Paris - Get in

From Wikitravel

Get in

By car

Several autoroutes link Paris with the rest of France: A1 and A3 to the north, A5 and A6 to the south, A4 to the east and A13 and A10 to the west. Not surprisingly traffic jams are significantly worse during French school holidays. Online visual traffic information is available at http://www.sytadin.equipement.gouv.fr/.

The multi-lane highway around Paris, called the Périphérique, is probably preferable to driving through the center. Another beltway nearing completion La Francilienne loops around Paris about 10 km further out from the Périphérique.

By train

Paris is well connected to the rest of Europe by train. Click above to see the approximate journey times for the fastest train connections to the rest of Europe.

There are several stations serving Paris. You will probably want to know in advance at which station your train is arriving, as so to better choose a hotel and plan for transport within the city.

• Gare du Nord, (10th), Métro: Gare du Nord - TGV trains to and from Belgium and the Netherlands (Thalys), and the United Kingdom (Eurostar) and regular trains from Northern Europe.
• Gare Austerlitz, (13th), Métro: Gare d'Austerlitz - regular trains to and from the center and southwest of France, Spain and Portugal and arrival of majority of the night trains.
• Gare de l'Est, (10th), Métro: Gare de l'Est - trains to and from Eastern Europe
• Gare de Lyon, (12th), Métro: Gare de Lyon - regular and TGV trains to and from Southern and eastern France: Marseille, Lyon, Dijon, Switzerland: Geneva, Lausanne and Italy.
• Gare St Lazare, (8th) Métro: St-Lazare - trains to and from Basse-Normandie, Haute-Normandie
• Gare Montparnasse, (15th), Métro: Montparnasse-Bienvenue - TGV and regular trains to and from the west and south-west of France (Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux and Spain)

The SNCF (French national railway authority) (http://www.sncf.com/indexe.htm) operates practically all trains within France excluding the Eurostar to London and the Thalys to Brussels and onward to the Netherlands and Germany. There are also a few local lines of high touristic interest which are privately owned. All SNCF, Eurostar and Thalys tickets can be bought in railway stations, city offices and travel agencies (no surcharge). The SNCF website is very convenient to book and buy tickets up to two months in advance. There are significant discounts if you book early. To get the best rates you should book at least four weeks ahead. Surprisingly, round trip tickets (aller-retour) with a stay over Saturday night can be cheaper than a single one-way ticket (aller simple). A very limited selection of last minute trips are published on the SNCF website every Tuesday, with discounts of more than 50%.

There a a number of different kinds of high speed and normal trains:

• TER Regional trains and normal day or night trains (no special name) operate to and from most cities in France and are usually your best bet for destinations all over France. These are the trains you'll find yourself on if you have a Eurail pass, and don't want to pay extra for reservations.

• TGV [2] (http://www.tgv.com/) - the world-famous French high-speed trains (Trains à Grande Vitesse) run several times a day to the Southeast Nice and Avignon, the East Geneva or Lausanne, Switzerland and Dijon, the Southwest Bordeaux, the West Rennes and the North Lille. Eurostar to London and Thalys to Brussels use almost identical trains.

• Thalys [3] (http://www.thalys.com/) - a high-speed train service running daily to/from the Netherlands and Belgium - it can be a bit expensive compared to normal trains

• Intercity Intercity trains leave for all parts of Europe, including overnight trains to San Sebastian in Spain, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal.

• Eurostar [4] (http://www.eurostar.com) - the Eurostar service connects Paris with London directly and Brussels indirectly, as well many other destinations indirectly through the various west European rail services. Travel time between Paris and London Waterloo International currently averages at 2 hours 40 minutes and will decrease even further with new tracks being laid up to 2007.

By bus

• Eurolines is a transeuropean bus company that offers trips to Paris. http://www.eurolines.com

By plane

Paris is served by three international airports - for more information, including arrival/departure times, check the official sites:

• Charles de Gaulle International Airport (Roissy CDG), to the north-east of the city at the northern terminus of the RER-B line. [5] (http://www.adp.fr/webadp/a_cont01_an.nsf/%24%24Affich%40ReadForm&cle=X500.html) There is also a TGV stop on the line from Paris to Brussels. CDG is one of the major hub airports of Europe. RER tickets from CDG to Paris cost 8€ each.
• Orly International Airport, to the south-west of the city, and served by a southern branch of the RER-B line [6] (http://www.adp.fr/webadp/a_cont01_an.nsf/%24%24Affich%40ReadForm&cle=X400.html). This older international airport is used mainly by Air France for national lines, and other international carriers in Europe.
• Beauvais (Aéroport de Paris Beauvais Tillé) [7] (http://www.aeroportbeauvais.com/index.php?lang=eng), to the north of the city, is a smaller regional airport is used by some low-cost carriers, such as RyanAir. The airport operates a shuttle service connecting with the Métro at Porte Maillot station. Buses leave 20 minutes after each flight arrives, and a few hours before each flight departs. Exact times can be found on the Beauvais Airport website. The journey will take about an hour in good traffic conditions, and costs 13€ each way (as of April 2005).

In addition to public transport, Air France operates shuttles between Charles de Gaulle and Paris (10€ - 12€), Orly and Paris (7.5€) and between the two airports (15€). Note that if you have connecting Air France flights that land and depart from different airports, you would still generally need to fetch your luggage after landing, catch either the Air France shuttle or a taxi to the other airport and check-in again. This altogether could take up to 2 hours particularly if traffic is at its worse. It is also common to lose time during disembarkment as passengers often need to get off at the tarmac and get on buses which will bring them to the terminal building. Be sure to have sufficient time between flights to catch your connection. Note that check-in counters usually close 30 minutes before the flight departs.

You should not discount the time it takes you to reach the city itself. For CDG this means roughly an hour via train (RER) to Metro Chatelet; the price is 8.30€. Orly is roughly forty minutes via the OrlyBus, which departs from Metro Denfert-Rochereau; the price is 5.80€.