Taxis in Paris...

The meter on the taxi accounts for both time and distance. Sit in traffic and it keeps on ticking. At six in the evening, you'll be going into town, the bulk of the traffic will be going the other way. Same for the RER.

lindley: Why is Option B, Air France Bus, "questionable" ? The price is the same, traffic or no traffic, and you can take a cab from the Paris end to your hotel.

P.S. You can really save money by taking a RATP bus into Paris. No. 350 to Gare de l'Est or 351 to Place de la Nation. Costs 5 tickets which you buy from the driver. Then you can the a cab to your hotel. Buses stop at all the terminals.

I have used Shuttle Inter car service twice,, ( bad name, but it is not a shared shuttle but a private car service) . Its ideal when you are concerned about a taxi meter running due to time stuck in traffic( first time I used it was because of a rail action which had the RER going very infrequently from the airport to town) Its a set price, and ( this is the bonus!) it requires NO upfront fee or deposit, not even your credit card to guarantee, so if for anyreason they don't show, you don't pay, you are out nothing and can then proceed with plans b and c ( taxi or RER) . I think their set price is 55 euros, but check their website. Its door to door service, nice after a long travel day and night! They are not limos,( although they have them but thats a different fee) , so its not posh , just nice having a set price.

I'm with Norma why do you think the AirFramce buses are questionable? The taxi meter takes into account BOTH time and distance. Although I'll say my boss was pleasantly shocked the other day that despite sitting I morning rush hour traffic, the meter did not run up exponentially. What part of town are you staying in? That's a consideration too (for example,we live in the east of Paris, and with two of us, I would hardly consider NOT taking a taxi now. The price differential between two in a taxi and the fees for two AirFramce bus tickets plus metro or bus is so negligible as to be well worth the ease of simply sitting back and having the driver deliver us to our front door. And I'm not a wealthy person, not by any means!!).

Just got back an hour ago from 2 weeks in Europe. Was in Paris for 5 days and feared for my life when riding in a taxi. One on the drivers almost hit a pedestrian and another drive rear ended another taxi. The meters keeps going up even if you are not moving. The driver stared at 2.40 for 3 of us.

"the driver stared at 2.40 for three of us" what does that mean??/

the pickup fee is €2.40. However, if you reserve a taxi in advance, they'll often have quite a bit more already on the meter when you get in the cab, because they turn on the meter as they start driving to your location.. A TaxiG7 driver once explained to me that the dispatch puts the call out to drivers 12 minutes before the pickup time. So I always try to get downstairs early so. There won't be SO much excess on the meter before I've even left my building. The meter doesn't show the extra charges for extra passengers, bags, etc. the driver will calculate those mentally at the end of the trip. the bare minimum taxi cost is €6.40. I.e. even if you just go to the end of the block, you're going to pay that amount. You can check out the details at taxi-Paris dot net slash page36 dot HTML.

Thanks for the many observations: I'm loving the variety of experiences. My question about Air France is that cost to Gare de Lyon, then switchin' horses in mid-stream to a taxi to the Austerlitz area. Totaling potentially ___euros?? Is it true that at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday most traffic will be moving toward CdG and not toward the city?? Not so worried about my taxi hitting another or scaring us to death with speed--ever try taking a taxi to Bangkok Airport at rush hour?? No time will be wasted.
I know, if saving 20 euros here and there has me on needles and pins, just cancel the trip...

Lindley aha, now I understand. Yes, if you already planned on paying for AirFrance bus, you should just take the taxi. However, let me complicate things by noting that IF you're traveling light and IF you have some euro coins, and depending where your hotel is, you could consider backtracking around the corner of the Gare de Lyon and taking the 63 bus across the bridge to Austerlitz. Tickets bought from the driver will be €1.90 each. Check out the RATP website in order to see if the 63 goes where you need it to go once you're across the river. The factor that makes this doable, as opposed to the metro, is NO STAIRS. And by paying a bit more for tickets on the bus, you avoid having to find a metro ticket machine (which is definitely preferable for your other ticket purchases, as a carnet of ten tickets is only €12.70 from the machine).

Kim: Please explain what RATP stands for, and if possible, simplify the third paragraph in your 7/1 post. --merci--

Since this is your second thread on the subject of airport to hotel options, I agree with the poster on your first thread that you should do what your hotel website suggests. He copied it into an answer in the first thread. There's no reason not to take the RER. Like in NY, people take all kinds of luggage, packages and such in public transportation. As you wrote, most people will be going in the opposite direction at that time of day. Also, you can google RATP if Kim doesn't check back in right away. It's the public transportation website and it has an English website.

Lindley Bets is right. the RATP is the Paris public transportation system. If you google RATP Paris you'll find everything you need re metros, buses, and RER. Re the third paragraph: I meant to say that even if you haven't had time yet to go to an RATP ticket machine or booth, you can buy a ticket for €1.90 directly from the bus driver. It's not as cheap as buying a carnet of 10 tickets for €12.70, but could be worth it in a pinch for convenience's sake.

Just got back from France. Arriving in Paris with too much luggage and not enough sleep on the plane I opted for a Paris Black Car to meet us in the airport with a nice, friendly sign in the airport as we left the baggage claim. It was rush hour and we were were going to Montparnasse so the driver cut though downtown so got to see major sites whizzing by. Great service, if that's what your looking for. Total cost, €85 no matter traffic. We also took taxis out to Orly to pick up the rental car, and back from Orly after dropping the car off and then finally out to CDG for flight home. The ride out to CDG for flight home was in rush hour and metered with heavy traffic, from Montparnasse. And it was only €61.80, but since I only had €60 left in cash and he would have had to take a credit card, he took the cash. And that was for three people, four bags, and called ahead of time. If we could have travelled as light as I would have liked, we would have taken the RER. Much quicker and easier, for all but the first trip. After a long flight, with a 7-year old, having that guy with a sign is so nice, and worth the indulgence. IMHO

Andrew: Your thoughts very helpful...