I will be flying into de Gaulle and would like to then immediately take the Eurostar into London. From what I can gather, I need to take one train from the airport to Gare Du Nord and catch the Eurostar to London from there. Is this correct? My flight into de Gaulle arrives at 11:30am. I%26#39;m trying to figure out what time I can book my Eurostar ticket for....not sure how long I should allow to get from de Gaulle to Gare Du Nord. Approximately what time do you think would be good to book my train ticket to London?
Thanks!
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There are so many variables here. What if your flight is late arriving? What if you are delayed at immigration / customs? What if your bags don%26#39;t make it? I%26#39;m not trying to be a scaremonger but these are all possibles.
If everything goes smoothly you should be at Gare du Nord within 2 hours (the journey from the airport is about 35 minutes): I would book a train no earlier than 3pm - others may say a lot later or even the next day. By the way, you have planned the route correctly.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason why you%26#39;re not flying direct to London?
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Thanks Kebabs....
We wanted to do both London and are going to do Paris as well as the Basque country in France. So we thought it would be best to fly into Paris, go straight to London for a few days and then back to Paris to them spend time there and then the Basque country. I didn%26#39;t want to fly into London and then do France and have to get myself back to London for my return flight. I%26#39;d be too worried about missing the flight so I%26#39;d rather do it this way.
I was thinking that probably no earlier than 3pm would be best to book our train ticket. Makes perfect sense and I%26#39;d rather have time to sit around than rush or even miss the train.
Thanks!
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I%26#39;m wondering why you didn%26#39;t book flights arriving in London and departing from Paris? It usually costs no more to do that, particularly if you factor in Eurostar fares.
I would allow at least three hours between flight arrival and train departure. You do have to check in for Eurostar 30 minutes ahead, and there could be a line. Assuming your flight is on time, could be an hour or more before you%26#39;re at the RER station at CDG, especially if you%26#39;ve checked bags. You need Euro coins to purchase your RER tickets from the automatic ticket machines. With bills or a credit card, there could be a very long line for tickets.
So, 3PM seems reasonable. Not something I%26#39;d do, though, after an overnight flight from the west coast!
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You might be able to take the train from CDG to Lille Europe, and transfer there to a train to London. Otherwise, you are correct that you would have to go into Paris and take the Eurostar from Gare du Nord.
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It would be so much easier to stay in Paris for a couple of days, go to the Pays Basque then back to Paris, go to London, back to Paris. Personally I would either get an open jaw ticket (arrive London, leave by Paris) or skip either London or the Pays basque entirely. How long do you have? are you aware that the Pays basque is at the other side of France and that most of it can only be seen with a car? Going all the way to only see Bayonne or Biarritz isn%26#39;t worth it as it is the very typical villages that are the most interesting sights of the French Basque region. With a car you could also go to the Spanish Pays Basque. My parents built a retirement house there and sold it a few years later because of the need to use a car all the time. Just going to Bayonne from their lovely little town for shopping took over 1 hr one way.
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Thanks everyone for the advise. I%26#39;m not sure what I%26#39;ll do at this point. The flying into one airport and out of another is tempting and the same price but I wouldn%26#39;t be able to go non-stop on either flight at least what I can find right now anyway. But I%26#39;ll keep looking into that. I just thought it would be best to get all the %26#39;running around%26#39; done in the beginning of the trip which was why I was going to do Paris to London right from the get go and then relax the rest of the trip! But thanks for all the great ideas and advise.
3CONILS - I%26#39;ve got family to see in the Pays Basque so will be taking the train from Paris to Bordeaux and renting a car to travel through out. Will be down there for 10 days which is plenty of time including an overnight stay in San Sebastian which I absolutely love!
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Might save you some time and money to take a cheap flight from London to Bordeaux? http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/index.asp
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