Tags
CDG, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Chez Cri-Cri, Hotel Campanile, Laying over in Paris, Paris Airport Stay, Pomme d'Or, Roissy, Roissy-en-France, Saint Eloi (Roissy)
Daniel Dambreville, the charming publican of Chez Cri-Cri in Roissy, told us that 165,000 people pass through Charles deGaulle Airport every day. CDG is a major hub for visitors to Paris as well as those traveling on to the rest of the world. Opened it 1974, it is Europe’s second busiest airport, after London’s Heathrow. It covers 12.5 square miles over 6 communes, one of which is Roissy. The airport’s location was plucked from a dwindling amount of undeveloped land around Paris in the mid-1960’s, and it has been a boon to the formerly sleepy little communes it occupies.
One-quarter of the airport lies in Roissy-en-France (in fact the airport is also known as ‘Roissy’). To the town’s great benefit the airport has to pay taxes and so forth for the land it occupies. This works out very well for the roughly 2,500 residents of this still largely agricultural town. Monsieur Dambreville told us that in addition to the handsome public garden and a modern and very active cultural center, L’Orangerie, the income from the airport and its satellite hotels allows the town to offer a free vacation every year to residents. (This, by the way, is not that uncommon in Europe. Our Dutch friend tells us that in the Netherlands the elderly and the blind are regularly treated to a small holiday; in our own Rapallo the elderly used to be taken for a week’s holiday in the mountains – a practice abandoned during the current fiscal crisis). And not only do they get a holiday – they also get free heat and free potatoes – all the potatoes they can eat! Wouldn’t that be great??!
The point of all this is to say that it’s great fun to stay over in Roissy if Paris, or a change at CDG, is in your travel plans. It’s a small village, but there are at least nine very comfortable hotels. We stayed in The Campanile, a centrally-located three-star with shuttle service to and from the airport. “Centrally-located” is relative – Roissy is not large, and there are not a lot of non-hotel amenities in the village. The aforementioned Chez Cri-Cri is a lovely place to stop in for a beer and a chat.
If you’re there at mid-day you can have lunch as well.
Photo courtesy of Clicsouris
Next door to Chez Cri-Cri is the elegant little gem, Saint Eloi. It was built around 1650 on the site of a 12th century church which itself was built atop the remains of an ancient shrine (7th – 10th century).
As you can tell, we were there at night, so we were unable to get inside to see the 16th century restored stained glass windows from the inside (restored in 1984), the organ (acquired in 1989 by the municipality – thank you CDG) and the tombs of Jehan Sauvage and his wife Perrette de Thyois:
Photo courtesy of Clicsouris
Across from our hotel we found the seemingly charming restaurant Pomme d’Or:
Under different management it would have been a pleasure to eat there. The hostess was barely polite; she gave us food because she was obliged to. When, for instance, I asked her how old the building was she said she didn’t know. Nonsense. She said I could photograph inside the restaurant, but couldn’t take her picture. Fair enough. So I took this picture of our chicken cooked in beer, which sounded heavenly:
The farfalle were overcooked and completely cold. The chicken was tepid. Let’s just say it wasn’t the best eating-out experience we’ve ever had. They put together a nice cheese plate for dessert, though – hard to ruin good French cheese:
As Speedy said, next time we layover in Roissy we’ll eat in one of the hotels, since Cri-Cri doesn’t serve dinner. Too bad, because the locals hang out there.
We chatted briefly with this gentleman; what he really wanted to know was how old Speedy is.
Last time we passed through CDG it was a madhouse; there was practically grid-lock of passengers and luggage trying to navigate the terminal. There was none of that this time. For whatever reason everything seemed to be working very well. We had made a point of avoiding the airport because of the crowds and hassel, but having discovered the delights of Roissy-en-France and finding the airport more efficient, we’ll be sure to pass through again.
An Ex-Expatriate 
A pleasant airport is an oxymoron. CDG never seemed so bad to us, but then we cut our teeth on JFK, LaGuardia, and Heathrow. I like your attitude, a good evening near a random airport is better than…. the movies or the meals on any transatlantic flight.
Ohhhh – JFK. I’ve often wondered when passing through there (which we used to do a lot) how first-time foreign visitors could make any sense of it at all, especially if they weren’t English speakers. Yikes. LaGuardia is marginally better. Heathrow? Fun shopping, I suppose, if that’s what you want to do in the airport; I’d rather just find the plane and get on it. Travel Used to be fun, but isn’t so much any more. Too bad. We really take our time moving from place to place now so we can rest up for each airport adventure.
Fun post – I love all the details about the village, it’s church, etc. Thanks!
I would love to go back some time and see the inside of the church…
I want a gargoyle!
I think CdG is one of the worst airports I have ever been in. It was marginally better the last time I went through there, but it has a long way to go.
@Debra I so agree with you about CDG. It is all spread out, the signage is bad. Even when you ask for directions – in either French or English – the employees there often don’t know the answers. It is also a truly ugly airport. Another airport I hate to fly through is Heathrow. It is more attractive but I found the place supremely confusing. Not because of its layout so much but because of the lack of information signs. My favourite airports to fly through are Trapani, Sicily and Victoria, British Columbia because they are small and easy to navigate and also Vancouver, British Columbia because it is the best organized and most beautiful airport that I have ever flown through. Perhaps this is a bit of chauvinism on my part (I am Canadian), but whenever I am returning to Canada and I land in Vancouver, I can’t help feeling a bit proud about how easy it is to navigate YVR and how lovely it looks.
Oh, and in the interest of clarity, I am using chauvinism in sense of definition #1
chau·vin·ism/ˈSHōvəˌnizəm/
Noun:
1. Exaggerated or aggressive patriotism.
2. Excessive or prejudiced loyalty or support for one’s own cause, group, or gender.
It’s no coincidence that the two airports you dislike most are the two largest in Europe (in terms of traffic) – I too love smaller airports. Our airport in Phoenix is easy to navigate and has been voted (by whom??) the friendliest airport in the U.S. I agree! There’s much to be said for familiarity as well – once we know our way around, even the most complex airport is not too troublesome. Have never been to either Trapani or Vancouver, but would happily visit both. Another adorable little airport is Genova – it’s the size of a mite.
Last summer we had an overnight stop-over at CDG so we stayed in one of the very cheap hotels near the airport but not near anything else. We, of course, got what we paid for. Shared bathrooms and shared showers. A room so small that we had to walk on tiptoes going around the bed in order to avoid bumping our knees. And we couldn’t sit up quickly from the bed because we would crack our heads on the bunk bed above us! It did have a tv – with 3 channels. Oh, and no telephone. But we only paid €40 so, as I mentioned, we got what we paid for. Outside there were only other hotels of a similar nature, office buildings and what I assume is in France, a family restaurant that was not too bad at all, although compared to what we pay for meals in Sicily was outrageously expensive. I know, I know – I shouldn’t compare, but our last night in Sicily we spent €5 on a lovely pizza that we shared. In our French family restaurant we spent €112 for our two lunches. I think before we do the overnight near CDG again, I will re-read your post! No more €40 hotels for me!
Well, as you say, you get what you pay for. We paid E 79 for our stay at Campanile, almost double your cost. The room wasn’t large, but it was clean and comfortable and we were able to walk to the town ‘center’ not far away. On the other hand, our cold grumpy dinner at Pomme d’Or was E28 for both of us, a prix fixe – if it had been hot and if the hostess had been even moderately pleasant it would have been lovely. Much less than your over-priced lunches. My days of shared bathrooms are, I fervently hope, over! But nothing beats of deliciousness and value of Italian food, that’s all there is to it. Happy travels, and mind your head. 😉