Transiting in CDG, things to do?
 

If you had a layover in Paris CDG around 8 in the morning for 7 hours, what would you do?
Please advise.
Thanks

1. stay at CDG
2. if you've never seen to Paris and feel adventourous, take the RER B to St Michel (45 min), walk around the Latin Quarter, see Notre Dame, and after 1:30 max get back on the RER B.

Agree. Take the RER and walk around the Left Bank for a couple of hours.

Leave yourself lots of time at CDG - the security is very tight and time consuming - there are lots of lines and "opportunities" to show your passport/boarding card. We took all of a 2 1/2 hour layover just to get from one plane to the next, and we never went landside.

My experience is that changing planes at CDG is a great deal more time consuming than arriving or departing.

Tens of thousands of us every day have meetings in Paris that routinely require us to get off a plane, RER into town, eat and manipulate our way through a negotiation, make our way back though the rush hour and get back onto a plane (often for Britain, which has been the terrorists' favourite target for decades) in less time than KG6C's got.

We only miss the flight home if the lunch has dragged on or the damn client's been unaccountably reluctant to see things our way.

This may be trickier if your departing flight's on an American airline: not something I'd do to save my life, since AA's security record at CDG is so disgraceful, but they may well be shutting the stable door. But on any responsible airline, KG6C can easily have a pleasant time in town.

Shopping and eating at CDG, by the way, is extraordinarily lousy. However skilled the French are at cooking and devising nice things to buy, the fact remains that CDG's run by the French State. And providing what taxpayers want just isn't on the syllabus at ENA.

You are undoubtedly correct, and I'm sure 7 hours is enough time to leave and return. I will say that there were lots more security hoops to jump through last week than at the time of my previous connection at CDG in January.

Hi KG,

A 7-hr layover gives you about 2 hrs in Paris.

I would go into town.

((I))

Thanks everyone for your responses.
Kg6c

Practical advice: get a one-day, 5-zone <i>Paris Visite</i> pass at the RER station in Terminal 2. If you're coming through JFK, you can pre-purchase one at the RATP Boutique there to avoid lines at CDG.

http://www.ratp.fr/corpo/evenements/jfk/

This will get you into town on the RER, around town on the M&eacute;tro and buses, and back to the airport. Here's a basic sightseeing-by-bus map:

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...aux&amp;fm=pdf

A super introduction to Paris is to ride the N&deg; 42 bus from Gare du Nord to the Eiffel Tower, then the N&deg; 87 through the St-Germain district to Boulevard St-Michel (Cluny stop), and then walk north on &quot;Boul-Mich&quot; to Notre-Dame. Get on and off the bus as often as you like - your pass covers it all.

If you have time to spare, you can see possible little side trips to the Arc de Triomphe and Louvre on the map.

<i>p.s.</i> You can also get back and forth between CDG and Op&eacute;ra on the Roissybus. It takes a little longer (perhaps an hour) but it's all above ground, whereas the RER involves a lot of tunnels.

If you go out to visit Paris do make sure you arrive in good time. For sure CDG has gotten much worse now with the newer security checks. You can expect at least two security checks before you board your flight.