Help - Paris Gare de Lyon to CDG Airportf
 

We arrive Gare de Lyon from Geneva at 4.30pm and have flt. from CDG airport to Lisbon at 7.30pm. What is the best way to the airport - train or taxi? and will we have enough time?

Assuming your train arrives on time, you will have enough time, but little to spare. The RER will get you there without having to worry about traffic, but it would involve switching trains at the Chatelet Les Halles station. If I was traveling light, I'd do it. If you have much luggage, it's a real drag and it would be difficult to secure your belongings. The Gare de Lyon isn't all that far from the Peripherique, (the highway that loops around the city), so the taxi has a little less to negotiate than origins deeper into the city centre. If you've got much luggage to deal with, I think I would roll the dice on going with the taxi.

I would NOT go to Gare de Lyon for many reasons. It is an awkward connect to the RER to get to CDG. And traffic that time of day is an imponderable, but usually backed up by 17:00, even on that perimeter highway.

Why not go to directly to CDG with the TGV out of Lyon? It would be a heck of a lot less hassle and worry. There is a no change TGV that leaves Lyon Part Dieu at 13:05 and gets into CDG at 15:10. That is a little early, but there is another train that leaves a little later and arrives at the CDG TGV station at 17:44. That is probably okay because security for intra European flights is not as stringent as it is for flights headed to the USA.

I say that because I have flown into CDG from other airports in Europe and security was less than for trans Atlantic flights. Similarly our flight to Helsinki from Munich last year was just about like security in the States before 9/11. By contrast, when we came home a few days later from Munich, the security line required a 2 hour wait.
The German Grenzpolizei were very thorough. I had to remove my shoes, go through a pat down search in addition to being x-rayed, and my carry on luggage was searched as well as x-rayed. The officer also asked me to take my camera lens off and snap the shutter. (It was an SLR).

None of that for flights within Europe so far.

I strongly agree with bob's recommendation. To make it through Gare de Lyon everything would have to work just right and you still might not make it in time. I would take the earlier train - but I am sometimes overly cautious about making connections. I like to have ample time at CDG even for intra-Europe flights, because I find it pretty hectic/confusing.

Thank you for this info.
Bob_brown - As we have Prem. tickets from Geneva to Paris Gare de Lyon willwe be able to get off the train at Lyon to get the express one to CDG airport?