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Paris
Coming & going
AIR
Paris has three airports. Most travellers arrive at Aeroport Charles-de-Gaulle although Orly handles a lot of European flights with low-cost airlines using Beauvais to the north of the city.
Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
Charles de Gaulle Airport can be reached by RER Express Train and a number of bus services, operated by both RATP and Air France.
Most people find the RER the easiest way to get into Paris from the airport. The RER stops at Gare du Nord, Chatelet, Saint Michel, Luxembourg and Denfert Rochereau in the city centre and continues south through the suburbs where you can transfer at Antony station for a light rail service to Orly Airport.
Charles de Gaulle airport is located at Roissy, in zone 5 of the Parisian public transport network. If you have a Carte Orange or Paris Visite pass valid for zones 1 to 5 you can use this to get to the airport. Otherwise the RER from central Paris costs €8.40. If you are taking the RER from central Paris to the airport you will need to make sure that you get on RER line B in the direction Roissy-CDG - make sure you don't get on the train to Poissy or Boissy. The correct train should be indicated by the code B3.
RATP operate Roissybus running between the Air France office on rue Scribe (near Opéra) and the airport every 15 minutes throughout the day. The 60 minute journey costs €9.10. Carte Orange and Paris Visite passes are valid on this bus provided that they cover zone 5.
You can also take the RATP bus 350 to Gare de l'Est or bus 351 to Nation. These buses, however, are slower than the express services but are also much cheaper. A zone 1-5 Carte Orange is valid on these buses.
Air France operate a bus service from Porte Maillot and Etoile to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport with departures every 30 minutes. The 45-minute journey costs €15.
Air France also operate a half-hourly bus service from Gare Montparnasse (departing from rue du Commandant Mouchotte) that stops at Gare de Lyon (on boulevard Diderot) en route to the airport. The journey time between Charles de Gaulle Airport and Gare Montparnasse is around 50 minutes. A one-way ticket between the airport and Gare Montparnasse is €16.50.
If you get off at the wrong terminal there are free shuttle buses linking terminals CDG1, CDG2 and T9.
Orly Airport
Orly Airport handles mainly domestic and intra-European flights, although the odd charter flight may also use this airport. Orly is much closer to Paris and is accessible by RER and a variety of buses.
RER lines B and C both connect Paris to Orly Airport. Line B involves a combination of RER and the OrlyVAL light rail, whereas the other option involves line C and the Orlyrail shuttle bus.
Line B is the quickest and more expensive of the two and involves taking the RER line B to Antony (€6.10), then transferring to the ORLYVAL light rail (€7.40). Trains on this route run around every 4 to 8 minutes. The average journey time between Châtelet RER station in central Paris and Orly Airport is 30 minutes. The combined fare including the RER and OrlyVAL is €13.50. You can use a zones 1 to 5 Paris Visite ticket on this service, but the Carte Orange is not valid on ORLYVAL.
Line C of the RER is a cheaper alternative. This runs every 15 minutes (every 30 minutes after 9pm) and costs only €6.10 including both the RER ticket and the connecting shuttle bus. Because there are several different branches of the RER line C, you must be sure to get on the RER C2. Take the RER C2 in the direction Massy-Palaiseau and get off at Pont de Rungis-Aéroport d'Orly. At this station you transfer to the Orlyrail shuttle bus, which costs €2.50. The RER line C includes the following stops in central Paris: Gare d'Austerlitz, Saint Michel, Musée d'Orsay, Invalides, Champ de Mars-Tour Effiel and Porte Maillot. The average journey time between Gare d'Austerlitz and Orly Airport is 35 minutes. The Carte Orange (zones 1-4) and Paris Visit (zones 1-5) travel passes are valid on this route.
The RATP also operates the Orlybus express coach service between Orly Aiport and Place Denfert-Rochereau. The 25 minute journey costs €6.30.
RATP bus 183 runs every 30 minutes between Orly (Terminal Sud) and Porte de Choisy métro station. This is one of the cheaper ways to get into town, as long as you don't mind an hour on the bus followed by at least another half hour on the métro. This route costs €1.60 or you can use a 1-4 zone Paris Visite or Carte Orange pass on this bus route or validate a métro ticket when you board the bus.
