Last day in France, from Tours to Chartres to CDG

I think you're cutting it too close. The driving time on a Sunday afternoon if you check Via Michelin is closer to 2 1/2 hours. Add another 30 minutes to return the car and get to check in. Then you go through security before arriving at the gate. With summer crowds, allow yourself 3 hours minimum pre scheduled departure. With that in mind, you'd want to leave Chartres no later than 11AM. I have made this drive on a weekday morning and traffic around Paris was severely congested and took three hours for the trip during morning rush hour.

If you are very respectful of the services, I don't see a problem with visiting the cathedral during Mass - unless they have a rule prohibiting it. You'll be able to see much of the cathedral and then have some time during the break between the services to visit the rest.

You are going to run into vacationers returning at the end of their vacations to the Paris region on a Sunday. IMHO even 11 is risky for a high-stakes flight. Can you get to Chartres on Saturday, and stay the night? Or, arrange to turn in your car in Chartres and take trains?

Plan something in Paris for that day; always be a cab ride from the airport the day of a high stakes flight. You are really asking to be in a 4 hour traffic jam and miss the plane trying to schedule something like this. It once took us two hours to get a receipt for car rental return at CDG as they hoped to slow walk us so they didn't have to give us copies of the documentation about our heavily damaged car (damaged by the rental agency before we got it and heavily documented as they had no other car to give us.) France is not like the US where you can drop a car and get a receipt in about 5 minutes. (or pick one up and drive out in 5 minutes -- it is always a slow process on each end)

I don't think the rental car return will be a major hurdle. Although I know that some people have had an issue with that (see above), everytime we've returned a car to CDG it's been quick. Such as this April, when we parked the car, took an elevator to the desk, and dropped off the keys and contract sleeve. On the other hand, the traffic issue can be a major problem on a Summer Sunday with returning vacationers. We ran into horrible traffic in April going around Paris. I wouldn't advise trying your plan.

Thank you all for the feedback, I just discovered that the Tour de France ends that Sunday also, riding from Chantilly to Paris; adding to the risk of traffic.

I will look at changing the location of Saturday nights room to Chartres and see if I can drop the rental car off there and get a train to CDG on Sunday.

Any advice on the train?

Advice on the train?

Buy a ticket, validate it, and get on.

The station is not far from the cathedral, probably near the auto return. You can stop there with your car and buy your ticket the day you arrive, if you like; just make sure the ticket agent understands you will be using the ticket the next day so that he or she does not validated it for you.

Re Chartres: Malcolm Miller, probably the preeminent living English-speaking Charters scholar, gives lecture tours at the cathedral most days at noon and sometimes also in the afternoon. These are very worthwhile. He does not do this on Sundays, however.

Martym,
It's customarily unacceptable to "tour" a cathedral, or any other house of worship, during a worship service.
However, you may choose to join the service & quietly admire the church's interior from your seat. No photos allowed during a service though.

I've not rented a car in Europe, but can attest to being stuck in heavy traffic enroute to CDG via taxi.

As others have mentioned, CDG is a very busy airport & you should arrive at least 3 hours before departure.
Be prepared to wait in several long lines prior to arriving at your departure gate.

We arrived almost 4 hours before departure & enjoyed a leisurely meal at CDG.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Another recommendation for Malcolm Miller's talk if the timing works for you. We thought he was fabulous!

Martym,

Check train schedules here before changing your hotel reservations:
http://www.sncf.com/en/passengers

You may consider staying in Paris, or near the airport, the night prior to your flight.

I agree with all others that driving from Tours to Chartres to CDG on the day of your flight is "a bridge too far," even if you weren't stopping to see the cathedral. I think your plan to spend Saturday night in Chartres and drop the car there makes more sense -- if you get to Chartres early enough Saturday to do your cathedral visit that day.

An easier website to use (for planning, not for buying tickets), is this one. It shows hourly service from Chartres to Gare Montparnasse on that Sunday morning, followed by a Metro to St-Michel and transfer to the RER "B" for CDG, totaling about 2 1/2 hours. I'd allow more for possible delays within Paris. As others said, you don't want to take chances with a high-stakes flight. Also, schlepping your bags on the Metro and then RER would be a chore. Those trains could be very crowded on the Sunday of the Tour de France. Taxi between stations in Paris (Montparnasse to Nord, say) wouldn't cost too much but might take awhile because of Tour-related traffic. And this whole scenario would assume you get on the train at Chartres early enough in the morning -- probably too early to see more than the outside of the cathedral.

If you can do your cathedral-visiting on Saturday (including Malcolm Miller's tour if possible), you could take an evening train into Paris and spend your last night there. That would give you lots of time Sunday to get to CDG for your flight. Having dropped the car at Chartres, you won't have to deal with it. Staying somewhere near St-Michel or Denfert-Rochereau would put you close to the RER to CDG.

But of course going to Chartres on Saturday, early enough to see the cathedral, takes time away from whatever you were planning to do in or near Tours. These are the tradeoffs, I fear. If you expect to return to Paris in the future, consider Chartres as an easy day trip from there and save it for then. There are fast trains that Sunday from Tours to Gare Montparnasse, followed by the Metro-RER or taxi-RER routes described above.

If it were my trip, I'd go to Chartres Saturday and Paris Saturday evening. But I don't know what I'd be missing Saturday in or around Tours. Hope that helps.

Thank you all, we have a friends and family gathering in Tours on Saturday, and are obligated to attend that into the evening. We will be back to France in the future, only doing part of it this time. So, we will ship Chartres this time; but add it to the itinerary for the next visit.

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