From the look of it, the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to get from our Paris hotel (La Sorbonne University near Boulevard St. Michel/ Bld St Germain) to CDG airport is to take the RER-B3 from the Luxembourg station to CDG (American Airlines). 12:15 pm flight back to the U.S., leave on a 8:45 train and would be at the airport around 9:15 am. From your experience, does this sound good? This is a new route for us... we left from Orly las time and took a taxi) Thanks!
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10625 posts
You've gotten good advice so far. Since it is rush hour, it will be crowded, at least from Luxembourg to Gare du Nord, so you may have to push your way onto a train. That's not a big deal as Parisians understand that people need to get places. But you can take any train to du Nord, looking for one that's less crowded, and then switch to an express train once you get to GdN.
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10603 posts
That gives you 3 hours at CDG, so that works fine. One thing I will mention. We had to take the same route at commute time and the train was so crowded we couldn't get on. We waited for the next train, which was also very crowded. We HAD to get on, so forced our way. If you have a chance on a day before your flight, you might want to go check out the train at the time you want to leave to see how crowded it is at that time. If you are traveling on a Saturday or Sunday you shouldn't have any problems with the train.
Posted by
dallas, TX, USA
227 posts
We planned to take this same route last fall - then a strike was announced. We found out that the RER-B3 would be running but on a limited schedule. The owner of our apartment told us we would be in trouble because we had to be on the RER during rush hour. He suggested we hire a cab and to do it then.....he told us not to wait till that morning, so we ordered it 2 days ahead. We were sure glad we did - it turned out to be raining that morning! Our cab arrived on time and got us there only 30 minutes later than normal. (We were on a US Air flight - I think AA is in a different terminal?) Since we had scheduled it with plenty of time to spare we had no problems. The cab driver told us we may have not been able to get a cab if we had not called when we did. My suggestion would be to plan on taking the RER-B3 but make sure you have a PLAN B if you hear of a strike or bad weather is forecast.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
177 posts
why not go to CDG the night before with RER and stay at Hotel Ibis, that's what we did.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
172 posts
Hi all, reading all you guys' posts made me a bit nervous as I'm planning to book a similar AA flight departing CDG back to US either at 11:30am or 12:15pm... because we will also need to do the VAT tax refund in the airport as well. does anyone know how long does it usually take to do the VAT refund? or how long the line will be in the morning? We will be leaving from our apartment in arrondissement #2...how early should we leave our apartment? thx!
Posted by
Columbia, MO, USA
249 posts
AA has flights to DFW, ORD, NY, and Miami serviced by Counter #8 that are scheduled at 30 minute intervals; amazingly they get it done but nerve-wracking for those who worry about connecting flights or long lines. We spent the night before in Le Mesnil-Amelot at Campanile (2 minutes from CDG) the night before as we'd dropped a car rental at the airport; in line at 9:10, departure ORD was the 1215-it worked.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Mile's post looks confusing, but he found a good place. Le Mesnil-Amelot in the name of the litlte town, Campanile is the hotel's name.