CDG to hotel with no stairs/steps?
 

I will arrive on DL around 7:30am on a Tuesday, need to buy a Navigo Découverte card, take the RER B to Luxembourg and then walk to the hotel which looks to be a 5 minute walk.

I want to verify that I won't need to lift my luggage up steps/down steps from deboarding the plane through getting to the street from the Luxembourg RER station. Is this accurate?

Thanks.

There are escalators/elevators at terminal 2 (and at Roissypôle) to take you to the RER B departure platforms.

If you arrive Luxembourg sometime after the end of this month or the beginning of November, the new elevator system should be completed. Before the completion, there is a combination of escalators/stairs to reach street level. The south end of the arrival platform has an escalator which, if I remember correctly, reaches the street level without stairs.

If stairs present concerns for you, you should take a taxi from the official taxi queue at CDG. Fare to the Left Bank is fixed at 55€.

You might want to ask for the best way to get to your platform once you get to the RER station. I made a wrong turn and ended up with my party of three, with one in a wheelchair, on the wrong platform. We missed a train as a result so the error cost us about half an hour.

I will be arriving on October 30. I wonder how likely it will be that the new elevator system will be up and running in 11 days. So in theory, it sounds like either end will be step-free. I don't have a problem with a combination of elevator/escalator.

Taxis won't be an option as being in a car is painful for me because of a back condition I have called spondylolisthesis. Simply, the vertebrae in my spine are slipping forward.

Thank you for the warning. Are the signs for the RER B destinations toward Paris not easily visible at CDG?

There were some temporary construction barriers on the ticketing level when we arrived there late in July. Whatever signs were posted were not at all clear.

Regarding the RER Gare de Luxembourg, I think it unlikely the new elevators will be ready by the end of October. I had a wheelchair rider in my party so we went to the Port Royal RER station which has elevators and was only a little further from our hotel.

I have of course full sympathy for OP with this medical condition, and I am not at his/her place, but I fail to see how taking public transportations (at rush hours) with bags can be better than a taxi. Indeed, you always have the risk of some steps up/down in a station and escalators/elevators not working/in maintenance. I just want OP to not be in a more difficult/painful situation.

I appreciate your concern. I can't sit in a car without being in a lot of pain. Since it's just one commuter train as opposed to having to change trains, I should be able to manage this. I would hope I can get a seat whether there are designated handicapped seating or not as the RER B3 starts at CDG. I'll be arriving from Terminal 2E. If I run into a situation in which the elevator or escalator is down at Luxembourg, I will look for other options. I will have a carryon-sized 2 wheel pullman and a tote bag — no large suitcases.

Good to know, thanks.

I'm assuming the elevators won't be ready. At least I can take escalators at the south exit.

To go from central Paris to CDG with baggage on the RER can be a major pain in the back/neck. But to go from CDG to central Paris by RER with baggage tends not to be as bad. Going from CDG, I've always found plenty of room, but I also would try to position myself away from the doors as soon as possible. But I would not do this if changing modes of travel. Also, the train ride can be rather bumpy and uncomfortable to people with back problems. I would suggest taking a taxi/Uber.

Didn't read the op's post.

Can it be bumpier than the NYC subway?

The problem for me is how I would be seated in a taxi. In a car, since I am tall, there is added pressure to my lower back as when I am seated, my legs are at an acute angle and that is painful to my back. In a subway car or commuter train, when I am seated, the seat is high enough that my legs are at or near to a right angle and thus there is much less pressure on my lower back. So a bumpy ride with my legs at a right angle are probably easier for me to handle than seated in a car with my legs in a tight, acute angle without bumps. But I'm sure there are some road bumps from paving or potholes. I hope I am making myself clear. That I won't have to transfer to a different RER or to the métro should make it better for me.

That has certainly been on my mind. I will have my NyQuil caplets and diclofenac potassium pain pills. I also have an aisle seat in economy. So if I can survive that on what looks like a full flight, my commute to the hotel should be a breeze! :D

Very often the RER B will get visitors into Pairs much faster than will a taxi which can be slowed due to traffic, sometimes very heavy traffic. Recently (last week actually), friends of ours spent over two hours in a taxi to reach the 5th arrondissement from CDG after an early morning arrival from IAD.

The RER can be crowded at times but I do not agree that the ride is somehow rougher or more jolting than might be a taxi driving through the streets of Paris.

2 hours seated in a car would be awful.

Glad to read this. Thank you.