Bus 285 is another bus service. This service operates between the Villejuif - Louis Aragon métro station (on line 7) and the airport with departures every 12 to 15 minutes. The 15 minute journey costs €5.40.
Air France operate an express bus from Esplanade des Invalides stopping en route at Gare Montparnasse. The average journey time between Les Invalides and Orly is 35 minutes. A one-way ticket is €11.50.
The ORLYVAL light rail system also provides a free link between the airport's two terminals; Orly Sud and Orly Ouest. The average journey time is 2 minutes.
Beauvais Airport
Beauvais Airport is around one hour north of Paris. This airport is used mainly for charter flights, although you're most likely to use this airport if you take one of the cheap Ryanair flights.
An express coach link service departs from outside the terminal building to Paris - Porte Maillot. The coach departs approximately 20 minutes after each Ryanair flight arrival. On return, the coach departs from Porte Maillot (on boulevard Gouvion St-Cyr beside the James Joyce Pub) 2 hours 25 minutes prior to a Ryanair flight departure. Tickets cost €14 and can be purchased at Beauvais Airport and the James Joyce Pub near Porte Malliot.
COACH
Eurolines buses depart Gare Routière Eurolines which is located in Bagnolet to the east of the city. To get here take the métro to Gallini, it's at the end of line three. It's a great place to score free magazines (in French) and the shopping centre upstairs has an Auchan supermarket with five aisles of wine, including a great Corbières for around €2.
TRAIN
Paris has six main train stations each handling trains to different places.
Gare du Nord has trains to Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, northern Germany and the north-east of France, plus Eurostar trains to London. Gare de l'Est (only a five minute walk from Gare du Nord) handles trains to Luxembourg, Germany, eastern Europe and eastern France. Gare St-Lazare has trains to Brittany and Normandy and some of Paris's north-eastern suburbs. Gare de Lyon has trains to Lyon, the Alps and the Riviera, Switzerland and Italy. Gare d'Austerlitz has slow trains to south-western France and Spain, and Gare Montparnasse has fast trains to south-western France and Spain.
HITCHHIKING
Paris is not a good city to hitch from. It is best to splurge and buy a bus or train ticket to a nearby city rather than try your luck here.
Avoid hitching at an entrance ramp on the Péripherique (the motorway which circles Paris) - you'll be waiting a long time since it's mostly local traffic heading to the suburbs.
If you want to try your luck hitching at one of the portes on the Péripherique you can try Porte d'Orléans or Porte d'Italie for Lyon, Porte de Bagnolet for Lilles, Brussels and Amsterdam, Porte d'Auteuil for Le Havre and Porte de Bercy for Reims, Metz and Nancy.
If you want to go to Lille, Amsterdam or Brussels you could take the metro (line 13) to St Denis - Porte de Paris and hitch near the entrance to the auroroute although going further from the city centre will guarrantee less local traffic. A good alternative hitching spot is the A1/E15 autoroute north of Paris at Survilliers. Take the RER to Survilliers-Fosses (RER line D), walk up rue Cugnot, then west on avenue de Beaumont (D922), which changes its name to rue de la Gare and rue du Houx after passing the N17. When you get to Place de la Bergerie, walk south down Grande Rue until you get to the autoroute entrance. The Vemars service area is a couple of hundred metres south of the entrance and is accessible by walking on a small road to the west of the autoroute. In all it's about a 45-minute walk.
Some people try and hitch from Marché de Rungis in the southern suburbs with mixed results. You would expect this to be the perfect hitching spot - this is the city's main wholesale market with hundreds of trucks dropping off goods everyday and departing for destinations all over Europe. Unfortunately most people wait here all day before giving up and returning to Paris to buy a bus or train ticket out of town.
Fortunately Paris has an excellent ride sharing service known as Allostop Provoya (8, rue Rochambeau, 75009 Paris; métro Cadet; tel (01) 53 20 42 42). They can match you up with someone going your way for a fee which works out much cheaper than the train or bus.
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