We will be arriving at CDG (from EWR Newark) at 7:25 am on 11/27/23 and want to catch the TGV to Strasbourg. How much time should we plan on needing to get through customs and getting to the train after our arrival? So far I've found trains at 8:59 and 11:22 but don't know which is better. Also, are there multiple TGV stops within the airport?
The 11:22 train is better to allow for delays and your lack of familiarity with the airport. Three hours is the generally advised amount of time to allow between your flight's ETA and the scheduled departure for a train from CDG so 94 minutes is a pretty bad idea. Now your flight might be early and you might not have checked luggage and you might be in business class and the passport control might be super fast but just about all of those things have to happen for you to make the earlier train. Customs will be just a walk through the "nothing to declare door" unless, of course, you have something to declare. You will arrive in Terminal 1 and need to make your way to Terminal 2 for the Grandes Lignes train station. There is only one TGV station at CDG. There are two stations but one does not have long distance train stops. From Terminal 1, you will need to board the free CDGVAL shuttle train at the shop level, get off at the “Terminal 2 Railway Station” stop and follow directions for “TGV Railway Station."
Edit: From terminal 1, your next stop is terminal 3 and then you get to terminal 2. Don't panic when you see terminal 3 thinking that you went the wrong way or missed terminal 2 (don't ask me how I know this might happen). See https://easycdg.com/airport-guide/travel-between-terminals-move-around-paris-cdg-airport/cdgval/ for information on where to find the CDGVAL etc.
the rule of thumb is 3 hours. Our plane was two hours late getting into Paris last week. We might have made a train with 3 hours, certainly not with less. 2 hours is unusual but an hour late is not -- either build in some cushion or be relaxed about losing the ticket.
We did this exact transfer last month. Here’s my report:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/report-how-long-it-took-me-to-arrive-at-cdg-and-get-to-the-cdg-train-station
My research showed that those trains do sell out - at least in our travel month. So I finally bought two sets of tickets - one for a train 2.5 hours after landing and one for a train 4 hours after landing. We needed to get to Strasbourg to meet friends I really didn’t want to miss.
Geoff - checking arrival history is a good idea and very important for domestic flights. The Berlin/CDG flight we were scheduled on in the spring was seriously late half the time. Armed with that data I was able to get Delta to switch me to a longer connection in Amsterdam on the way home.
But less than 2 hours -- we would have missed that train last spring when immigration from plane to curb took 2 hours.
Since tickets months in advance are often fairly inexpensive, Valerie's stragtegy is a wise one when you must get there. We planned to be serendipitous returning from Carcassonne this week and all the trains we wanted were in fact sold out that day and we ended up on a later than we wanted TER fighting for seats. We got seats, but not everyone did.
I'm not sure that it's wise to take 2021 as a guide. Visitor numbers are over three times what they were that year, and it's not uncommon for 8-10 aircraft to arrive at the same time.
We always allow at least 3 hours.
"We did this exact transfer last month."
Well not the exact same transfer because the OP is coming into Terminal 1 not Terminal 2E and as such will have to ride the CDGVAL from Terminal 1 to the TGV train station in Terminal 2.
@JHK...thank you for that important clarification!!
Thanks all. Some really useful information here. I think we'll play it safe and reserve tickets for the 11:32 - we're in no particular hurry and can do without unnecessary stress.