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If you need to transfer between terminals at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) you can take a free shuttle bus. It’s not difficult to make the transfer, but it can be both confusing and lengthy as there is only one bus, which stops at all the terminals. This bus also stops for planes maneuvering around the airport, which slows the transfer down even further.
We experienced this rather basic and lengthy bus service when we flew in on a British Airways flight from London Heathrow (LHR), during which we experienced a British Airways Club Europe breakfast and then had to transfer from Terminal 2A and 2C to an Air France flight that was departing from Paris CDG Terminal 2F (Schengen).
As an aside, we were lucky enough to enjoy the Air France Airport Lounge At Paris CDG Terminal 2F (Schengen) while we were waiting for our departure, which was an excellent airport lounge. While the food wasn’t as good as at the British Airways lounges in London Heathrow, but the seating, views, and design were uplifting. It was a delight to spend a few hours here.
Once we had disembarked from our British Airways flight, we had to go through French security before being able to access the bus service. To find your terminal’s bus departure point, you follow the yellow sign with the bus picture on it.
The bus service from our terminal departed from a rather dated corridor with a few depressing seats and a vending machine. We waited there for around 15 minutes before a bus appeared.
The bus itself is un-noteworthy, but the lengthy journey it takes around the airport gives you a real feel of this airport, which is a mish-mash of ugly old concrete terminals, airport hotels, car parks, and newer terminals in inspiring designs.
The bus journey takes you past the French Concorde, which is set up on a stand, and is fun to see. It always looks so much smaller than I imagine it in my head, when compared to today’s planes. The Concorde is a tiny marvel of engineering.
The bus route takes you around the airport’s periphery, past loads of planes, and it crosses plane motorways, so you have to wait for planes to drive past in front of the bus before you can continue your journey.
There is, very usefully, a tube-style map of the bus route on the wall of the bus, and there are plenty of warnings and a description of each stop before you come to a standstill, so the bus journey between the terminals is fairly easy to navigate, it just took a very long time. Our journey from our arrival Terminal 2A and 2C to CDG Terminal 2F (Schengen) took around 25 minutes.
The map actually gives you transfer times, so to transfer from our arrival Terminal 2A and 2C to Terminal 1 takes just 8 minutes. To Terminal 2B and 2D takes 16 minutes, to 2F (& 2E to L), 2G, it took 24 minutes, and if we had been going to Terminal 2E to K it would have taken half an hour. So bear this in mind when you are transferring between terminals at CDG. You need to allow yourself a lot of time!
The photos I took hopefully give a fair picture of what you can expect from the bus journey between all these terminals, the rather depressing concrete buildings you will see along the ride, and a photo of the bus route in the header of the article, which shows how the bus links terminals 2A, 2C, 1, 2B, 2D, 2F (& 2E to L), 2G and 2 E to K.
This will give you an idea of the timings so that you can work out how long it will take to transfer from your arrival terminal to your departure terminal.
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