We land 7am on a Friday in April off American Airlines (international flight). Can we make a 9am departing train from CDG train station (Roissy)? We are not checking any luggage, so we just need to get through immigration and customs.
Worried about wasting $ if we miss train, but do not want to waste 2.5hr for next train either.
Posted by
183 posts
I'd go for the latter train just to protect yourself. Lots of early morning international arrivals at CDG, so if your late or you get caught in long passport lines with everyone else arriving at the same time, you'll be cutting it close....give yourself that extra time to de-stress and relax a little - get a coffee and a croissant at the airport before catching the train.
Posted by
970 posts
That’s two full hours. I would roll the dice. If you managed to blow through customs in an hour then you’d be waiting almost four hours for the train. Yuck. You’re traveling light, that helps. I had a similar window and still made it when my flight was a full hour late.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4066 posts
Download maps and terminal info to carry with you.
Nice blog because it includes photo illustrations.
Flexible tickets do offer some protection, but at a substantially higher price and with the possibility of a lineup at a ticket agent to change the train and seat reservation.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2596 posts
No one can authoritatively know if you can make a connection like this or not. It is physically possible but the unknowns are numerous, to wit: your actual arrival time, the time you spend in passport control (this can easily take over one hour), and how fast you can reach the TGV departure station (assuming you already have your tickets in hand and know in which car you are seated).
Having only 2 hours is risky, I recommend allowing nothing less than 3 hours. I would consider a 2-hour plan a roll of the dice, you might win.
Posted by
Chicago
8261 posts
the rule of thumb is 3 hours. If you want to risk it then you need to know that you are the kind of person who can roll with it and matter of factly tear up the ticket and buy a new one without anguish. I am not that person so I am conservative in such matters. You might make this, especially if the plane is a bit early which does happen. Since you don't have checked luggage that ups your odds and usually one is through immigration in an hour and you are then good if the plane was on time. BUT you have to be philosophical about accepting the risk.
Posted by
Folsom, California
542 posts
We arrived at 7 am at CDG and it took over 2 hours to finally get our passport stamped and we had only carryon luggage. I would say you could get through in less time, but you could also get stuck in an interminably long line.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11540 posts
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