Should I rent a car at CDG or take a train from there to Dijon?

I have done this 4 times.

1. Took tgv directly from cdg to Tours area. Flight was late, we missed our train. Had to rebook later in the day. In the end it cost us 4 hours and $120.

2. Two years later did the same thing and it worked perfectly.

3. Four years later flew into orly and drove to Chartres. It worked perfectly.

4. This past summer flew into cdg and drove to Rouen. I was pretty tired as we hit a lot of traffic around Rouen and that doubled the drive time.

Given my experience, if I was doing your trip I would take the train.

CDG to Dijon is about twice as long as I would want for a drive after a red-eye flight, basically almost 4 hours with a break and the unavoidable weekday traffic in greater Paris. I'd take the train.

I would definitely take the train. I typically will not purchase a train ticket for my arrival day. I would check the price savings for advance purchase vs. day of purchase and also how full this train typically is. My thought is that the arrival time is so unpredictable that I wouldn't want to chance the advance purchase. Sometimes I just purchase day of and sometimes I might overnight in my arrival city and take the train the next day.

One time we took the train to Chartres, enjoyed the cathedral and small town and rented a car the next day.

Hello
You can get a car from this site https://privatetaxidriver.fr or you can hire a private concierge to take from the aeoroport to Dijon, have a look at this Private concierge service

The cost of the tolls on the drive will be about the same as a train ticket. Something to keep in mind. And gas runs from 1.70 to 2.60 a liter.

Take the train if you are flying from the United States. I have written on this site many times about the time my husband, who sleeps very well on airplanes, decided to drive from CDG to Dijon after a flight from Newark, NJ and I woke up to car going off the road because he had drifted off during the drive. He woke up to me screaming and grabbing the wheel. Jet lag is real. There are more frequent trains to Dijon from Gare de Lyon than there are from CDG. There can be a big gap in the train service from CDG to Dijon in the middle of the day and you have to go past Dijon and head back so it might make more sense to just plan to go to Gare de Lyon for the train.
By the way, if our trip to Dijon had actualy taken only 3.5 hours, I think my husband might not have drifted off. But, it took us over an hour to get our rental car and then we had major delays on the A6. It actually took us almost 6 hours (not including the wait for the car).

Avoid Paris area when driving!!

We are flying into CDG and are arriving midday on May 8, 2026. We plan to take a train to Dijon and spend 2 days there then pick up a rental car and drive to Beaune., where we will spend a week. My concern is are the rental agencies open on Sundays in Dijon or will have to pick up the rental on Saturday May 9?

@Andrea, There may be rental companies closed. You need to check by each office. So perhaps look for rental car agencies near the train station on google maps. Look at hours and then confirm with the individual offices. Also, some might close at noon on Saturday.

If you happen to belong to Costco, Costco Travel usually has some pretty good deals on car rentals. They also keep track of local office hours.