Hello to all at Fodor's! I've been using the Europe forum to help with my planning a trip to Paris, and it has been extremely helpful. My boyfriend and I will be taking our first trip to Europe in May. We're both students, so it has taken a lot of saving and planning to make our trip possible. I really don't want to waste any of the time we have (we're staying for a week) and that leads to my question: our departure flight leaves from CDG at 1:50 PM, and I don't know what to do with our luggage prior to leaving. We're staying at the Hotel du Champs de Mars and I cannot find a check-out time on their website, but I assume that we will probably have to check out of our room well before 1:50. I know that there are not any luggage lockers at CDG, and even if there were it would probably be inconvenient to use them and then go back into Paris until our departure time. What can I do to avoid sitting at the airport and wasting our last hours in Paris? Or will the hotel have a rather late check out time?

Hi F,

If your plane leaves at 13:50, you will want to be at cdg by no later than 11:50, which means you will leave about 10:50.

Your hotel checkout time is probably 11:00.

It is better to "waste" an hour or so at CDG doing some shopping and having a final glass of wine, than it is to miss your plane.

Have a lovely visit.

Don't worry if the check-out time is even earlier. The hotel should be able to hold your bags for a couple of hours while you take your last walk around.

Enjoy.

cw

listen to Ira -- you aren't going to have any extra time because even if you were up and packed by the crack at dawn for some reason, checkout time is never early enough that it should fall before when you have to leave for the airport. I think most checkout times are 11-12 am. I would leave before Ira suggests, but I am a cautious person and don't like to be risky with return flights.

Perhaps you haven't flown before and don't realize how early you must be at the airport, or don't know how far from Paris the airport is. I'd allow one hour for getting to the airport (although it may take 35-45 minutes).

According to the RATP Journey Planner, it will take a full hour to go via metro and RER from Invalides to CDG. Then you will also need to allow time to ride the shuttle bus from the station to the terminal. If I were you, I'd plan to leave your hotel no later than 10:15. Then, as others have said, relax at the airport rather than worrying about missing your plane.

To make the most of your last day, get up at sunrise and take a long stroll through Paris as it wakes up for the day. Early morning in Paris in May is just beautiful (rent the Diva DVD for inspiration). Have your last croissants and coffee (on this trip, of course, hopefully you will return many, many times) at a little cafe.
In addition to giving you special memories of your last day in Paris, getting up extra early and taking a long walk will help you sleep on the plane.

Thank you all for the responses! I didn't even think about getting to the airport so early. After planning all the big things that didn't cross my mind, and I haven't flown since I was 10. I see that I have nothing to worry about other than a rather long (but apparently normal) wait at the airport.

oh, yeah, you have to get there far ahead due to lines to check baggage and the security checks. I always aim to get at CDG 3 hours before my flight time for flights from Paris to US (shorter for within Europe), but I'd definitely shoot for at least 2 hrs ahead arrival at the airport, which some people do. As I said, I'm just the cautious type and don't like feeling panicky when I'm standing in line to check bags and there are 75 people in front of me.

At T-2 in Sept, our airline counter had a sign posted that indicated you could not check in within 1 hour of your flight, that is- no boarding passes to be issued. My experience has been that the planes begin boarding about 50 minutes prior to the departure time.