Paris is served by three international airports, namely Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Orly International Airport and Beauvais.
Charles de Gaulle International is the foremost hub airport to the north-east of Paris. It’s quite confusing so be patient on plenty of transfers. There are three terminals in the airport: Both Terminal 1 and 2 are huge and subdivided into 2A through 2G, and Terminal 3 which is formerly referred to as T9. There are CDGVAL shuttle train for free to easily connect the terminals together. Note that everything at the airport is very expensive, particularly food. You will have a hard time finding vacant benches and don’t even bother searching for outlets for you to charge your gadget. There are no community shower amenities. Tickets can be purchased either through green automatic ticket vending machines or through the ticket outlet facilitated by transport authority staff. The automatic ticket vending machines accepts Euro coins and also gives change.
Orly International Airport is in the southwest of Paris, and it is facilitated by a southern branch of RER-B line that is lead by the path of Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse. This is an older international airport and is utilized primarily by Air France for national lines and other international air carriers in Europe. Orly International Airport is approximately 40 minutes from Paris through the OrlyBus, which leaves from Métro Denfert-Rochereau. The private Jetbus service departs to Métro Villejuif and is quite cheap. A different option is bus 285 that takes you to the Métro Villejuif – Louis Aragon in about 15 minutes, but it stops along the way and picks up people. It is designed for commuters and not for travellers. It runs in an interval of 10 minutes.
Beauvais Airport is a distance north of the city. It is a smaller regional airport compared to those two and is utilized by a number of low-cost carriers in Europe. This airport operates a shuttle service attaching with the Métro at Porte Maillot station. Buses operate even during the diminutive hours of the morning, specifically 6 AM. Buses leave on a 20 minute interval after each flight arrives and a few hours before each flight departs. If you want to know the exact time, it is available in the Beauvais Airport website. The travel time will take about an hour when in fine traffic situation.
In addition, Air France facilitates shuttles connecting Charles de Gaulle and Paris, Orly and Paris and between Charles de Gaulle and Orly. Remember that if you still have a connecting flight that arrive or depart from dissimilar airports, you still need to get your luggage after arrival and catch either Air France shuttle or a cab to the other airport and then check-in again. It will take you approximately 2 hours in the worst case scenario, considering traffic. Always put to mind to put allowances in your time management. Note that check-in counters usually close 30 minutes before the time the airplane departs. If you land to Charles de Gaulle Airport at night, then I guess you’ll have to ride a Noctilien bus to the city centre. This bus stops in every terminals. The bus leaves every 30 minutes after 12:30 AM.
Being a frequent visitor of Paris, I usually travel by plane and I can say that I have been used to getting to and from the airport. I just wanna share a little trick that I have been using to minimize my cost and my efforts to get to and from the airport. Usually the airports in Paris offer airport busses that can take you from the airport to your hotel and vice versa. You can save money by taking the airport busses because they have a flat rate for their services.
Just a little reminder for travelers, if you happen to lose your passport, immediately contact your country’s embassy. Be sure that before you travel, you should take note and copy those important pages so in case of emergencies, you have a back up data. On the other hand, if you happen to lose your luggage at the airport, file a lost-luggage claim as soon as possible. Airlines in Paris accepts reports such as delayed, damaged or lost baggage within 4 hours upon your arrival.
For Non-E.U. nationals, they can bring in duty-free, 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, a total of 2 liters of wine, and either 1 liter of alcohol over 22 proof or 2 liters under 22 proof. Those in charge of the customs are lenient about general merchandise, understanding the limits to be unrealistically low. However, E.U. citizens have the privilege to bring unlimited numbers of goods to France. As long as they have a valid reason that it is for their usage and not for selling.
Here are contact numbers of Embassies and Consulates that can be useful upon traveling to Paris.
United States Embassy (01-43-12-22-22)
United States Consulate (01-43-12-22-22)
Canadian Embassy (01-44-43-29-00)
United Kingdom Embassy (01-44-51-31-00)
United Kingdom Consulate (01-44-51-31-02)
Irish Embassy (01-44-17-67-00)
Australian Embassy (01-40-59-33-00)
New Zealand Embassy (01-45-01-43-43)