we were going into Paris to transfer to Amboise, we would take a taxi to Gare Austerlitz and then TER Amboise. This would also put us in Amboise fairly late in the day.

So here's what we decided, family is pretty happy with it. We walk out of CDG to the taxi line and straight to the door of our hotel in the 9th. A taxi for 4 is basically the same cost as using public transit from CDG, and probably faster to our hotel. Likely arrival there between 1-2pm.

Drop the bags, wash faces, walk 10-15 minutes to Paris Opera House / Palais Garnier for a 40 minute gawk at one of Europe's supreme interior spaces. The massive Chagall modernist mural on the stately baroque hall's ceiling is in my opinion the greatest framing of any work of art on the planet. It's so beautiful I always wipe away a couple of tears. The reception hall there basically equals the fanciest rooms at Versailles. And the sculptures inside are priceless art nouveau masterworks.

Anyway, point is you can do one really cool Paris thing that you want to do, and it's easy if you get a hotel not too far from that thing.

Then back to the hotel to see if we can rally for dinner. If so, walk to somewhere on a sidewalk on the front side of Montmartre, walk up that hill after dinner if we feel okay, gaze upon the Eiffel Tower from a distance. Back to the hotel.

Or if we need beds badly just grab some sandwiches or take out and crash.

Next morning, we're a couple blocks in either direction from Subway lines that take us easily and directly to Gare Montparnasse, and from there an hour-ish to the Loire. As a bonus or subway ride is on a Saturday morning, not Friday at rush hour.

The pacing of our plan seems a lot more relaxed and enjoyable than grinding out the entire afternoon into the evening on the first day in convoluted train transit.

So that's just the way we decided to do it, I know a lot of people have different philosophies, prefer to grind out all the initial travel at once and be done with it.

Also, for what it's worth, St Pierre Des Corps train station is not much of a station. I'm sure you could pick up a rental car there no problem, but it isn't a particularly comprehensive station like the one in Tours. I think this is because it doesn't exactly serve any destination, just a change point and I think a freight station too.

Lastly, Amboise is a great pick, touristy, but in that highly pleasurable touristy way. We're headed back there for the second time and really looking forward to it.

I always allow plenty of time to get from CDG to Saint Pierre des Corps. I never try book a train for the same day unless I absolutely have to, preferring to stay in Paris the day I arrive. I then travel down from Montparnasse the next day.

On the rare occasions I have caught a train the same day I catch a direct train CDG to Saint Pierre des Corps. I allow 3 hours after landing, and buy rebookable tickets. I don't try buy after arriving, because even if tickets are available they will be eye-crossingly expensive.

The only car hire in Amboise is from the Supermarket behind the station (Intermarche). Car hire per day is cheap, but the are are all small cars and may turn out to be expensive once the 20c per km is factored in.

NOTE : Saint Pierre des Corps has a lot more services than Tours, because it is a lot bigger and busier than Tours. There is no car hire AT Tours station (despite what the websites say), you have to go looking for it down a side street. At Saint Pierre des Corps there are 4 hire car offices in the station forecourt.

Simon thanks for the correction regarding the amount of services at ST. Pierre Des Corps vs Tours. SPdT seemed smaller to me I think because departing there in front of the station there's very little outside a not so big driveway and couple of taxis. Tours is more of a typical city station as you depart with shops etc. I came away from SPdT with the wrong impression - thanks again for setting that straight.