I'm staying in an apartment near the Pompidou Center in the Marais. Next week, I have to catch a cab to get to the airport in the early morning hours--around 6am. There's a cab stand about two blocks away from the rental--do you think it's okay to get a cab there? My other alternative is to stay the night at CDG. I'm sort of an anxious traveller sorry if this seems silly!

You do have other alternatives such as booking a car or shuttle service to pick you up or booking a taxi the night before.

I haven't ever been let down by a taxi but I understand why you are nervous. There's an English-speaking booking telephone number which I'll try to find and post--they give you a reference # when you book but you pay the taxi driver.

The taxi will, however, show up with anywhere from roughly 8 to 12 euro already on the meter as they start the charge from wherever they are when they are called to pick you up.

There are several car services people on here use so I am sure someone will post with details--that would probably be your best option.

Awesome--thank you Cath! I knew there would be some Fodorites who might have some better information!

The taxi number catinjoetown was probably thinking of is G7 Taxi's

01 41 27 66 99

They have English speaking operators

I'vw also used Shuttle Inter, a private car service. They can be booked online. The cost was 55 Euro for a round trip , CDG to Paris and back

I would call and reserve your taxi the night before... this is what we did once, we needed it for 7 am on a Saturday morning... The guy was there right on time!

I always call Taxi Bleu the night before.

We've always phoned the G7 number listed above, and they've always been there a few minutes early.

We stayed in the same apartment three times, with a taxi stand in view from the balcony. We never saw any taxis there and rarely saw one pass that was not occupied.

So, definitely arrange on the day before. And, be at the curb a few minutes early, as there's usually no place for the driver to park/stand.

There are no-show reports for Shuttle-Inter.

Thank you all--this will be a much less expensive option than booking a hotel at CDG. Also, this will allow me to squeeze one more evening out of my trip to spend the time in Paris!

Don't leave calling a taxi to the last minue, and don't assume one will be waiting around a taxi stand. I've had taxis not answer the phone and refuse to come for hours when it is busy, so be sure you book one in advance.

A shared van service will be less expensive than a private car service, and frequently I find that I am the only passenger, especially early in the morning. There are many out there. The one I have used several times is http://www.world-shuttles.com/

If you are traveling solo, this is a much less expensive option than a taxi. The savings advantage decreases if you have three or more passengers.

I lived in the Marais until recently. I used to have to take a taxi every couple of weeks around 6 in the morning. I just walked to rue de rivoli where I always found a cab within a few minutes.

You have some very good advice. This is for future travelers to paris:

Do not think that Paris is like many of the major cities of the world like New York or London when it comes to finding taxis. When you need a cab urgently, it becomes like a small town with only to taxis. It is almost impossible to find vacant cabs cruising looking for passengers, and the taxi stands are not that frequent. You can easily miss them, since many of them will not have taxis waiting all the time.

Also, unless you are staying at an expensive hotel do not expect to have a concierge to go out into the street to flag a cab for you as in london.

I agree reserving a taxi is your best bet. That said, when we stayed in the northern Marais there was a Holiday Inn a few blocks away from our apt at the Place de la Republique, with a taxi stand across the street. We headed there probably earlier than 6am or right therabouts, figuring if there were no taxis at the stand we could hit up the Holiday Inn to help flag one down. However, there were already a handful of taxis lined up already.

If it is raining in Paris you may have to wait forever for a taxi. Make plans the night before and order a taxi that night. If it is going to be raining make the pickup time earlier than you normally would.

We learned the hard way when we needed a taxi to the train station and it was raining. We called for a taxi and it was delayed again and again. We were lucky as we were able to flag down a taxi that went by our hotel and begged and he took us to the station. We were about ready to go to the metro with our luggage etc and thank goodness we didn't have to do that in the rain.

Thank you all--this will be a valuable thread for others too I'm sure. As it turns out, I called G7 to reserve a cab per your advice and it worked out beautifully. Because I needed a cab on a Monday, I called to reserve on Friday night and got a confirmation number no problem. The operator spoke very good English and gave me a confirmation number. I called back on Sunday night to change the time a bit and they did answer; I got very courteous help.

On Monday morning, I went downstairs 10 minutes early and the driver had just pulled up. I was happy that I was able to spend my last evening in Paris, rather than at an airport hotel.

That's good to know. There will be taxis waiting around very expensive, large hotels, sure, and more on streets like rue de Rivoli as someone said, but not at regular taxi stands in more residential areas. I couldn't get a cab to come within 2 hours and it wasn't raining and I was staying near Gobelins metro. I never saw a taxi waiting at that taxi stand except one dull night around 8 pm, I think. There were always lines of people waiting at that stand for the few taxis that ever showed up. Now once I was in a hotel and wanted a taxi to go to a concert in the evening because it was raining and I didn't want to walk several blocks from the metro in my nicer clothes and the hotel desk clerk told me if I didn't to get to the concert at a certain time I should just forget the taxi, as it is very difficult to get one when it is raining.