travel time

Best to tell the car service your flight time, and let them tell you what time they should pick you up. They'll have a better idea than any of us (except maybe for Nigel).

If you haven't already booked your plane ticket, I suggest that you take the Eurostar. From city center to city center it's faster than flying. If you book a ticket now at eurostar.com, you should be able to get a discount fare of $63 US.

Figure 2 hours check in for a domestic (intra-European) flight or so. Driving the 16 miles should be about 30 minutes in the middle of the night. I'd plump for around 4:45. I guess your flight will get you to CDG by about 9:30, you should be in to the middle of Paris by about 11:00ish. I agree that it is a shame you didn't plan on the Eurostar. You could have taken the 7:01 from St Pancras which would have arrived at the Gare du Nord at 10:17, three quarters of an hour faster. Check in before 6:30, take the Victoria Line just 5 stops, 15 minutes, from Victoria at about 6:10. 6:00 if you want less worry. Or a quick taxi at about 6am. Have an hour and a quarter more sleep and arrive three quarters of an hour quicker. Unless you are flying Ryanair to Beauvais, in the middle of nowhere, in which case you would have arrival in central Paris well after lunch.

thank you all for your help and happy holidays