I figure if any airport in the world can produce a decent bite to eat it would be in Paris. Am I out to lunch, or breakfast as the case may be?

We arrive at CDG from Boston at 6:10am Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 25. Our connection to Venice leaves at 9:55am. I assume that's not enough time to leave the airport. My first effort will be to go to the Air France desk which is handling the connection and see if we can be bumped to the 7:20am flight which would put us at Marco Polo airport at 9:00am. We will have only carry-on luggage.

Failing that we will just relax and have some breakfast at the airport. Is anyone aware of a spot worth recommending at the airport? A bakery maybe?

"I figure if any airport in the world can produce a decent bite to eat it would be in Paris."

Ummm, no.

Sorry to tell you this but CDG has the worst airport food I've ever encountered. Here's a recent thread about it.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...erminal-2e.cfm

Another thing--you are arriving at 6:10am and you want to be changed to a 7:20am flight to Venice. You might think that 1:10 is plenty of time between flights but not at CDG. You can give it a shot but I wouldn't count on that. Connections at CDG can be very time consuming.

I hate to be such a gray cloud but I recently connected thru CDG on my way to Venice so this is all pretty fresh in my brain.

Thanks P_M, I am not surprised. We've had good luck several times getting bumped to earlier connections elsewhere but have no experience with this airport or Air France which is the airline handling the connection. I won't get my hopes up.

I'm off to read the thread you linked to. I'll hope for a decent cuppa joe and make do.

quinnsmom, since you have no checked luggage maybe your best bet would be to skip the AF desk and head straight to the gate where the earlier flight is leaving. Then ask there if you can jump on the earlier flight. You will probably have to change from Terminal 2E to 2F. If you make it before the flight leaves then you might just get lucky. You can either walk or take the train to 2F. Good luck.

Thanks P_M, that has been our exact strategery for success in the past. I'll print out a terminal map ahead of time so we know in which direction to dash. We've go nothing to lose by trying and plenty of time to get back to our original gat if we fail.

re: <<A bakery maybe?>>

Paul is not bad for airport food.

Paul is about the only option where you can get something palatable. CDG has horrible food options, despite it being France.

On the bad side: You have no time and the restaurants are pitiful.

On the positive side: Early a.m. croissants throughout CDG are still fresh, and French expresso is certainly the way I like to jumpstart my day.

Good luck with your run to the plane!

I don't know about cdg/AF but usually one needs to get rebooked, contrary to in the US, at these special ticket customer service desks. I am unaware of rebooking taking place AT the gate. If you have NOT done this in Europe with AF I wouldn't count on THAT.

I won't count on it, and I have not tried it outside the US. We've got nothing to lose by trying.

In the US once you are through and inside the security area the gate desks can communicate with the main desk and make connection changes if possible. It actually helps them during peak travel times because some airlines overbook. Then the airline has to ask for volunteers to wait for the next connection and they shell out for future travel vouchers as an incentive. If they can get people where they are going ahead of schedule they do.

We'll look for Paul if we can't get on that earlier connection.

Thank you for that correction lincasanova. quinnsmom, please report back when you return and let us know how it went.

Re-booking MAY take place at the gate some places.. but I have ALWAYS had to go to a service desk.. just recently in Madrid with no language problem..Hopefully someone else can chirp in.

Hope you are able to do what you want.. do let us know.

Good luck. I just had a 6 hour layover, could not remember where Paul's was and ate at some mediocre place in terminal 2. It is an amzingly bad airport for eatiing, shopping waiting. I had a short layover in Amsterdam and that is a great plalce to kill time, but not CDG!

We had a five hour layover at CDG and found ourselves in a secured area so were stuck there. DH left for a short time with me there sitting with luggage, coats,etc. He had to go back through security of course to enter the area. Can't remember which terminal we were in but it was not a pleasant experience. The only place to eat was Paul and it was less than mediocre.

I wouldn't count on getting anything but a croissant -- and I definitely wouldn't count on catching that earlier flight.

You will have to clear immigration and change terminals. In fact, the 9:55 flight is probably about right. I try to give myself a minimum of 2.5 hours to transfer at CDG, and am happier w/ 3.

Airport food always costs a lot, anyway. There are Pauls all over, wherever you are if you have time, you'll find the options which are just usual airport fast food stuff. There is some "natural foods" place there, also, but I can't recall its name.

You won't have enough time to get bumped to a 7:20 flight, anyway, if you don't arrive until 6:10. I don't see how that would be possible, unless you really got there a whole lot earlier. Let's say you get off the plane by 6:25 and through immigration and over to the other terminal by 7 and want to get transferred (and there will be lines at the desk, probably) and on a flight that will probably already be boarded. Maybe if the 7:20 flight is delayed. That seems to happen to me a lot there, last time I was through there in July, my flight out of 2E (or 2F, forget which) to Marseille was delayed at least an hour, and so were several others on AF.

CDG Airport is a nightmare so your best is simply to wait and see what the options are in the area you end up waiting in.

I have never had a pleasant transfer experience nor a pleasant meal experience there. And the ground staff are among the least helpful I have ever experienced.

ditto what Christina said about Pauls...at one time was good, . I had a lunch there in Paris this summer....
it was really bad.