Rail Travel to Reims from CDG

Judy,
What is the concern? You will have an assigned seat on the TGV train from the airport to Champagne-Ardenne. It is not going to be especially crowded at the TGV platform at CDG. Ticket prices increase as your travel date approaches so I suggest that you purchase your ticket now to save money. Also, you should purchase your tickets from www.sncf.com/en, which may have lower prices and a more complete schedule than Rail Europe. Antarctica as your country to avoid being routed to Rail Europe and the print at home option for ticket delivery. If you have problems with the SNCF site, you can try www.capitainetraine.com/en. By the way, have you considered taking a taxi from the TGV station into Reims? It is a trip of less than 10 kilometers.

Judy,
Sounds like you're all set. For future reference, when you put USA in as the ticket collection country, SNCF automatically reroutes you the Rail Europe (which they own). Higher prices and fewer trains. As JH said, you can use any country, including Antarctica, as the ticket collection country and you will stay on the TGV site. I always use France. It has absolutely nothing to do with where you live or print the tickets.

Yes, thank you. The sncf site redirects me to Rail Europe. Rail Europe is not finding trains for the time I wish to travel, they must be sold out.
I did try the site you recommended captainetrain.com and was able to book tickets to Champagne-Ardenne. We'll take a taxi into Reims. Thank you so much for the advice!

Thank you , good to know.

When you get to Champagne-Ardennes buy the train ticket into Reims. It's inexpensive and departures are frequent. Reims is wonderful.

Judy, you can buy tickets from SNCF at www.tgv-europe.com. Just don't use USA as your ticket collection country. Use Great Britain, France or any country other than the USA. If you use USA, the site switches you to RailEurope. It won't do this when you select other countries. You can then easily buy your tickets online. Here's a snapshot of what I see on 12/4. http://gyazo.com/8ed115206f871fec518bac730afe218d For the time of day you will be arriving, the train runs all have two train changes. One at Marne La Vallee and one at Champagne-Ardenne. You can buy these tickets online but you will have to retrieve at a staffed train station in France. Looks like this would need to be the CDG train station. You will need to show the same credit card that you used to purchase the ticket. Sometimes your passport will work as all they are looking for is your ID. Normally, you could pick up your tickets at the ticket machine using the same credit card for ID. But in France, the machines there only accept chip and pin cards. At this point, I see no reduced fares for this run on 12/4. The special PREM fares are gone. You might as well just buy at the station when you get there.

We get into CDG at 11:30 am not 4 pm as I originally posted, on Delta. I see tickets on SNCF TGV for 12:30. We will only have carry on , so I am assuming this gives us enough time to get there.
Should I buy a fully flexible ticket? Thanks.

After reading more posts, it appears that one hour to get to the TVG in CDG may not be enough, it does not give any buffer in case the train is delayed. The next available trains after the 12:30 one have layovers and are expensive. Any tips on what to do? Should I gamble on trying to make the 12:30 or book a later, longer, more expensive train? Again, arriving on Dec. 4 on Delta at 11:30 am.
Thanks in advance for the help.

You may have to go into Paris rather than get the train at the airport. Check into departures from the Gare de l'Est to Reims.

Judy, you haven't mentioned the possibility of the plane being late. This is the main reason why we don't recommend "fixed" non-refundable tickets on trains with departure times close to the plane arrival time. Your choice.