Train from CDG to Avignon

My thoughts, take the later train! Use the time to freshen up and grab some food. I have never been to everything I’ve heard about CDG makes me think that an hour and a half is way to short a time to deplane, find bags if checked, endure immigration and any Covid related issues, find the train line…..and so on.

I rode the TGV from Paris to Avignon & back in 2017. Definitely take the later train and find food. While I had a 1st class seat, the food from the cafe car was pretty poor. Over-microwaved greasy cheeseburger was to not the high of French cuisine!

There are decent odds that you will not make the 12:38 train if the flight arrives on time unless you are in business class and have no checked luggage. A three-hour gap between the ETA of your flight and the departure time of your train is the usual safe suggestion. The TGV station is in Terminal 2 so the distance is not the issue. The issue is passport control unless you have an EU passport and collecting your luggage. I would plan for the 3 PM.

We would normally but if the train is not too far from the terminal we will probably opt for the earlier train, after a 12 hour flight we’re not going to be in the mood to wait for 3 hours when we still have a 3 hour train trip ahead of us. Since the flight is nonstop there doesn’t seem like much chance of a major flight delay.

Thanks JHK, we won’t have checked bags but I forgot about passport control. Oh well I guess we’ll probably opt for the later train, luckily we don’t have anything planned for the following day other than just wandering around!

Look, you might make it. Almost every nonstop flight that i have take from SFO to Paris has been on time or early. The airlines pad their schedules so much that an on time departure almost always leads to an early arrival. But please note the almosts. There is no guarantee -- just day before yesterday, I was headed for an early arrival into SFO when the pilot had to abort the landing head out over the Pacific and circle back around to land resulting in a 40 minute late arrival. I don't know that direct flights are less likely to be late but maybe you can look at the arrival history of your flight and the take a calculated risk and buy a non-refundable ticket for the 12:38 flight and a fully refundable ticket for the 3 PM flight. If you make the 12:38, you can cancel the 3 PM and if you do not all you will have lost is the cost of the nonrefundable ticket. In any event, the 12:38 is a connecting train and the 2:57 is a direct train so you are looking at arriving at 6:08 PM as opposed to 5:51 PM on the 12:38. I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to arrive in Avignon 17 minutes earlier.

Your aircraft is scheduled to arrive at 11h10, you cannot be sure what time it actually will arrive. Nor can you be sure of the line length at immigration. 1 hour waits at immigration are not uncommon, particularly now as air travel returns to normal flight frequencies. If the wait at immigration is minimal, there is the wait for your luggage and the time it takes to walk to the TGV terminal.

I would allow no less than 3 hours between your scheduled landing and a subsequent CDG train departure. The 15h00 departure gives you 3+50, a comfortable margin.

Direct train vs one with a change-- the direct train definitely, even if it leaves later.

You'll see the station is close to your arrival, easy to get to, and we've found quiet benches to wait upstairs, not downstairs in the station. I seem to remember an Air France waiting room if your flight and train are on one Air France ticket.

Definitely forget about the 12:38 train... It involves a 52-minute wait at Massy TGV, a suburban station with very scarce waiting room facilities, and it only gets you to Avignon TGV 17 minutes earlier. The 14:57 train is better in every way.

OK I clearly didn’t look at the details of the different trains, I agree that it does not seem like a good idea to try to take the earlier train that has a stop and only ultimately gets to Avignon 10 minutes earlier. Thanks for the input! We have Priority Pass through our Chase card, hopefully we’ll find a PP lounge to pass the time.

Just a note, but most of the lounges at CDG are for departing passengers only. Staff typically checks boarding passes at club entrances. If you find one using your PP, I should like to hear of your experience.

Great! I guess we’ll tough it out for 3 hours then! 😩

If we have an hour and a half it probably is easily doable

Since the flight is nonstop there doesn’t seem like much chance of a major flight delay.

Really ???

Well I was wondering how long it would take for the snark to show up. (On TripAdvisor it would have shown up a lot sooner.)

We did the opposite train Avignon to Paris. We bought first-class tickets and paid a little extra for the cancellation at no charge. Read the fine print, but you could possibly buy tickets for the 3 PM and if you can make an earlier train, then you could cancel those. You will of course, probably have a higher price last minute, but could pay the difference. That is what we did. But, if you have a layover in another station, then the 3 pm makes sense if there are no stops. The trip goes by fast, and you will enjoy the scenery.

We plan on taking the same train; Avignon to Paris. Do we need to buy tickets in advance?

I just saw the recommendation to try to purchase tickets for the earlier train when we get there and exchange the tickets we bought previously - it seems doubtful that would work, but we may give it a try!

A ticket cancellation on the day of travel costs €15/ticket (unless you purchased a very expensive fully flexible fare) and you'd probably pay a higher price for the earlier same-day ticket. To me that's not worth it to save 17 minutes.

And the long line to see an employee to cash in your ticket would have you missing your train.

Right, I guess we will stick to the original plan! 😂

The rule of thumb is 3 hours between arrival and train departure at CDG, 4 hours if leaving from Paris.

Right and that’s almost exactly the length of our layover! Now all I need to do is figure out how to get from the airport terminal to the train. 3 hours should give us enough time to get lost and then find it! 😂

The "easycdg" website will give you clear directions; clearer than the airport's official website. In a nutshell, if you land at terminals 2A,B,C,D,E or F, you can walk there, and from terminal 1, you need to take the CDGVAL shuttle train first.

Perfect, thanks!!