Reaching out to see if any other readers of this forum are planning to arrive in Paris early. It's fun to meet other tour members in advance! We arrive Friday in the early afternoon. We have the two additional nights at the hotel reserved starting that night. We will likely book a car from CDG to the hotel and could share costs with some tour mates if we have the good fortune of finding others who are arriving about the same time. After the tour we take the train to Bordeaux, rent a car, and begin to explore the Dordogne area, based for several days in Sarlat.
It would be interesting to read of others' plans. And we look forward to meeting you in late September. (Hopefully it will have cooled off a bit in Europe, no?)