Paris - Getting Around

I’m not going to talk about car hire here, as there’ll no doubt be a Paris map in the car when you pick it up. And as Pod will vouch for, I’m hopeless at directions under pressure!

Arriving by Plane - CDG

There are two main airports in Paris - Charles de Gaulle (CDG), to the north of the city, and Orly, to the south. As the vast majority of flights from the UK land at CDG, we’ll start there first. When you arrive at the airport, you’ll have three options to get into the city, being taxi, train, or bus.

A taxi from the airport will set you back at least €45 (more at night), and don’t forget that you’ll also get the traffic which will no doubt bump the cost up further.

Getting in by train is the easiest, quickest and cheapest option. The railway station is well signposted at the airport (look for the signs saying “RER”), and after about a ten minute walk from arrivals, you should get to the ticket office. If you’re flying back, ask for a return ticket:-

“un aller-retour à Paris Nord, s’il vous plâit” (you don’t obviously have to go to Paris Nord, but substitute any station of your choice)

A single ticket cost €7.85. Usually, ticket prices in France for return tickets on trains are double the single price, rather than the 50p more in this country. This map:-

If you prefer the bus, looks for the signs for the Roissy Bus, which stops at the Opéra every fifteen minutes between 5.45 a.m. and 11 p.m. Cost for a single ticket is €8.30.

Arriving by Plane - Orly

As we know, Orly’s the southern airport, so most of you will get nowhere near it, but for completeness…

It’s slightly cheaper by taxi, this time coming in at €35, but once again it goes through the southern section of the city, so watch out for the traffic.

The RER has two options; line B4 goes from Orly to Chatelet in the centre of the city (cost €8.85 single) at between four and eight minute intervals, and takes 30 minutes. Line B2 goes from Orly to Invalides with the same sort of frequency, takes 40 minutes, and costs €5.45 single.

The OrlyBus stops at Place Denfert-Rochereau and at Invalides (where the pick up spot is outside the RER station) every 12 minutes, taking between 30 and 40 minutes, and costing €5.80 single. It’s quite a nice tour of southern Paris if you have the time, especially if you’re getting off at Invalides.

A small ginger person getting on the OrlyBus at Invalides 

Arriving by Eurolines Coach

Having done it myself, I don't envy you, but if you've got a nice morning, then Paris can be a wonderful city for strolling around before it gets too busy, with cafes open early and enticing you in.  The Eurolines coach, from Victoria coach station to Paris, takes anything between nine and eleven hours and goes via the ferry from Dover to Calais.  On arriving in Paris, you'll pass the Stade de France before ending up at the coach station at Bagnolet in the east of the city.  The nearest metro station here is Galieni, right at the end of Metro line 3.  If you're travelling back on the Saturday night, allow at least half an hour to get there from central Paris, and remember that you have to check in before getting on the coach, which can take up to an hour depending on how busy the coach is.

Also if you are going back and want food or drink for the coach, get it before you go back to Galieni, as there's only a tiny shop there which usually only has the smallest of choice left by 8 p.m. on a Saturday night.

Arriving by Eurostar

The Eurostar takes you directly from London Waterloo to the Gare du Nord in central Paris in less than three hours.  As the station is very central, you can get from here to anywhere in the city via the Metro - and you may see one of the editors of this site looking very tired on one on the Friday afternoon as he'll have started work at 4.30 that morning just to get the afternoon off to go over (Lom's note - ignore him, he's just showing off!).

The Metro

Unless you’re very fit, the quickest way of getting around Paris is via the Metro, which is just like the one here, except bigger. One big difference though is that the day tickets are confusing, and it‘s best sticking with the simple options - a single ticket (“un billet”) costs €1.40, and covers you for one journey, including all connections, across the breadth of the Metro system. If you’re there for two or three days though and you intend travelling about taking in sights and beer as well as rugby, you’ll probably find it easier to buy a “carnet” (pronounced car-nay), which is a wad of ten tickets for €10.50. All tickets can be bought at the ticket offices, the multi-lingual ticket machines, and some tobacconists.

Note as well, if you’re taking the kids, transport is free for children under 4 and half price for children between 4 and 11 years old. A metro map is here:-

and whilst all stations have a full map, some stations have a map where you can press buttons between your starting station and your end point to see where your route takes you, all lit up!

The key points on the Metro (and I’ll go into more of these in other articles) are:-

Gare du Nord (or Paris Nord) - METRO lines 4 and 5

Eiffel Tower (“le tour Eiffel”) - METRO: Line 6 Bir-Hakeim, lines 6 or 9 Trocadéro, or line 8 Ecole Militaire
RER : Ligne C - Station Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel

Parc des Princes - METRO Line 9 Porte de Saint Cloud or line 10 Porte d'Auteuil.

Next article is the stadium, its surrounds, and Stade Francais.