We need to check out of our Paris apartment by noon on a Saturday and plan to stay at a CDG hotel for a flight the next morning. Is there a place to leave baggage in Paris, like an RER station? Alternatively, should we get out to the airport, check in to the hotel there, leave the bags and then make a half-day trip somewhere (back in to Paris or out to some village) by train? Any thoughts on airport hotels, how to get best rates, etc?

I *think* all six major train stations in Paris have lockers. If you want to spend the rest of the day in Paris, you might put your luggage in a locker at Gare du Nord since you'll have to pass through that station on your way to CDG on the RER. Here are some hotel suggestions from Rick Steves' Paris 2002 guidebook: Hotel Ibis**, outside the RER Roissy Rail station for T-1 (the first RER stop coming from Paris), offers standard and predictable accomodations (Db-E85, CC, near navette bus stop, free shuttle bus to either terminal takes 2 min, tel. 01 49 19 19 19, fax 01 49 19 19 21, e-mail: [email protected]. Novotel*** is similar (Db-E133-145, CC, tel. 01 49 19 27 27, fax 01 49 19 27 99). A 15-minute drive from the airport is another Ibis hotel in the village of Roissy, with shuttle service.

Amy, I help a friend bid recently on Priceline for a CDG hotel, and she got the Marriott Courtyard for $40/night for a double.

If you're interested, go to www.biddingfortravel.com and scroll way down to Europe Hotels, click on France Hotels, and you can read about recent successful bids. If you open the France Hotel list, you'll see that if you bid on PL for a 3-star at CDG, the only hotel you'd get would be that Marriott. Here's a review of the hotel:

http://pub180.ezboard.com/fpricelineandexpediabidding
frm87.showMessage?topicID=181.topic

I don't have any affiliation with PL, BFT or Marriott!

Here is a link with all airport hotels listed and info on them:
http://www.gaf.tm.fr/en/france/hotel...syenfrance.php

The Ibis right in the airport is the one at Roissypole. It's basic 2* if that's all you want, otherwise Mercure, Novotel, Sheraton are fine. I think I've read that CDG airport is a good place to use Priceline for and get a good deal.

YOu can try leaving baggage in a rail station, although I don't know the latest on left baggage places due to security measures. If they are closed, just go up to your hotel and come back into town. I might do that anyway, frankly, as the trip on the RER isn't that long (about 30 min) and I would be more comfortable checking in and leaving them at a hotel than in the train station. Now that I think of it, if you go by RER directly to a CDG hotel to check in, you'd probably save as much time not getting out, checking baggage and then going back for it, as you'd spend on the train trip to/from. I would go to the hotel.

If you have a zone 5 metro/RER pass, it makes it no cost, also.

Gare du Nord has a left luggage place. You could leave it there, do a bit more sightseeing and then take the RER directly from the Gare to CDG.

If you are thinking about returning to Paris after checking out of your apartment by noon and going to one of the hotels near CDG why won't you find a hotel for one night in the same area where is your apartment? Then next morning you could take a taxi, shuttle or RER to the airport. This way you will be transfering to the airport only once and you may always leave your bags at the hotel even if your room is not ready.