Hanging out at CDG with a toddler until airbnb available at 3pm

I'd go into Paris, go to the outdoor brasserie/cafe, and have lunch. It will take an hour to get in, you can lunch for a period and then go for a walk. Maybe 1 person can be the baggage minder while the other 2 take the kiddo for the prominade?

There's no place to wait, sit, dine, before immigration, and then from there you get swept over to baggage claim. The absolute earliest you'd get into the city center is probably 1pm. So you are really talking about 2 hours.

There was a recent conversation on the forum that I can't seem to find, about a woman (flying in separately) trying to meet up with a college son in the airport before immigration. The end result of the conversation was they decided to meet up at an airport hotel; taking the airport shuttle over to the hotel.

You could also do something like that, get lunch at the airport hotel, etc. then take a taxi from the hotel to city center.

I'd go into Paris too. Head to one of the many parks and pick up some sandwiches or other grab and go items. The toddler can run and play - or even nap. Then take a cab from there. This sounds like a more enjoyable start to the trip than waiting at CDG.

I agree with Dawn. Look on a map. Anything in green, no matter how small, is likely a park. Look for something close to your lodging. One stays with the toddler and luggage and the other goes to find food to bring back from the local boulangerie.

This is all predicated on a sunny sky. Or at least no rain.

If it's raining, I got nothin.

There are city parks and playgrounds in the area, so see if there is one near your airbnb. Also, 2.5+ hours is not a bad estimate of how long it could take you from landing to 3:00pm check-in. Your airbnb host really ought to be able to help you plan (like, one playground might be nice and another might be ratty). It has happened to us several times that the airbnb guests staying in the apartment before you are not slobs, but very tidy, so the clean-up takes less time and the host lets us in early.

I hope your granddaughter can sleep on the plane. She'll still be jet-lagged but at least not also sleep-deprived. Our son and another 3-year-old's father stood up for hours so that our grandson and the other kid could stretch out and sleep.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that staying in the airport is your worst option. Maybe somebody else here knows CDG better than I do.

I agree with KD....you are channeled thru from your plane to Immigration to Baggage Claim to Customs with nothing in between but people. IF you are coming into 2E, there is a small waiting area right outside the secure area exit that would not be comfortable for you and the kiddo. While there are seats it's noisy with lots of transportation people holding up signs and looking for their customers. There is a small grocery store right there which used to be a M&S but I think has changed hands. They should have food to go if you needed it and there are bathrooms right there as well. This is also an area where the taxi touts will come up to you and ask if you need a ride into Paris. You'll avoid them and go directly to the taxi rank.

I agree with going in to town and going to a park. With that arrival time even if you booked a hotel room for the night before you'd be past check out time and before that day's check in time.

We delayed at the airport and got food from a grocery store with a microwave on our last trip -- bad idea but we didn't have a good idea for a cafe to hang at in our neighborhood and we had a fair amount of luggage for that 6 week trip -- it seemed easier to hang at CDG for a bit then head to the apartment. Bad idea. we have traveled to Paris often enough to have known that.

It would have been worse with a small child. There is nothing nice or entertaining for a child landside at CDG and you have no access airside on arrival. Get a cab to a park near your destination; they all have playgrounds; send someone to get picnic lunch from a nearby bakery. The park on top of the underground canal that runs from Bastille up Richard Lenoir does have playground spaces and nice gardens with benches, or look for a larger more traditional park near your specific address.

Have you considered looking for a baggage storage service with a location near your rental? That way you can store your luggage prior to check in and have a lot more flexibility

If your apartment is not rented the night before, is it in your budget to rent that night?
That way you can go straight there.

I'm the woman who posted about meeting my college aged son before immigration at CDG back in February, as mentioned by KD. Everyone's advice was spot on, in that as soon as I deplaned, passport control was RIGHT THERE so definitely no place to sit and wait, airside. Which was fine as my son and I had planned to meet in the lobby/restaurant of the in-terminal Sheraton Hotel, as he was supposed to arrive a couple of hours before me.

