Daily LifeCDG Airport

Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), known to the French as Roissy, has to be one of the poorest laid out airports in the world. So take your time and make sure you are going in the right direction when going from gate to gate. Also, ask for directions if you think you are lost, most CDG employees speak some English. If you really get into a bind, just look for the nearest Air France desk, as some one there will speak English.

CDG is organized into terminals 1, 2 and 3 (marked as T9 for some reason on the map below, sorry but I could not find a better one). I have only used terminal 2 and have found get from around in it to be very difficult. For example, terminal 2 is divided into four halls, A, B, C and D, now you would think that Hall A is next to Hall B, but that is not the case, Hall A is across from Hall B also Hall C is across from Hall D. So to get from Hall A to Hall B or from Hall C to Hall D you need to go to the shops and service level and follow the signs.

Getting to and from CDG is not that hard, Air France runs a shuttle service from Paris and there is also the RER (suburban Paris train system) line B3 that makes the same trip, travel time is a little over 30 minutes. To find the RER station in CDG look for signs marked Paris by Train or RER. There is also a direct bus from Orly to CDG; there is no direct service that I know of from Beauvais airport to CDG.

Below are some photos that I took that last time I passed through CDG, I had my 22-month-old son so I could not take a lot of photos. Admittedly they are not that great, but hopefully they will give you and idea of what to expect if you fly into or out of CDG.

The web site for CDG is http://www.adp.fr.