When we flew in to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) at the beginning of October, we had a driver meet us — we’re normally a public transit kind of couple, but when you add Chloe and her gigantic suitcase to the mix, a driver starts looking really good. We’d wanted, of course, to give Chloe a bathroom break before heading into central Paris, but our driver nixed that idea — the traffic, he exclaimed, and hustled us away. Happily, she survived, but we made a special effort to scope out the pet relief situation as we were leaving, when we had a bit more time.

Here’s what we learned. If you are arriving or departing from Terminal 1 (the round one, with the people mover tubes crossing the center), there’s only a limited amount of greenery to be found. If your dog is comfortable with eliminating on concrete, no problem — exit the terminal, walk across the roadway, and turn either right or left. If greenery is required, however, what you’ll find after you cross the roadway is what you see here:

There’s a thin strip of planting next to the sidewalk, and then there’s a steep slope of planting past a second roadway encircling the terminal. Not ideal, but perhaps your dog will be motivated enough to make it work.

[11/30/10 As you’ll see below, a reader left a comment saying that she’d been advised to make her way to the Hotel Ibis, which has some useful patches of grass around it. If you arrive at Terminal 3, you can walk to the Hotel Ibis. If you arrive at Terminals 1 or 2, you’ll need to hop on the CDGVAL, the inter-terminal tram, to reach the Hotel Ibis. The CDGVAL has five stops; you want to get off at “Terminal 3–Roissypole” and then look for the Hotel Ibis. Be sure to clean up after your dog! Please note that the Hotel Ibis chain is dog-friendly, so this would be a great, affordable place for travelers with dogs to stay at the airport.]

This post is part of an ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas we’ve visited. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.