We will be arriving on a Saturday midday at CDG, and we are staying in arrond 17, about 5 min walk from Ternes Metro station. From reading this forum, studying maps etc, I found these options available to us.

1) RER from CDG to Gare du Nord. Change to Metro line 2 to Ternes metro station.
How is the change from RER to #2 metro - at this station, is there a long walk, I suspect it may be rather crowded?

2) Air France bus #2 to Arc de Triomph (CDG Etoile), then taxi the remaining distance (about 20 min walk, but it will probably be a bit too much after overnight travel and with 4 bags-4 (tired) people). I assume that finding a cab would be possible where the bus would let us off?

3) Pre-ordered shuttle directly from CDG to apartment.

Going back to the Airport a week later, we may prefer the shuttle option. I wonder if a shuttle option can be book one-way for the return trip only, if we used the Bus/Taxi option on arrival?

Returning to CDG via shuttle is too risky. Too many reports of late, even no-show, drivers. For two or more, it's well worth the extra for a taxi.

The Air France coaches are terrific, if your accomodations are within a short walk of a stop. When you add taxi fare to the Air France coach fares, you may as well just take a taxi - though, there is a bit of savings if you purchase round trip on Air France coach.

Thanks djkbooks, sounds like you recommend the Airport Bus option for both departure/arrival from Paris?

How likely are we to find a taxi at RER/CDG Etoile?

Every body has their own opinions and here is mine; if you are coming by transatlantic flight treat yourself to a taxi. The metro/RER station at Gare du Nord is large and confusing, in fact the RER and line 2 of the metro don't actually meet there, you have a long walk from the RER stop at Gare du Nord to the connection with line #2, which is actually at La Chapelle. This is a longer walk than from Etoile to your apt., which is about 500 yards.

The Air France coach stop at Etoile/Arc de Triomphe is at 1 avenue Carnot. There is a crosswalk to a taxi stand right across the street.

Place des Ternes is only about a five minute walk.

Thanks,
After investigating some more and doing the math it looks like we're leaning towards using a shuttle/pickup. There are 4 of us each with luggage and there dont seem to be that much difference in price compared to taking th Airport bus.

There are plenty of taxis around the Arc de Triomphe and near the AF bus stop. For a lot of people, it isn't as cost-effective, that's true, especially if you plan to take a taxi at the end.

You can always book shuttles for only one way.

We've used Shuttle-Inter for several years now, and they have been efficient in all respects. I know that some posters have had problems with them and other shuttle services, so you should know that as well. The taxi queue is convenient at CDG and we've used that from time to time, but we always book a shuttle for the return trip to the airport. Leaving from an apartment (vs. hotel with easy taxi access), I always feel more comfortable reserving a shuttle service. For the truly cautious (& I may fit this category), book the shuttle half an hour earlier and carry taxi no. in case of problem with shuttle service. EJ