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Getting In to Paris

The best ways to get to Paris are by air or rail.

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  to the north-east of the city is one of the major hub airports of Europe. It's notoriously confusing, so allow plenty of time for transfers. There are three terminals: Terminal 1, Terminal 2 (which is huge and subdivided into 2A through 2F), and Terminal 3 (formerly T9). The free CDGVAL shuttle train connects the terminals together.

For getting to or from Paris, RER-B has stations in T1 (from where you can walk to T3) and T2; trains to Paris (Châtelet-Les Halles) leave every 15 minutes, cost €8,50 each and take around 40 minutes, making this the fastest and cheapest way to connect. Alternatively, the Roissybus service connects all terminals directly to Opéra Garnier in central Paris, but it's subject to traffic jams and takes 60-90 minutes even on a good day. There is also a TGV station in T2 for high-speed connections, mostly towards Lille and Brussels, but there are also some trains that head south to eg. Rennes and Nantes, bypassing Paris.

Orly International Airport, to the south-west of the city, and served by a southern branch of the RER-B line. This older international airport is used mainly by Air France for national lines, and other international carriers in Europe. Orly is roughly forty minutes from Paris via the OrlyBus, which departs from Métro Denfert-Rochereau; the price is €6. Another option is bus 285 that takes you to the Villejuif - Louis Aragon metro station (ligne 7) in 15 minutes. Bus 285 costs €1.5 and runs every 10 minutes, stopping at airport level -1.

Beauvais (Aéroport de Paris Beauvais Tillé), to the north of the city, is a smaller regional airport that is used by some low-cost carriers, such as RyanAir (list flights). 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. This is important: you should be there waiting for the bus around three hours and fifteen minutes before your flight, and the bus stop has no facilities, it's just a parking lot! However, there are a number of fast food outlets, shops and toilets at the Palais des Congres building situated across the road. 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 August 2007).

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 disembarking, 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.

To get to the city center you'll need a Noctilien bus if you arrive to CDG Airport at night. The bus stops in all three terminals (in terminal 2 it will be the second level in departure section - it is very difficult to find, but it really exists). The bus leaves every 30 minutes after 00:30 (see timetable). The buses you'll need are N121 and N120, the price is 7 Euro.

By train

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

  • Gare du Nord, Métro: Gare du Nord - TGV trains to and from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Cologne, Germany (Thalys), and the United Kingdom (Eurostar) and regular trains from Northern Europe.

  • Gare d'Austerlitz, Métro: Gare d'Austerlitz - regular trains to and from the center and southwest of France (Orléans, Limoges, Toulouse the long way), Spain and Portugal and arrival of majority of the night trains.

  • Gare de l'Est, Métro: Gare de l'Est - ICE/TGV to and from Saarbrücken, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart, Germany.

  • Gare de Lyon, Métro: Gare de Lyon - regular and TGV trains to and from Southern and eastern France: French Alps, Marseille, Lyon, Dijon, Switzerland: Geneva, Lausanne and Italy.

  • Gare St Lazare, Métro: St-Lazare - trains to and from Basse-Normandie, Haute-Normandie

  • Gare Montparnasse, Métro: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe - TGV and regular trains to and from the west and south-west of France (Brest, Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse the fastest way and Spain)

The SNCF (French national railway authority) 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 - the world-famous French high-speed trains (Trains à Grande Vitesse) run several times a day to the Southeast Nice(5-6h), Marseille (3h) and Avignon (2.5 h), the East Geneva (3h) or Lausanne, Switzerland and Dijon (1h15) , the Southwest Bordeaux (3h), the West Rennes (3h) and the North Lille (less than 1h). Eurostar to London (2h40) and Thalys to Brussels (1h20) use almost identical trains.

  • Thalys - 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 - 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

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.

It is advised not to drive in the Paris Metro Area. It is better to drive to a metro station with a parking lot and then use the metro to continue your trip throughout Paris. Most of Paris' roads were created long before the invention of automobiles. Traffic inside the city tends to be heavy, especially at rush hour, driving however may be rather easy and efficient in the evening; parking also is difficult. Also, the medieval nature of parts of the city's street system makes it very confusing, and traffic will almost never allow one to stop or slow down to get one's bearings. If you are unfamiliar with the streets and still insist on driving in the city, make sure you have a navigator in the passenger seat with you.

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