We will be leaving Amboise on a Sunday and need to be at CDG by around 11am. We will have a rental car, but the car rental locations in Tours are closed on Sundays.
ANY SUGGESTIONS?
Should we simply drop the car off in Tours on Saturday and take the train to Amboise and then back again to Tours on Sunday for the 1 hour train to CDG?
How about driving from Amboise to CDG on Sunday? How difficult is this?
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Most of the rental companies have offices at St Pierre des Corps outside Tours from where the majority of TGVs to Paris leave. I don%26#39;t know about other agencies but I do know you can return a Europcar rental there on a Sunday *with prior arrangement.*
It will take you between 3 and 4 hours to get from Amboise to CDG by train on a Sunday morning. There are only a few TGVs that will take you direct to CDG and those that will take the best part of two hours, not one hour. There is one that leaves St. P. des C. at 09:02 and arrives at CDG at 10:50. That is the only Sunday TGV that would work.
I cannot find a direct train to get you to St. P. des C. on Sunday morning in time for that TGV. Best I can find is a train leaving Amboise for Blois at 07:24 arriving at 07:44, then a train from Blois leaving at 07:54 arriving at St. P. des C. at 08:18. The normal train trip from Amboise takes about 20 minutes but the first direct train on Sunday leaves Amboise at 09:20
Otherwise you will be taking a slow train from Amboise to Gare d%26#39;Austerlitz in Paris or a TGV from St. P des C or Tours to Gare Montparnasse. From here you will need to take a taxi or Air France coach or RER/métro to CDG. Any of those that would get you to Paris on time involve the same 07:24 departure from Amboise. That train would get you to Austerlitz at 09:54 or, via Blois and St P des C (with a VERY tight connection at St. P des C) to Montparnasse at 09:20 from which you could probably get to CDG by about 10:30 using the Air France coach.
I wouldn%26#39;t recommend driving from Amboise to CDG unless you are familiar with the route. It would be about a 3 hour drive and there is always the possibility of finding youself heading in the wrong direction. I%26#39;m all for reducing potential stressors to a minimum when heading to the US through CDG. It%26#39;s already enough that it can take more than 3 hours to check in and clear security...
So all this typing has really just been to let me think through the problem and decide what I would do. First choice would be to arrange to drop the car at St P des C on the Sunday morning at about 08:30 and then take the direct TGV to CDG. if this won%26#39;t work I would drop the car the day before at St P des C, take a train to Amboise and then arrange for a taxi to go back to St P des C the next morning in time for the 09:02 TGV to CDG, so probably leaving the hotel in Amboise about 08:15. The taxi shouldn%26#39;t be too expensive. Your hotel can probably advise.
Sorry about all this rambling. As I said I was really just thinking through the issues as I typed. Timetables for the various train options at voyages-sncf.com
Hope all this helped — and good luck!
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I really appreciate your help. Thanks!
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