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I did that exact journey on the afternoon of Monday 5th July. It took about an hour. The slowest part was passport control, about 20 minutes. When I arrived in the TGV station I couldn't see an information desk. The staff at the gates were very helpful in directing me to the correct area. There weren't that many people in the airport but things may change after July 19th when travel restrictions are eased across Europe.
Paris CDG is notorious for losing checked luggage. I used to travel regularly to the south of France on Business and they mislaid my luggage on five occasions. If you can avoid hold luggage you have a better chance of clearing immigration and catching your train.
Several planes must have arrived at the Charles de Gaul Airport in Paris from Montreal at the exact same time as ours in 2015. What a madhouse it was! It took an hour to wind our way along the snaking lineup to the border police to show them our passports. We laughed because the read-out on the electronic sign never showed the wait time to be more than nine minutes. They lied! Then to get to the train station at the other end of the airport, we were among a crowd pushing through an even bigger crowd of Arabs, obviously very rich and dressed in their finest whites. With a few colourfully dressed Africans and fully-shrouded Muslims in the mix, it was quite an unusual cultural scene.
My son and I were there (CDG) March 2019, getting bag took about an hour, not sure why. We landed around 08:00 their time. The airport hustle and bustle picked up during the wait, but we cleared customs in about 15 minutes. The train ride was another 30 minutes, tops. Hope that helps.
I have flown into CGD twice to start the Camino Frances. On my first trip, I pondered how I would kill the 5-hour time delay between my plane in France arriving and boarding the TGV. Unfortunately, my plane was delayed, and I arrived in France four hours late. I finally got to Montparnasse thanks to a wonderful shuttle bus driver. As I got on the TGV, the doors literally closed behind me. Very stressful; however, I was lucky as my fellow passengers had missed their connections. On my last trip in 2019, I decided to stay overnight in Montparnasse. Montparnasse to Bayonne is just under six hours, then the shorter local train trip to SJPP from memory was about an hour. Coming from New Zealand, arriving jet-lagged, I wanted to avoid the added stress of worrying about connections.
In 2015 we didn’t have a COVID issue/tests and our backpacks were carried onboard so no luggage to pick up.
Always, Always, Always carry your pack on the plane. It will fit in the overhead and it is allowed. The chance of losing your pack and then having to buy everything again is expensive and time consuming. Did I say always take your pack on the plane?
Absolutely! Carry on backpack only! Almost always collapsible hiking poles are allowed in the carry-on although once at the Stansted Airport I had to use them as intended (a walking aid) in the airport.
In April 2019, they list my husband's checked pack. When an official saw my pack, he recognised it as looking the same as my husband's, which was stored in a corner of the airport along with several other 'lost' luggage. Next time, we're hoping to travel to Europe by train!
