Exiting Charles de Gaulle / Nearby restaurants or attractions
 

What is the "customs & immigration" process at Charles de Gaulle for people arriving from the USA that want to leave the airport? Is it like Amsterdam where it is a little stand with no line and you don't realize you are going through it (and only have to go through it if you leave the arrival/departure gate areas)? Or is it like the USA and other countries where you must fill out a form and get in a long line? My only previous time at the airport was for a connecting flight.

I will be connecting through there again soon, but this time with my 12 year-old son. We have a 4 hour lay over (8:30am to 12:30 pm on a Wednesday). Is it feasible to leave the airport and go quickly to a nearby restaurant or something he might enjoy? He is learning French in school so I thought it would be fun for him to get his passport stamped and at least eat some food at a non airport restaurant. We have another lay over on the way back from our trip that is shorter, so he can experience airport food then. haha.

I have no idea if there is anything close by that is worth going to, what the cost will be, and if time will allow for it.

Thanks for any suggestions, even if it is to say to bag the idea. I know that a 4 hour lay over is not the proper way to experience France, but that is all we have.

I doubt if you'll find any restaurants outside of CDG (other than fast food places) open between 9:30 (soonest you'll get out of CDG & to a restaurant) and 11:00 (when you'll have to leave the restaurant & return to CDG). Just stay at CDG & have a breakfast or lunch there. There is a Sheraton at CDG that has restaurants
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sherat...propertyID=125

Stu Dudley

CDG is a GINORMOUS airport. Eat there.

Your four hour layover is actually much less than four hours once you factor in your flight being late, taxiing to your gate (the last time I flew into CDG we taxied for 45 minutes), and boarding your next flight. Then you have to clear immigration. Your actual layover time probably closer to 3:00 at best.

CDG can be a mess and 4 hours there could actually only give you 1.5 - 2 hours free. You have no time to leave the airport. In fact you'll do we'll to stay airside if you can.

CDG has managed to bump out PHL as my least favorite airport. The food thee makes the misery bearable.

LHR is my least favorite.

Stu Dudley

I can think of a lot of airports much less appealing than CDG, LHR and FRA are a quick two.

Still, 4 hours is not sufficient time to leave CDG and Immigration and baggage claim (not necessarily Customs) might consume more time than you anticipate.

LHR entirely depends on which terminal. T-5 - I could happily spend hours there.

CDG is my least favorite major European airport.
FRA isn't 'appealing' but it is efficient, which one can't really say about CDG :)

We flew in & out of FRA in late March/early April this year. It has been refurbished, and is quite appealing - except for the food/restaurants (there wasn't much!!)

Stu Dudley

The comprehensive official CdG website http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/e...assagers/Home/ will show you lots of services, brand-name restaurants and cafes, shops etc. available at the airport.

ER first off I think your experience at Amsterdam was a one off, I certainly encounted a line and had to fill in form when arriving there,lol you were just dead lucky that time.

Secondly,, I am sad to say, with only 4 hour layover you are in fact most wise to stay put at airport. There is nothing nearby worth seeing, closest decent place is still 30 minutes away ( unless you count airport hotels) so its simply not worth going anywhere..worse case is you can get caught up in security line up on return and that can eat an hour right there..

If you can change your flight and have at least 7 hour layover its possible to pop into Paris for 2-3 hours , but sorry , 4 hrs, no go. If its any consolation son can still speak French in airport!

He won't have his passport stamped. You've probably got about 1.5 hours there. Just settle in, have a mediocre meal somwhere, and move on. Son can of course speak French anywhere in the airport.

The airport is large as a city, but I am not sure there is anything to see just out the airport without going to Paris centre. I remember immigration as fast (but I am an EU citizen). Not only the airport is large, it is divided in several terminals and if you have to switch terminals you will probably have a long walk and maybe a bus shuttle (15 minutes to the infamous 2G terminal for regional flights). Having once several hours to wait after giving back the rental car and before a flight for 2G, we had lunch at 2E or 2F.

I'm not clear on what you are referring to as "customs", but what you have to do when you return to the US, in terms of forms, is because you are a US citizen and you are returning. YOu don't really go through customs at all at CDG unless you voluntarily go over to what is a little desk on the side of the room. Of course you have to go through passport control, which has lines, but you really don't have to go through customs at CDG.

They do speak French in CDG restaurants, also, of course, they are French workers. I doubt if it will be a much greater experience dining in some nearby restaurant to the airport, as it is never that great around an airport, and I imagine you don't understand Parisian public transportation so that this takes up no time (getting the right ticket, getting on the train etc.). The closest RER stops to CDG aren't some cute quaint villages, anyway (like Bourget). So I don't think going there and walking to some nearby place to the RER station will really be any better than staying in the airport, to be honest.

Eh, we Americans tend to use the word "customs" to refer to the whole process of clearing immigration and customs.

LAX makes CDG seem okay to me.

>>Eh, we Americans tend to use the word "customs" to refer to the whole process of clearing immigration and customs.<<

Only when 'we' Americans don't have experience, know any better. Immigration/Passport control is one thing, Customs is a different animal.

Touchy, touchy. Want to compare passports?

I just resent assigning the lowest common denominator to all Americans. Just like PQ saying ALL Americans call it the Chunnel. No, Many Americans do know better . . .