CDG · A night in the city · checked 29 October 2026
48 hours in Paris from CDG
Forty-eight hours is enough for a walk and a museum, in that order of priority if you do not already love the museum. It is still not the Versailles layover.
Sleep near Gare du Nord if the flight home is the thing you are worried about. Sleep in the Marais or Saint-Germain if the flight is the next evening and you want the city more than the margin.
Day one, outside
Arrive, drop the bag if the hotel will take it, and walk. The Marais is the most forgiving first day because it does not collapse if you are late out of CDG.
Eat a long lunch. A layover that skips sitting down is just transit with better architecture.
Day two, one ticket
Musée d'Orsay or the Louvre with a timed entry, not both. Orsay is the kinder museum on a layover if you like the building and a collection you can actually finish a corner of.
A Seine cruise replaces the museum if the weather is doing the work. One hour on a boat is a complete activity.
Still no palace
Versailles on 48 hours means no museum and a rushed palace. If you only want the palace, go, with tickets, and accept that Paris was the station. Do not pretend you will do both.
The return
RER B back to CDG, then the terminal. Start earlier than you would have in 2019 if you are a non-EU national, because EES is now fully in use at external borders and the way back into the system is not always a wave-through.
Three hours at the terminal remains the long-haul number. The train time sits on top.
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