From CDG airport to Gare de Lyon

What day of the week and when ... as in during the Olympics?

Editing to add: It's really Immigration that takes the longer time. Customs is just a corridor you walk thru after baggage claim. Immigration is for the movement of people. Customs is for the movement of goods.

Many folks on the site say, allow 3 hours from your landing time to train departure if leaving from CDG Train Station and 4 hours if needing to get to a train in Paris city itself.

Good luck.

If you have tickets and seats, 45 mins before the train seems like a lot. But it's always better to be safe.

There are several trains a day from CDG straight to Lyon, taking about two hours. That would save you a trip into Paris. But you'd still want to allow 2-3 hours between scheduled landing and the train departure, in case of flight delay and for immigration and any baggage claim you might need.

Some of those trains go to Lyon's airport (St-Exupery), but the light rail Rhonexpress gets into the city quickly. That would still be better than traveling into Paris just to get a train out of it.

But if you do go from Gare de Lyon, take the RER B to Gare du Nord and change to the RER D to Gare de Lyon. I believe that will be a cross-platform change.

There are several trains a day from CDG straight to Lyon, taking about two hours. That would save you a trip into Paris.

Lyon is indeed one of the few destinations for which there is no need to head to the Paris train stations: trains from CDG run relatively regularly throughout the day. I would definitely avoid the trip into Paris.

take the RER B to Gare du Nord and change to the RER D to Gare de Lyon. I believe that will be a cross-platform change.

I am sure Sam's advice is right. Another option is to just stay on the RER B one more station to Châtelet and do a cross-platform change to the A. I know this one is cross-platform because it's (B to the A) my regular route home from CDG when the RER is functioning or I am not too exhausted.

I do think 45 minutes is a bit more time than you need to be at the station ahead of time. Yes Gare de Lyon is big and can be a bit confusing but I would think even for a first-time visitor there, 25 or definitely 30 minutes would be enough.

You don't want to waltz up to Gare de Lyon 10 minutes before your train, but 25-30 minutes should be plenty. (Of course the 45 minutes is probably meant to give you some wiggle room in case your transport gets you there later than you thought, in other words with the intention that you do really arrive at the station 30 minutes ahead). There are worse places to spend some extra time than Gare de Lyon. It has nice shops and places to get something to eat. So yeah go ahead and target 45 minutes to ensure you have at least 30.

Thank you all!!
We got tickets directly from CDG station. about 3.5 hours between touchdown and "all aboard".
I think that will be ok... I was operating from some older travel info - didn't notice it was five years old!

Next challenge is flying from Budapest to CDG on a Sunday and we have to catch the Eurostar to London.
Arrive 3;15 pm and have to get to Gare du Nord to catch the train by 8:12 pm....Enough time???
There's another train a bit later

I believe the 5 hours will work fine. You are coming from another Schengen country, so it should be like flying domestically in the U.S.. A lot easier to process through CDG.

Enjoy.

The lifestyle vlogger Jay Swanson just posted a video to using the Metro and he was quite adamant, never take the RER. Just FWIW.

Next challenge is flying from Budapest to CDG on a Sunday and we have to catch the Eurostar to London.
Arrive 3;15 pm and have to get to Gare du Nord to catch the train by 8:12 pm....Enough time???
There's another train a bit later

Any reason not to fly to London? If your flight gets delayed or rescheduled, your expensive Eurostar ticket is toast.