If it were me, I would base the choice on 1/ likelihood of strike causing trouble and 2/ strong preference for train (& hotel & dinner in Paris). May is a popular month for strikes, certainly I/c/w mayday. Note while the international flights are almost never affected, air-related strikes in France almost completely shut down domestics air travel (ie, Lyon - Paris).
Do you have the G-7 app downloaded? If it was me, I’d prob take the train, book a hotel in Paris, have a great dinner & use the G-7 app to advance book my ride to the airport. FWIW
Will be in Paris early in the trip, this is the end and will likely have lunch in Lyons and skip dinner altogether (I am never hungry at the end of a trip to France). The ticket includes both plane and train, and the train arrives 9pm.
Not sure if the lack of dinner would influence your choice. I guess air controllers go on strike more often than train workers?
My recent lunch at La Pyramid was maybe a touch disappointing given the price and 2-star accolade. Vienne wasnt a great town to spend time in either, in my opinion.
One of our best meals was lunch at Les Gageres. Relaxed atmosphere with fine dining level food and right at the foot of the impressive slopes of Cote Rotie. I think this spot is cant miss if you’re in the area.
I think the train would be a little easier/quicker with all of the airport run around.
If there is a Perrache option, that station is a bit less crowded and more convenient if you are staying in the 2nd (the Presqu’île).
When I’m paying however many hundreds of dollars for the food, I expect it to impress me to a certain extent. Also, we asked for a wine pairing, split between the two of us, and they brought two glasses, poured one and expected us to pour it into the 2nd glass ourselves, which was pretty bizarre. The pairing itself was also completely uninspired with one exception.
I don’t want it to sound like it wasn’t a great meal, it was, but it just didn’t live up to expectations, reputation, or price (the food didn’t hit the highs we hoped for, for the most part, and it wasn’t consistently great across the whole meal). The 1-star places I go to in LA are better, in my wife’s and my opinions.
Hey Barry - Sorry for the delay in picking this back up - jet lag & busy. W/ lack of dinner it really comes down to what kind of person you are/what you value most/how you think you will feel. If you want one last night in Paris (starting at 9:00p), essentially at the Paris equivalent of the Il Gritti Terrace, then I would still take the train to Paris, book a hotel prob on the Right Bank walking distance to Hotel Cheval Blanc, and hit their 7th floor terrasse (Le Tout Paris - work to get an outdoor table, although the glass doors floor to ceiling will generally be open) for drinks for the evening, and reserve a G-7 for pickup to CDG the next day.
On the other hand, if you value ease & bed early & that certainly nice auto bag transfer, and don’t care about that last wonderful set of memories to savor, then book the flight & stay at CDG & just monitor the France 24 News a month or two in advance to see any announcement of strikes (they are always announced in advance, and the days are specified), and if there is an air strike, just immediately grab a train ticket to cover.
Let me know what you decide. (BTW, you turned me on back in the day to the Bonvoy suite upgrade play w/ the free-rooms points at the Gritti, and I hit that badboy out of the park w/ mind-blowing suites at the Gritti & Danieli, and of course also enjoyed the Terrace at the Gritti - which is one of my favorite spots in the world. Thanks for that.)
We booked the train to CDG even though there wasn’t the bag transfer. The plane got in an hour later (8pm). We’ll have a nice lunch in Lyon (will have been in Paris for 6 nights earlier in the trip; may check out the Cheval Blanc!). Lyon has great food too. (Going back the the Gritti for 6 nights in the fall!).
Very good Barry. BTW, FWIW ‘Le Tout Paris’ (the 7th floor bar & brasserie) does not mean ‘all of Paris’ in French - it means the ‘those in the know’, ‘the in crowd’. I will be in Paris in the fall & spring, but I think I’m going to be too busy to make it to Venice certainly before the spring. Good for you!
