How to kill time in Charles de Gaulle?

Question

Hi,

I have 2.5 hours from I arrive/get my bags in Charles de Gaulle Terminal 1 till my TGV leaves from the aiportTGV station for further trip onward.

Any suggestion on how to kill time which is not "sit and read book at the terminal/station)? Is there a nice cafe somewhere preferrably outside the airport?

Is the neighbouring village Roissy-en-France easily accessible with any free transport service offered by the Airport?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Two and a half hours isn't long. If you were going to be there for twice that long or more, it would have been feasible to leave the airport, perhaps even go to Paris for a short time, etc. I didn't see anything about transportation to Roissy-en-France from the airport at http://www.roissyenfrance.fr/ I suppose you could take a taxi, but frankly, given that taxis are expensive, and that you don't have much time to work with, it hardly seems worth it IMHO.

EDIT: This just in: I just checked the French Wikipedia article about that town, and it turns out there are buses from the airport to the village of Roissy-en-France.

Des bus relient le village aux terminaux et gares RER et TGV de l'aéroport, situées à deux kilomètres environ du centre du village[79]. Les mieux desservies sont les lignes 32 (Roissypôle (RER) <> Goussainville RER) et 95-02 (Roissypôle RER <> Montmorency), mais sept lignes de bus au total traversent le village, dont trois lignes spécifiques pour les scolaires. Trois lignes de bus de nuit Noctilien exploités par la SNCF relient de 0h30 à 5h30 Roissypôle à Paris et Corbeil-Essonnes (ligne N120), Gare de La Verrière (N121) et Paris - Gare de l'Est (N140)[80],[81]. Pour améliorer l'accès des salariés non véhiculés à la plate-forme aéroportuaire, nécessitant une desserte 24h/24, un service de bus à la demande, « Allobus », a été mis en place, n'exigeant qu'une simple réservation téléphonique jusqu'à une heure à l'avance[82].

Answer 2

Charles de Gaulle is dead - therefore no need anymore to kill him

Answer 3

By the time you disembark, get through immigration, get your bags and head over to Terminal 2, where the train station is, that will kill enough time. You'll hardly have enough to find your train at that point.

There are plenty of cafés in Terminal 2 where you can sit if you do find yourself ahead of schedule. Walk through the shops and buy a newspaper.

Tip; in Terminal 1, there are a bunch of immigration posts. If there's a long line the closest one, head either right or left and find another one, especially if you don't have a Swiss or EU passport. There can be a massive line for one and the next "police" (as they call immigration) is empty!

If you're arriving from N. America, you'll be tired from flying all night. There isn't much to see in Roissy village and it's not worth the effort to get there, possibly missing your train IMHO.

Hope it goes smoothly!