Has anyone had experience taking a shuttle bus from CGD to Orly Airport? Wondering if it is hard to do, since the last time I was at Charles DeGaulle airport was quite confusing I'm a little worried about finding the right bus! I had enough trouble finding the baggage carousels!

If you go to http://cars.airfrance.fr and click <i>lignes</i>, then <b>3</b>, you will see a diagram of where the Air France bus stops at both airports. <i>Porte</i> means &quot;door&quot; and that is how they will be marked at CDG and Orly.

Someone at every desk at CDG can point you in the right direction. If the sign on the front of the bus says &quot;ORLY,&quot; get on, pay the driver &euro;16, and sit back.

Thanks, for some reason I couldn't find that on the air france site, I really appreciate it. Looks like I'll be able to handle it!

Otherwise, the RER B connects Orly to CDG.

Well RER B to Antony then take the VAL people mover from there to Orly terminals.

Actually the RER link Kerouac points out could be faster than the bus if there is oft heavy traffic on autoroutes around Paris. But to get RER if you land in terminal 1 then you have to take shuttle bus to terminal 2, a bit of a hassle - but maybe the AirFrance shuttle to Orly doesn't serve terminal 1 either.
RER is a straight shot on certain trains but on others you may have to change at Gare du Nord or Chatelet-Les Halles.

thanks all, very much appreciated. I feel much more confident!

Errr... PalQ, there is a shuttle from terminal 1 to the terminal 1 RER station. It wouldn't make any sense to take the shuttle from terminal 1 to terminal 2 since the train passes through the terminal 1 station anyway.

Yes - i should not have said terminal 2 but to the RER station, which though called in terminal 1 is actually a 20-minute or so bus ride away and is not attached to CDG terminal 1.

It only SEEMS like 20 minutes when you have just arrived after a transatlantic or transasian flight. It actually takes a grand total of 5 minutes -- if you don't have to wait for the bus.

Finding the bus to begin with could be a challenge for novices - down some elevator, outside then it's weird because bus #2 goes to RER station whilst bus #1 goes to terminal 2. You may well be right, not saying that but it seems like more than 5 minutes to me. Anyway it's not long but folks expecting to get off the plane and then boarding the RER from RER terminal 1 stop right in the terminal will have to add typically 30 mins on to get to the actual RER station.
CDG actually built a people mover that connects terminal 1 to terminal 2, where there is also an RER station as well as TGV station, but though built was never used because of technical difficulties. You can still see where it hooks into terminal one - the tunnel now still sitting unused. Never got a good reason why that wasn't put into service!

kerouac and palq, you have managed to put the fright back in me! I think I will stick to the bus, the trains sound like a nightmare! I'll make sure I have plenty of time between flights...and hopefully there will be an air france employee having a very good day, to help point me in the right direction.

Actually, the people mover company went bankrupt due to the technical difficulties and a new rail connection will be going into service when the terminal 1 renovation is completed. But to get back to the original problem, it is just fine to take the Air France bus between CDG and Orly. It uses a GPS guidance system to avoid traffic jams.

I'm intrigued. How (and from whence) does the bus driver get the traffic jam information? Can anyone get it?

It's the same deal that shows the traffic jam information on the Paris cable TV traffic channel or on the electric traffic maps at Europcar agencies and at the airport -- in addition to the radio details that the bus drivers give each other.

http://www.sytadin.tm.fr/

The Air France buses have internet terminals in them? Or long TV cables trailing behind them?

I wouldn't want the driver staring at a map. The radio is enough.

I don't know about traffic or the route near Orly, but last time we took the Air France Coach from Montparnasse back to CDG, the driver got off the E19 approaching the airport when traffic was bad. Stayed on the feeder a little, through some industrial parks in the perimeter, and then got to the terminals without being stuck in traffic.

At least this driver seems to know his way very well.

<i>RER is a straight shot on certain trains but on others you may have to change at Gare du Nord or Chatelet-Les Halles.</i>

May I be pedantic ? Yes, I may.

Trains from CDG referred to by a 4-letter indicator begining with a P or a K will call at Antony. Actually, there are few trains besides the PEPE and KROL/KROB guys, and they are early-morning or up-peak trains.

<i>The Air France buses have internet terminals in them? Or long TV cables trailing behind them?</i>

They invented this nifty protocol called the WAP, and Sytadin WAP site at http://wap.sytadin.gouv.fr is a bless.

Besides, any good GPS also receives the RDS traffic messages broadcasts (in which there is actually much more than the &quot;Traffic&quot; canal of RDS car stereos, which always seem to inform me about accidents on the A16 when I'm stuck near the Nogent tunnel.)


<i>I don't know about traffic or the route near Orly, </i>

May the Almighty protect you from ever knowing what the A86 East is like at anytime other than a Sunday night at 3am in August !