My wife and I are arriving at Charles de Gaulle on April 20 when our way to visiting our children in Nantes. We haven't been able to find any convenient train or flight connections after an overnight flight. We both have back issues and are considering hiring a private car to pick us up from Charles de Gaulle to our family's home in Nantes. I wonder if there are any recommendations for a specific car service for this purpose.
Thank you!
I don't know anything about drivers, but if you are flying Air France or Delta, you could connect to a flight to Nantes at CDG.
Thank you, we are coming in on Jet Blue. We looked into a connecting flight, but the timing doesn't work unfortunately.
Have you asked your family if they can recommend a car service from Nantes?
A 400+km drive I suspect would run close to 1000 euro.
Can one of your kids pick you up? Even if you pay for gas, tolls and a night for them at a hotel in/near Paris, it probably less than a hired private car/driver.
I wonder if there are any recommendations for a specific car service for this purpose.
"Your kids" If they refuse, write them out of the will .... :-)l
Good idea! I will ask the kids. They had picked us up in the past when they lived in southern France, and we flew into Barcelona, which was a 1.5-hour drive. That said, given our disabilities, we wouldn't mind paying the fare for a private car or a shared ride if it meant not having to wait for several hours in CDG for a flight or train connection and having a better chance of quick recovery from our overnight flight.
PS: I could always deduct the cost of the fare from their inheritance if they can't pick us up. :)
You can get a direct train from the CDG rail station to Nantes. Takes about 3-1/2 hours. Obviously I can't say whether the schedule matches up well with your arrival at CDG, but it's worth checking out.
Thanks. We have checked this out, and the direct connection to Nantes on SNCF doesn't leave until 8 hours after our landing in CDG. We are holding a connecting train reservation that leaves us with four potentially uncomfortable hours at CDG and managing the transfer of our bags when switching trains, which is difficult for us.
By the way, are others finding difficulties with the SNCF website?
I find the SNCF website completely annoying to use. Too many screens to get through to get basic information like a search for tickets for a certain day.
I tend to use Trainline for exactly that reason. But I think they may charge a small fee if you are ordering from outside France. But I find their interface much easier to deal with and way less hassle. You might want to take a look.
We rented a car at the CDG airport and drove to Nantes Sept. 2022. It's a minimum of a 4 hour drive, one way. I would suggest after a long international flight, stay overnight in one of the onsite hotels in CDG. We stayed at the Sheraton. The next day, fly on to Nantes.
We're in our 70s, too, and often run into a long wait for the train at CDG, luggage transfer, etc. But we've been doing this for decades and are more used to it. But it's not always easy, and one particularly grueling trip, I told my husband I was checking into the Sheraton and taking the train home the next day. We slept like babies.
If you think you are going to be exhausted, I agree that you should just stay in the airport Sheraton and fly or take the train the next morning. You'll be a lot more awake and refreshed when you see your family.
Have you checked trains out of Paris Montparnasse to Nantes? There should be plenty of them. Aim for departure times ~4 hours after landing, take a cab from CDG to the station, et voilà.
There are plenty of places to sit in Montparnasse as you wait, with several cafés.
You might have a look at the Daytrip website — www.daytrip.com. I haven’t used the service myself, but it seems to have lots of positive reviews from various online travel sites, including this one!
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/day-tours/daytrip
Thank you all for your excellent recommendations!
As it turns out, my son offered to pick us up at CDG. After checking travel and connection times, we have decided to take the recommended daytrip car service from CDG to Chartes and meet our son there for the rest of the trip to Nantes.
I wonder when I should schedule the car service from CDG if my plane arrives at 9:20 am. How long should we plan to go through customs and passport control at CDG? Or is this something the car services already figured out?
Thanks again to all!
Jay
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Contact info for daytrip.
Looks like it should be easy to get answers from them about the 'nuts 'n bolts' of how the pick up works.