If you are bound and determined to stay at CDG until you can head directly to your accommodations (or if the weather is not outdoor friendly), then I think the Sheraton might be workable as a place to hang out. I am also wondering about whether you could pay for a day room at one of the nearby airport hotels (I've done this between flights in other cities and it certainly would cost less than the $500 you would spend on booking an additional night at your airbnb). But I agree with most others in terms of finding a park, getting food and letting the toddler run around and burn off energy. We walked through the Luxembourg Gardens on a beautiful, sunny day in February and it was packed with people enjoying the park.

Here's some food for thought though, and an update for anyone who cares on my previous post about looking for a place to meet my son at CDG: It's quite possible your plane will be late and you won't have nearly as much time to kill as you might think. After all my hand-wringing about where we should meet, and finding a safe place (as in where he wouldn't just fall asleep somewhere random and get robbed blind - lol) where my son could wait for me, his plane was delayed by a couple of hours resulting in both our flights touching down at CDG within minutes of each other! In fact, I got through passport control more quickly than he did and I was standing there waiting for him as he emerged from the secure area (which turned out to be nowhere near where I had come out!). We immediately headed to Gare Montparnasse with plenty of time to ride to the top of the Tour Montparnasse before catching our train to Rennes. Went off without a hitch!

I don't know exactly where you are staying in the Bastille but there is a little park on Rue Faubourg de Saint Antoine across from East Mamma. You will only really need to pass the time for about two hours which is just about a leisurely lunch. If it is convenient for your apartment, you could have a leisurely lunch at East Mamma and then pass some time in the park and then head to your apartment. Of course, if it is raining the park is not a good idea but you could easily go to the Starbucks a couple of blocks away after the restaurant closes. If you want to drop your luggage for 2 to 3 hours, there is luggage storage at Blvd Bourdon near Place de la Bastille (search for Radical Storage Bastille). You could drop your luggage there and have lunch at any of the restaurants in the area. The food is okay at Cafe des Phares and if you can get one their tables right by the window, you could stay there all afternoon people watching. I go there on every trip to Paris despite its not great food because it is a nice place with excellent servers. I love their terrace but I suggested the indoors because you might want to avoid the smoking area with a toddler. Another spot that could work is Cafe Francais -- you could easily spend two hours there and no one would bat an eyelash if you had ordered some food. It's a pretty big place that I have never seen before super crowded so you might even be able to skip luggage storage.

Honestly, with an 11 AM arrival, you're not getting to Bastille before 1 PM anyway, and perhaps 1.30.
At which point you just get lunch, maybe coffee, and it'll be 2.30/3. This is definitely not worth spending 500 dollars for.

Besides, French hospitality businesses generally aren't rigid when it comes to check-in time: if the place is ready, they typically let you in before the time, so do not be shy and do contact the Airbnb when you know when you'll get to the area. I've been let into rentals as early as 10 AM sometimes.

yes be sure they can text you when the apartment is ready. When we delayed at CDG (stupidly) it turned out that the cleaners were done earlier than expected although there had been people the night before and the result was that we could have gotten in earlier.

A cafe that is open all day is a good choice for lunch and hanging out if it is raining. Stick your luggage behind you on a wall and have a leisurely lunch -- someone can walk the toddler especially if it is not raining while the other one stays at the table with the luggage.

I love the lovely Luxembourg Garden; one of the RER stops is there, too, if you’re not taking a taxi. That garden has wonderful children’s play areas and lots of pretty spots to sit.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to lend your experience and advice. Unless it's raining and we go to the Sheraton to hang out, we will head into Paris as soon as we exit customs and take a G7 Famille cab (I understand that they provide car seats if you book ahead) to the Bastille. We are staying one block away from Place de la Bastille so Cafe Francais is definitely an option to stop by for lunch. It turns out that the Marche Bastille will be open until 2:30pm when we land on Thursday so we could spend some time there, too. We've never stayed in the Bastille so all of your ideas for parks and restaurants are much appreciated. The owner of the airbnb won't budge on the 3pm arrival time, insisting that the cleaners need four hours to get the apartment ready. With all the terrific ideas you have offered, waiting it out will be workable no matter the weather. Many thanks!

The Bastille market closes at 1:30 on Thursdays.

Come back and let us know how it worked out!

Good to know about the Bastille market and yes, I will definitely post on how it worked out. Thanks again all.