CDG · A long weekend on a ticket · checked 29 October 2026
72 hours in Paris from CDG
Seventy-two hours is the first Paris layover that can include Versailles without lying to yourself. Put it in the middle. Keep the last afternoon boring and pointed at CDG.
It is also enough to skip Versailles entirely and have a better trip. Both are legitimate.
If you want the palace
Middle morning, tickets bought, train from a Paris station you have looked up, back in the city by mid-afternoon. Eat in Paris that night, not in a food court because you missed the train you needed.
The morning you fly is not a Versailles morning.
If you do not
Day one in the Marais, day two in Saint-Germain or along the Canal Saint-Martin, day three a museum or nothing in particular. This is what the extra night is for.
Montmartre is a fine half day and a crowded one. Go early or do not go. It is not on the way to CDG.
Hotel logic
You can sleep in a neighbourhood you like for two nights and move to Gare du Nord or the airport for the last night if the flight is early. That move is not fussy. It is the difference between a calm departure and a RER you do not want.
Border time
Leaving the Schengen area, non-EU travellers should expect EES on the way out as well as in. Build the margin into the last afternoon rather than discovering it at the gate.
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