Train from Paris downtown to Colmar, then back to the CDG airport

To go to Colmar from Paris you will take a train from the Gare de l'Est. There is a TGV, I believe that takes about 2 1/2 hours to Colmar. From Colmar to CDG, I would suggest taking the short train ride (about 1/2 hour) to Strasbourg and the TGV from Strasbourg to CDG airport, skipping Paris.
I don't know how your Eurail pass works on these routes, having never used it.

Fyi, to go from Paris to anywhere in France, you need to know which station (there are five, I believe) is going your direction. (e.g., to the Southwest, say, Bordeaux, you go from Gare Montparnasse; to the south, say Marseille or Avignon, you go from Gare de Lyon) Perhaps this is what is causing you some confusion. Take the metro or a taxi to Gare de l'Est. DO NOT go to the train station in Montparnasse to get to Colmar.

There are several direct TGVs per day from Paris Gare de l"Est to Colmar. Take the No 4 Metro from Montparnasse to Gare de l'Est. To get to the airport from Colmar, take a regional train to Strasbourg then one of 5 TGVs from Strasbourg to CDG airport.

With a Eurail Pass, you must purchase seat reservations for the TGVs.

If you can get a refund from your Eurail pass, I would. Then purchase tickets as soon as possible, prices only rise, from one of these sites:

https://www.sncf-connect.com/
https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us

Another vote to do as Tocard recommends.

Someone has made a map that shows which areas are served by which Paris station: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Railway_stations_on_departure_from_Paris_map-fr.svg I don't know if it's 100% correct, but it's pretty useful.

Unless you plan a lot more train travel, a Eurail pass is probably a waste of money. The easiest and cheapest is probably just two single tickets. And where are you flying from Paris? There are much closer airports if you are in Colmar.

Thank you so much everyone for the replies.

We are flying out of Paris at 1pm on June 18th. The earliest train from Strasburg says its full. The next train doesn't get there until noon so that's too late. If it says train is full, do they tend to open up more seats closer to departure date?

Everything is refundable at this point. So i welcome all advice. But what i ended up doing is booking a train from Colmar to L'Est which arrives there at 930. I planned to take a taxi to the airport and hopefully get there by 1030am.

It seems like you are experts. I'm going to post what i bought and see what you advise.

Eurail 2 day in 1 month pass; 1 adult $150, 1 senior $135

Plan to Taxi from Montparnasse to L'Est
TGV Paris Est to Colmar: Paid $20 x2 for seats
-Leaves at 7am which was not preferred. I couldn't get on any later trains and idk if that's because I'm using that Rail Pass?

Colmar to L'Est: paid $10×2 for seats
-arrives at L'est at 930, plan to Taxi to airport from there (if our international flight leaves at 1:30, is this enough time?)

So $285 for Rail Pass
+$60 for seats
+ 2 Taxi rides

What date do you want to travel from Paris to Colmar?

Looks like using the FreeNow app (uber-ish) taxi rides will be:
~$30 Montparnasse to L Est
~$50 L est to airport

I looked up the same trains on The Train Line. The AM train to CDG directly from Colmar is full (checked without the Eurail passes and it's still full).
Total to pay $466.65
+~$80 for taxis

In our case I actually think the Eurail Pass saves about $40 and allows us to take the train from Colmar to the other towns along the wine route without paying extra. Does that sound correct?

Thank you to the Replier who explained that certain stations within Paris only go certain directions. We plan on using the subway to get to the different sights within the city so that is good to know.

You're braver than I am to start more than 200 miles away the morning of an international flight! We'd always be in the departure city by the nite before.

3 thoughts:
1. Have you looked into using the bus not the Metro? Metro was very crowded and a fertile ground for pickpockets in the crowded trains. We tended to walk almost everywhere and used the bus to go to the Monet museum and then Bois de Boulogne. It was a scenic ride through Paris.
2. Get some Apps such as Bonjour RATP for public transportation in Paris. Enter where you want to go, where you are (or just select your current location) and the time and it will give options.
3. Paris Metro is phasing out paper tickets and you will have to get their Navigo card and load up the number of trips that you want. I found it a little confusing as you have choices ie trains or buses / trams while people offer to help you, probably pickpockets in the main stations when I was there a week ago. Your credit card with your PIN number which they observed may vanish. Buses still took cash for tickets which were about €2pp in coins or small bills. I don’t remember if they would take credit cards and tap.

Have a good trip.