Paris to Amboise?

There are basically two options:

1. Taxi to Austerlitz then TER train to Amboise.
2. TGV from CDG to Tours Centre (St Pierre des Corps), connecting to Amboise.

Train schedules are not available this early for either of these options

ADS, please note that RailEurope is not an operator of any trains, they sell passes and tickets. But they do not always show all trains, all the time. Look at the French national rail operator, SNCF website for full schedules.

Amboise from Paris is very much a secondary route - there's only a couple of trains a day each way at any time of the year. In July it may be less because students arent travelling. You might find more options if you're prepared to change trains in Orleans.

Amboise is a really poor choice of somewhere to stay unless you're driving. The station is a 20 minutes walk from town, and there's only a coupe of commuter buses a day. This means that visiting anywhere else will require military grade planning, travelling via Tours each time.

I would make a decision to stay in Tours, catching a train direct from CDG. This will make getting to chateaux, etc, easier, and give you a much wider choice of places to stay and (more importantly) eat. You will also see less tourists in Tours than in Amboise, and get a much more "French" experience. Ambosie is trying to cater more and more to the presumed desires of the Rick Steves mob.

We are doing a Loire Valley bike tour With Amboise as the starting point so not exactly poor choice or planning on our part. Just need to figure out timing of getting there.

There are going to be plenty of trains going to Amboise everyday of the year it is a major stop. I counted 20 trains starting from 6 am to 19:00 for tomorrow, including 4 in the afternoon tomorrow

If you are looking for direct trains those are fewer but there is no big difference in the time it takes to get there in some case if you have to take a train with a connection in Orleans or St Pierre des corps

Thanks for the info on where to go for the full train schedule. What site is best to use for booking train travel in France? I didn’t realize RailEurope only showed certain ones. I had used them during our trip to Spain a couple of months ago and just defaulted back to that site.

Use whichever site works for you. I am off the Spain and France in 3 weeks and I booked everything directly with the owner operator of the train SNCF. https://en.oui.sncf/en/ . ( Some credit card companies that do not use 3d Secure authentication do not work on that site however : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure). There is no fee that way. But you can avoid fees on Rail Europe if you book at minimum $399 worth of tickets in one transaction.

It sounds like you may have been looking too far in advance. Only the winter train schedule is complete no matter what site you use.

Hi ADS, we used the SNCF site and thought it was an easy trip from Paris. We walked from the train station to our hotel (Hotel Bellevue) with rolling luggage (no problem). I love Amboise and I hope you have a few days there. Be sure to spend some time at Clos Luce where Leonardo DaVinci lived/died in 1519. Check out the troglodyte homes on the way. We also enjoyed visiting the castle and wandering around the streets. Great photo op from the other side of the Loire. Have fun!

My experience is there are plenty of trains from Paris to Amboise. You may have been seeing only direct trains (no change in Tours).

I've ridden a bike through Tours. I wouldn't make it my base, primarily because it's a bigger city with lots of traffic.

A car is the best option for exploring Loire. I did it by bike, trading a rental car for a rental bicycle in Chinon. I was able to visit Chinon, Villandry, Chenonceau, Amboise and Clos Luce by bicycle without too much trouble. Azay le Rideau was in scaffolding so I skipped it. If you don't have some transportation, you'll probably need to book a guided tour that takes you to different Chateaux.

Thank you for the additional advice/recommendations!

Anyone taken the train from CDG to...anywhere? How long might it take after a flight to get to the train station there (assuming no checked luggage)?

Getting off the plane, then walking from the gate to get to the line going through passport control could take you an hour or more to get to the train station at CDG. It all depends on how many flights arrive at the same hour as yours and how many people are working the booths process all the passengers arriving at Passport Control.

How long might it take after a flight to get to the train station there (assuming no checked luggage)?

It´s not how long it takes to walk to the train after a flight that is the important question. You might be able to do it in an hour, maybe. The question you should be asking is how much time should I allow between estimated aircraft arrival and scheduled train departure. For that I would schedule no fewer than 3 hours giving myself reasonable assurance of successfully making the train.