My last experience with CDG was in October 2011. I had a connecting flight coming from Nice with about one and a half hours to connect. I had to go through security again. This time I had to go all through my bags and take out everything with a cord or battery. The lines were so backed up that I barely made it to my gate in time. They had already boarded. This was not a planned itinerary. My original flight on KLM was canceled and I was booked on Air France the next day. I avoid departing from CDG, but I do not mind the arrival.

I take back much of what I have said previously. On my past two trips, upon arrival in CDG from Valencia to transfer to USA.. it has been absolutely a ZOO.. hundreds of us bussed from our plane and then dumped at a place for another BUS to get us to other terminals. Then the security and passport lines were incredible leaving to go into the international departure area.

I don't know why they cannot provide more transfer buses because that seemed to be the biggest problem. There was too much time between buses.. in fact.. it felt like we were waiting for the same bus to come back after making the rounds..

The terminals themselves are much nicer.. but the transport between them is not ideal. Maybe it depends on where you land. I haven't quite figured it out yet.. but it is a toss up.

Some grave diggers at work on Fodors ? Unearthing old threads everywhere...

We arrived on September 19...as you will see when I post a trip report, the Passport Control line was horrendous I think some people from our A380 are still in line. The past two times we arrived at CDG, it only took a matter of minutes. Our friends who arrived a few days earlier also had an easy time. At airports, you can depend on nothing.

((H))

this was my thread.. and I just thought I'd update the situation I found recently.

Well I have in close to 100 airports actually.
Contrary to a lot of people I don't find this airport worse than another at all.
I don't like 2G but have rarely used it.

The airport i found a complete zoo recently was Atlanta.
Opinions differ.

>Really not the dismal connection it used to be.

Good to know, Lin. Thanx.

((I))

I just transferred again and neither going nor coming did I need to use any transfer bus. So now I am wondering if all that was due to some construction at the time. Anyway, I made a connection in 1 hour and 10 minutes with no problems. I was quite surprised and had even called my husband to tell him I doubted I would make the flight as we were still inside the aircraft for 15 minutes after we hooked up to exit ramp.

Our kids also transited this Christmas on the 23rd and 24th of December and I was fearing the worst. But they both made short connections, coming in from the USA and continuing to Spain. So, as said before, one never knows . Good luck. Air France/Delta still are cheapest for me, so I am destined to use this airport for some time, I assume.

The only transfer bus is the one for terminal 2G which is quite isolated. All other transfers at CDG use the CDGVal automated light rail shuttle is needed. As for the other parts of terminal 2 (A-B-C-D-E-F) it is all the same building and quite easy to walk for people with no mobility issues.

One new thing at both CDG and Orly that show how the world is changing is that the trilingual signage which used to be French-English-Spanish has now been changed to French-English-Chinese. This has also been done at Gare du Nord in Paris.

is = if

I guess we were shuttled from there then.. once and it was a zoo. A flight landing form valencia.. and connecting to the US. Since it had not happened before and has not happened since, it makes me think there was something particular going on that day forcing the issue for many travelers to disembark in a place needing that bus.