I will be reaching Paris Charles de Gaulle airport with a wife, two children and 5 suitcases this Feb. Was hoping I would be able to leave my bags in a locker at the airport or in the left luggage rooms and tour Paris for 3 days. Howvere, I hear that there are no lockers or left luggage facilities at CDG. Can't be dragging my rock heavy bags all over town to my hotel. Taxicab too expensive ~250FF, and will take only two bags. What can i do? <BR>Pl. help!!

Hi <BR>Think seriously about reducing the luggage. Also, if Paris is at the end of a longer trip, consider shipping some of your bags home. <BR>Next suggestion: Airport Shuttle. A van picks you up at your terminal and take you to your hotel. They may be picking up others as well. They encourage booking in advance so you don't have to wait.Their web site: www.paris-anglo.com/clients/ <BR>ashuttle.html. Some have praised it, but just this week a user posted about having been in an acccident and not having received needed attention. <BR>The following depend on having manageable luggage, and your destination within Paris. <BR>ROISSYBUS: Tel: 0148041824. Stops in Paris at the Opera Garnier. Takes about 45 minutes. Buy tickets on board. From Opera, you can catch the métro or a taxi to your hotel. The bus stops at the following terminals : Aérogare 2 Aérogare T9, not sure about terminal 1. <BR>You can also use the RER B, which is an express train which serves the terminals 1 and 2 stopping at the Gare du Nord and and Denfert-Rochereau RER/métro station in the 14th. <BR>I think there are also shuttles to Paris Gare Montparnasse but I don't have an informatio source. <BR>RATP Bus (Paris city bus): <BR>Line 351 runs every 30 minutes between CDG (terminals 1 and 2) and Place de la Nation.Line 350 runs every 20 minutes to Gare de l'Est. I think it requires extra metro tickets. <BR>These 2 bus lines don't run very late at night. <BR>Information and help desks: Terminal 1 has information desks on the Arrivals level. Terminal 2 has information desks at halls A, B, C, D, F (levels 0 and 2). Terminal 9 has desk at Arrivals <BR>24-hour CDG information (in five languages) Tel: 0141568900 <BR>RER Metro and Bus maps <BR>http://www.paris.org/Metro/ <BR>www.ratp.fr. metro info, metro passes <BR>www.subwaynavigator.com/bin/select/ <BR>english/france/paris <BR>With all of that, you really need to do a cost analysis in terms of money and wear and tear on the various transportation options (including metro/RER passes as well and even including the option of a couple of taxis.) The various fares above, even if individually cheaper than a taxi, will add up, and you still have to be able to handle the bags. <BR>Good luck

Given there are four of you and all that luggage, 250F per cab (which is about right in my experience) doesn't seem that expensive to me, although you'd have to pay that both ways. That's slightly under $40 a ride for two people and a bunch of luggage. However, I think the airport shuttle is the best bet for you as they only charge about 90F a person and that includes normal baggage, so with four people that might be considered regular luggage, if they are not huge suitcases. Also, with all of that, you might get a van to yourself more or less, and at least you can all be together. I don't know of any other good solution (I do know temp. storage facilities in Paris but those are usu. for a month or more) EXCEPT you should check with your airline, as even though the airport itselfdoes not have public left luggage facilities or lockers anymore, the airlines have baggage storage and might be able to accommodate you, espec. if you are arriving and leaving on the save airline. That sounds like a lot of luggage, but it really isn't in my opinion if the suitcases are all the 22" rollon pilot case size as that's only about one per person. If you are one of those people with suitcases the size of small cars that I see at airports at international counters (what on earth are those people doing?), then that is too much--if you are moving house, ship it.

What is it Rick Steves says? You can't travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two.<BR><BR>If Paris is your first stop, you can ship your suitcases to the next destination as cargo; find out what FedEx or UPS charges (it won't be cheap) or the airlines (also not cheap).<BR>(1+2). You can take the RER with all your luggage (1+3). Or you can get your luggage down to one rolling carryon per person (2+3).<BR>

Having kids myself, I understand the difficulty in trying to pack light, but like the others I would seriously consider packing less. The "less is more" theory is no better applied than to packing. Otherwise I'd take a shuttle to keep things simple--everyone in one vehicle.

I had a similar problem -- though it was just me, but with four (!) pieces of luggage (two check-in, two carry on) -- had no choice...had to travel heavy coz of work. In any case, there are definitely NO left luggage facilities of any kind at CDG. I asked, I looked, I found NOTHING. My solution was to just take the train service into Paris (Gare du Nord) -- very easy if you get into the terminal where the station is right underneath...but a little more difficult if you are at the old terminal and have to take the shuttle bus. Otherwise, after a little pain, dragging bags through turnstiles (there's wide enough space, on to the train and then off, all you need to do is roll them over to the left luggage (lockers of varying sizes) depot of the Gare du Nord. They x-ray them as you enter and you have to pass through a metal detector. I can't recall the cost of the lockers or how long you have, but they are easy to use and the big ones are plenty spacious. I managed to fit in my mother-of-all-roll-ons and a duffle bag into just one locker. One problem: the lockers are heavily used so you may have difficulty finding even one free one. I needed one of the biggest size and had to wait a little bit for one to come free. There was only one attendant down there, the guy who processes you as you enter. Otherwise, nobody is around to help out. Hope this helps.

Sorry...further to my earlier posting....I meant the Gare de l'Est...NOT the Gare du Nord! Sorry.

Ha ha ...well, now I'm confused...my wife says I was right the first time...It's the Gare du Nord...Whatever! It's one of the Paris stations!