It’s time to leave Lyon. Today we’re packing our bags and heading to Roissy, just outside of Paris, where Charles DeGaulle airport is located. We’re going to stay in a hotel that’s right in the middle of the airport. We’ll spend the night, and then take an early flight home in the morning.
Yesterday we made a day-trip from Lyon to Annecy. After exploring Annecy, which was beautiful, we had a huge lunch, then took the train back to Lyon. We were so full from lunch that we didn’t even bother with dinner. Can you imagine? We were in Lyon, the foodie capital of France, and we didn’t even have dinner. There’s something wrong with that picture!
TGV to Roissy
The train trip today is longer than the other ones we’ve been taking lately, so we’ll be taking the high-speed “TGV”, (pronounced “tay-zshay-vay”), again. It’ll take about 2 hours to get there. That’s all we have planned for the whole day, so we can relax and take our time.
The train goes directly to the airport. In fact, the train station is essentially under the airport. And since our hotel is located essentially at the airport, we can take the train to the airport, and then a shuttle to the hotel. So easy. It’s nice to go to places where there’s evidence that things like this have been well-thought out and planned in advance.
It might not be quite that simple, though. Charles De Gaulle airport is huge, with two or three different shuttle lines running, so getting around can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. The good thing about today is that we won’t be sweating it out trying to get to a gate to catch a flight. We’ll just be trying to find our way to the hotel.
Back in Lyon, we had our last breakfast at the hotel, finished packing, and checked out. We took a taxi to the Lyon Part Dieu train station where we’ve been several times now. This time, we’d even know what to do if we saw a little image of a “car” next to our train on the big board, but I don’t think that will happen today. (See here for more on that, if you’re curious).
When the magic time of twenty minutes before departure came, our track number showed up on the big board, just like it was supposed to. This time, the track was pretty far away from where we were, so we still had to do some hustling, but we got on board without any issues.
Riding on the TGV is really nice. It’s smooth and very quiet, even while you’re flying along easily over a hundred miles per hour, watching the scenery go by.
Almost too soon, we were slowing down and pulling into the train station at Charles De Gaulle. After such a nice, peaceful ride, we stepped out into the relative chaos of the airport.
Charles De Gaulle Airport
Charles De Gaulle airport is well-organized, clean, well-marked, and easy to get around. It’s still daunting, though, just because it’s so big and complex. Take the shuttle systems, for example. There are at least three. One just goes around the inside of the airport. Another one goes inside, but also goes outside to hotels in Roissy. There’s another one, too, but I don’t know what that one’s for.
They’re color-coded, but as we found out, it’s still tricky to be sure which shuttle to get on. The situation is made worse by the fact that all three shuttle lines use the same stops.
I eventually thought I had it figured out. We went to the stop and waited. Then along came the shuttle we wanted. When we got on, just to be on the safe side, I asked the driver in french if he’s going to the hotel we wanted to go to. His answer was something like,
“Non! C’est l’autre!”
(“No, you knuckehead, not this shuttle. You want the next one! Oy vey!”)
The French have a gift for expressing a lot while using only a few choice words.
To be continued…
