travel from London to Paris

Much depends on how early your flight is out of CDG, as you need to be at the airport 3 hours before flight time. Possibly you could take the earliest Eurostar of the day from London, arriving at Gare du Nord, and then the RER B line to the airport. If this timing won't work then you will have to get yourselves to Paris the night before your flight.

Toni, 3 hours might seem to be plenty of time to arrive before a flight, but it's not. First CDG is huge. We took the RER train from the Latin Quarter. First, the trains were PACKED. The train drops you off and you still have to walk to what seems to be Belgium. When you finally get to where you check in for the flight the line is crazy long. Then there is security. There we were delayed because my husband packed the letter openers we bought in our carry on (duh!) and the line my daughter was in the guy decided to hold her up because he was flirting with her! A delay might not be your doing, but the people in front of you. We literally got to the gate about 10 minutes before the flight started boarding.

You may want to stay near CDG the last night instead of traveling from London. How early is your flight?

Nothing will work except getting to CDG the night before, even if it's a noon departure. Others told you how to get there; which is accurate. There are a couple of clean, safe budget hotels at the airport (both have shuttles to the terminal); Formule1 and ETAP. Both can be found at accorhotels.com.

OK! I give up. I was trying to avoid the 0630 flight from LHR to connect with AF out of CDG. It sounds like the best bet is to get back near the airport the night before and leave from Paris. Any ideas on the cheapest way to do that? Thank you all for your welcome advice.

Toni,

If taking an 06:30 flight from LHR to CDG would get you to CDG in time to catch your AF flight, then your departure from CDG can't be very early in the morning.

If I'm right, then you don't have to stay in a hotel by CDG. Take the Eurostar from London to Paris and spend the night in Paris. You'll have plenty of time to get to CDG in the morning.

To get the cheapest fare, book your Eurostar ticket well in advance (up to 120 days allowed) at www.eurostar.com. Register as a resident of the UK on the Eurostar site. Because of the exchange rate and special deals for UK residents, the fare will be lower than it would be if you register as a resident of the US.

Watch out! Paris is an hour later than London. If you have a noon flight and you need to be at CDG three hours prior (and it's a huge place, most gates are pretty far from the RER station), that means 8:00 am London time. I'm sure you'll be ok if the eurostar stops right next to the RER and you can jump from window to window as the RER is pulling out.

You are all fabulous! Our flight is on Air France out of CDG at 1030.I think we would be better off traveling back to paris than trying to make 0630 out of LHR. I am using miles is the reason this is kind of hinky. Thanks.

Stay your last night in Paris. Keep in mind that you will need to be at the airport by 7:30, which means you (and your luggage) will be trying to catch a train crowded with commuters. Our flight was about the same time and we missed the first train we tried to catch because there wasn't ANY room. We had to force ourselves on the next train, where we were packed in like sardines. It got better after a couple of stops when people got off. You might want to stay near the airport to avoid any problems.

Good grief, keep it simple. Eurostar to Paris late in the day. Go have supper. Take the RER to CDG. Hotel shuttle will take you to ETAP. Sleep. Wake up. Catch same shuttle which stops at all terminals. ETAP is $72 right now.

Thank you all for your help, spending the night at the CDG airport makes sense as does training over from LON. I'm sure you will hear more from me as I continue planning this trip.

Toni,

As has been pointed out, especially by Andrea, fighting the rush hour crowd in the Metro and the RER is way too stressful just to make it to CDG by 0730. Andrea painted a very realistic picture on the RER---a real sardine can, which you cannot even get on sometimes.

To avoid all that, stay at CDG the night before your flight.
You catch the RER "B" at Gare Magenta/Gare du Nord and the stop at which you get off will be ROISSY...the locals know it as by that name, not so much as CDG. It's either the second to the last or the very last stop.

The hotel where I stayed at ROISSY (more than once, never any problems) is called CAMPANILE; there is a shuttle--no need for a taxi here--that stops where you got off the RER to take you out to Hotel CAMPANILE. You mention CAMPANILE, the locals will be able to direct you to the shuttle stop. When you check in at CAMPANILE, tell them that you need a ride the next morning to CDG and when; the airport shuttle is not free and you have to make a reservation to board the shuttle....forgot what the fare was.

There is a restaurant at Hotel CAMPANILE, very good, reasonable as is the hotel, and it offers a breakfast buffet starting at 6 AM. The phone no. for CAMPANILE is: 0134298040, the website is www.campanile.fr. Reserving by phone for the night prior to departure is what I've done.

Since it sounds like you've decided to stay near CDG, here are the three Accor chain hotels that are closest to the airport:

The cheapest is the Hotel Formule 1 Roissy Aéroport CDG PN 2. Shared bathrooms are down the hall.

Next is the Etap Hotel Roissy CDG Paris Nord 2. Bathrooms are ensuite.

Next is the Ibis Charles de Gaulle Paris Nord 2. Bathrooms are ensuite.

These three hotels are next to each other and offer free shuttle bus service to and from the airport.

There is also the Ibis Charles de Gaulle Aéroport/Terminal right at CDG close by Terminal 3 and by a stop for the 24/7 free CDGVAL driverless shuttle train that connects all the terminals. Because of its location, it's more expensive.

I'll just add a postscript to what Tim said. By going on-line and prepaying (no cancellation possible) the Ibis at Terminal 3, we got a rate of 59 euros last summer. Couldn't be beat for convenience and price. They also offered a cheap breakfast (6 or 7 euros), but we opted to get something in the airport.

If you want a cheaper option from London the Paris, look at eurolines.com. Bus there and get a ferry ride out of it. My children loved the ferry ride and still talk about it. I liked it also.