Connecting international flights

On your example, you would go through immigration (aka passport control) at CDG if your final destination is a Country that is party to the Schengen agreement (e.g., Germany, Italy, etc.). The list of schengen countries is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

As Laura notes, you will go through passport control if you are heading for a Schengen zone destination, France being one. Checked baggage will be transfered to your connecting flight. Only your carry-on will be rescreened. On arriving at your final destination, you will collect your checked bag and go through customs. Most touist will just walk through the "nothing to declare" gate/door. I have yet to be stopped when exiting through the nothing to decline gate.

In high alcohol taxed countries (eg Norway) there is or may be a duty free shop located before the exit gate. The retuning locals will stock up before exiting through the nothing to declare gate.

And everyone has a different stress tolerance, but I plan on a two and a half hour layover when entering and an hour and a half when leaving; and I don't turn down a flight with connections up to an hour longer. In about two dozen transatlantic flights this has only benefited me two or three times but I have a low level of stress tolerance for missed connections.

And CDG is an airport I have gone through twice. Only twice because I will do just about anything to avoid it. Can't stand the place. Worse than JFK if that is imaginable.

Thanks for all the great info guys. We're traveling "in-Schengen" for the most part, and our final destination depends on which direction we set up our trip...either Madrid or Florence...we're planning on doing Dublin, Madrid, and Florence, just trying to nail down in which order. We may fly into Dublin and go from there (my inclination), or hit Madrid first, and work our way to Dublin...depends on flights. At this point, and I can't get acutal flight data for our travel dates yet, the tightest connection we "have", although it doesn't seem like a viable option, is a 50 minute layover/switch planes in CDG. That's barely enough time to catch a connecting flight in the States....doesn't sound like those flights will be feasible options for us. And to the PP who mentioned CDG being worse than JFK....we will probably have to hit both of those coming and going, so it should be lots of fun! Thanks for the heads up!

Maybe it was just getting there 2.5 hours early on a day when no one was on strike, but I actually found CDG to be fairly pleasant, if decidedly lacking in signage, and not living up to its horrible connection.

But then I didn't really like AMS, which everyone seems to love. We only had a little over an hour to connect there (non-S to non-S) and if you want to stay close to your departure gate, because of how they set up security screening at each gate, there really isn't a place to sit.

it is the luck of the draw and Chucky D may be fine. Maybe I just hit bad days. Here is my take on connections.

Your 9 hour flight is 30 minutes late
Your are sitting in the cheap seats so 15 minutes to get off
Security and Passport control isn't too bad so 15 minutes
The signage stinks and the connection is in terminal Z; another 15 minutes
Boarding time is 30 minutes prior to flight time and you want a place to put your carry-on so you cant be last on the plane

Add it all up and you have 1:45 connection time. We have on a number of occasions made a one hour connection in Frankfurt ........ leaving back to the US but it was never fun and always a risk. Did I mention that many flights off board on the tarmac and you have to wait for the bus to fill then drive to the terminal? Add another 15 to 30 minutes.

Like the man said, "how lucky do you feel?" How important is that first day of your vacation? Or how important is that first day back at work after your vacation?

And you can purchase a priority pass membership to make the layovers a little more enjoyable.