nicolas75

Indeed.

Remember still that finding your way to the French side of GVA airport can be tricky (as the policy of the Swiss authorities is to show the way only of the Swiss side...). The advantage of the French side is that you do not need to take a shuttle to the airport (direct access to the Terminal from the rent-a-car parking).

Coming from Geneva city centre: follow Ferney-Voltaire, then France, drive into the tunnel under the runway, cross the border, and then turn-left: it is only at this point that "Aéroport secteur Français" is indicated.

nanp

"Going towards Burgundy, you don't have to take the peripherique you take the outer ring road A104 and join then the A5 which is painless"

OK. So now I am looking into landing at CDG, visiting northern burgundy first, then heading south for a week and leaving from GVA. Sixt rentals are reasonable, fares are good, though I'm having a hard time finding a non-stop from GVA to the states.

monahos

There are only 3:
- LX to JFK
- UA (PMUA) to IAD
- UA (PMCO) to EWR

nanp

Well, that certainly simplifies my Searches for flights. Thanks for the heads-up.

stimpy

What? Of course there are TGV trains from CDG to Dijon and Le Creusot! I take them often as I live in Burgundy. There is only one per day in each direction to and from Dijon, but there are several to Le Creusot. And from Dijon you can connect to Beaune, Mersault, Nuits St. George, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chalon Sur Saone, etc.

As someone who lives here my preferred airport is LYS, but oftentimes the airfare and timing works best at CDG. Feel free to OP me if you have more specific questions.

NickB

I was aware of that: one a day (around 7am departure from Dijon and around 8pm departure from Roissy) compared to numerous ones to/from Gare de Lyon. Do you not think that it pretty much proves my point, especially as the Roissy-Dijon timing is unlikely to be suitable for connection from most tatl flights?


Really? I can only see an early morning one at 6h30am from le Creusot to Roissy and a late evening one for the return at 21h16, i.e broadly similar to the Dijon-Roissy-Dijon times an early morning Roissy-bound/late evening province-bound.

When are those several others that you mention?

stimpy

Well I guess I'm out of date. The SNCF seems to have reduced the frequency between Le Creusot and CDG which seems pretty crazy to me. The line between Lyon and Paris passes Le Creusot and they used to stop about one in every 4 trains there. I took the early train from Le Creusot to CDG a few weeks ago and there were close to a hundred people getting on at Le Creusot.

But back to driving as it seems that is what the OP wants to do, you can always buy a GPS or rent one from Sixt (buying might be cheaper) or if you have one in the US you can see if you can load a Euro map on it. That will help you deal with Paris. Compare that with the cost of flying into GVA or LYS. Driving up to Burgundy from GVA is easy, but a fair bit longer than LYS. They recently built a new autoroute from LYS in the direction of Macon which completely avoids the Lyon traffic and most semi's.

nanp

"Compare that with the cost of flying into GVA"
Actually, roundtrip from the states to CDG is about the same fare as it is to GVA. And a split fare, fly into CDG and back from GVA, is also about that same price. I was very surprised.

jacknyoc

Flying into CDG and driving from there through northern Burgundy south is pretty easy...and a wonderful experience. We've done it a couple of times over the past few years.

CDG to Auxerre is about two hours...pretty easy as long as you stay away from Paris. We made overnight stops in Auxerre, Avallon and Autun. We then drove down to the Tournus and Beaujolais area for a couple of nights before heading back up to Beaune (overnight) and then Dijon. We dropped our car off at Dijon train station (you can also drop in Beaune) and stayed a couple of days (great city). We caught the early morning train back to CDG to connect to our return flight to the US. Wonderful trip...great food/wine...wonderful scenery...very nice people all along the way.

BTW, we also did a trip that included taking the TGV from Paris to Lyon, picking up a rental car at the train station and driving into the French Alps...Annecy and Chamonix. Annecy, very close to GVA (30-40 min), is a great spot for an overnight or two after arriving at GVA...we have it on our list for a future trip. From there, it's about 2 hrs of very easy highway driving through beautiful countryside to the Beaujolais/S. Burgundy area.

nicolas75

No wonder why you live in Burgundy...

stimpy

I was in a rush!

nicolas75

I was referring to wines, not spelling typos

nanp

"hard time finding a non-stop from GVA to the states.
There are only 3:
- LX to JFK
- UA (PMUA) to IAD
- UA (PMCO) to EWR "

I cannot find the non-stop GVA-IAD, only GVA-EWR. Outbound from states(we leave from Tennessee) to GVA schedule is fine, all returning schedules show 2 stops or a 7+ hr layover in EWR.
Well, I went back to UA's website and changed my return date to a weekend. There was the non-stop to IAD.

monahos

Hmm, UA 975 GVA-IAD is a daily flight to my knowledge.

Or maybe is it sold out in your class of choice on your preferred date? Usually it seems mostly full in business class due to diplomatic traffic, fairly full in E- due to the Swiss codeshare, and less so in E+ which is mostly off-limits to non-UA elites.

P.S: if you are not up front and don't have access to Economy Plus, try to snag 28A/B or J/K, which are E+ seats but sometimes seem available to E- passengers (28 C/E/H have the usual 31" E- pitch).

nanp

Yes, the flight on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20 is UA 975. The connection time in IAD is just over 2 hrs., that may be cutting it a bit too close. The next flight out of IAD would be a 7 hr. layover.
As to flight 957, when I look on Oct. 18, Thursday, I cannot find it. It is offered Oct 17 but not Oct. 16. Ick. Now this search is not only for price but for a certain flight. They don't make this easy. Now I need to find out when the diplomatic traffic is taking a week off....Thanks for the flight #.