| About-Paris
1: Public transport
and the Paris metro system |
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PARIS !
Paris
is Europe's most fantastic city, a place that can be
visited on a day
trip from London, but a city that has everything to keep the traveller
for far longer than that.
Museums, theatres, shops, fantastic historic
monuments, a beautiful riverscape, Paris is a city that has it all!
About-France.com
helps you plan your visit to Paris, and get the best out of your stay
in the French capital. |
Staying
in Paris
Check out the Paris Hotel Guide page.
Planning
your trip to Paris
Check out the About-France.com " Week
in Paris" page: a six-day programme that will help you get
the most of your week in the French capital.
Making
the best use of Paris public
transport.
 Like
most French
cities, Paris is not a place
to visit by car.
Parking can be an expensive nightmare (though less so than London), and
the city has a great public transport network, with a fast underground
network that stretches well into the suburbs.
The public transport system includes
buses, the underground and overground metro,
the RER (express transit metro), and of course plenty of taxis.
Taxis in France are ordinary vehicles with a taxi sign on the roof, not
special vehicles as in London.
Visitors who plan to use lots of public transport
in Paris may find that the best or cheapest
solution is to take a visitor's pass, "Paris
Visite", though this is not necessarily the case
(see below). The Paris Visite
passes are available on a 1, 2, 3
or 5 day basis,
and cover all types of official public transport in the central area or
central area and suburbs, depending on the option chosen.
For more ideas on keeping down your
costs, visit the Budget Paris page
The main Paris passes:
There
are several different "passes" available for visitors to Paris, and it
is a good idea not to get the wrong one, as this will mean either
paying too much or else getting less than you bargained for.....
The main
passes are:
- Paris
Visite - giving unlimited use of the metro / RER / bus
network for a given numer of days. Prices
start
at €8.50 for a one day adult pass or 14 €uros for 2
days (Spring 2008).
Full details in English, plus downloadable
Paris Metro and public transport maps from the Paris
Transport website,
- Paris
Pass - giving free use of public transport and
admission
to
some 60 monuments / museums in and around Paris - though NOT the Eiffel
Tower. Prices
start at 89 €uros for two days.
- Paris
Museum
pass - giving unlimited admission to some 60 monuments /
museums in and
around Paris, excluding the Eiffel Tower. Prices start at 30
€uros for
two days.
Other
passes:
- Hop-on
hop-off sightseeing bus pass for les Cars
Rouges, open-top guided tour buses linking nine major
sites; a two-day pass costs just 22 €., and can be bought on
the bus. An alternative is Cityrama, where a 2-day
hop-on hop-off pass costs 32 €, and covers four
different routes.
- The
"Batobus" and travel on the Seine.
The Batobus
are river buses that
go up and down the Seine from the Eiffel tower to the quai de
Montebello (near Notre Dame). There are 8 stops in all. A day
pass in 2008 costs 12 €, and a 5-day pass costs 17 €
per
adult.
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PASSES are
often the easiest
solution,
but not
necessarily the cheapest ...
USING THE METRO and Buses
 If you plan to use the Paris metro or
the bus less
than
six times in a day, opt
for a "carnet" (pronounced
Car-nay). This is simply ten standard tickets at a reduced rate
(€ 11.10 for ten in March 2009). Carnet tickets have no date
limit, and can be shared among members of a group. If you have some
left over at the end of your stay, keep them for next time. They are
valid on buses, the metro and the "RER" within the cental area, and on
metro and RER journeys allow as many changes as you want.
Though the Metro is mainly an
underground system,
several parts of the network are above ground, and offer an interesting
way to see Paris from well above street level.
Note:
Neither a standard Paris metro ticket nor a central Paris pass are
valid on the RER
for travel into the suburbs, and
notably for travel to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airports. For
such destinations, you must buy a specific ticket.
Specific destination tickets and carnets are
available
at all metro stations, and from automatic machines which accept credit
cards. Carnets can also be
bought in some main French railway stations outside Paris.
Finding your way in the metro.
This is no problem. Using the maps available,
check the line number and terminus station of each line you want to
take. If you need to change routes, follow the "Correspondance" signs
on the platform and through the foot tunnels; these indicate the line
numbers and the termini. Just follow the right one. The RATP (Paris
transport authority) provides free maps which are usually available in
hotels, metro stations and other places.
Paris Airport connections
Paris has two airports, Charles
de Gaulle (CDG) to the north and Orly (ORY) to the south.
If you arrive in Paris by air, use public transport to get into central
Paris; unless you can squeeze five passengers into a taxi, it will
certainly
be cheaper.
Charles
de
Gaulle Airport:
Terminal 1.
(British airlines, US carriers, etc.) Take the airport shuttle to
"railway station". Once you reach the station (5 minutes) buy ticket/s
for central Paris on the "R.E.R." (the express regional
network) . Ask for Paris zone urbaine, pronounced Paree, zone
yure baine.
See
tips and further
information below.
Terminal 2.
(Air France and partners). The train
station is in the terminal. Follow the signs for Gare TGV / Railway
station.
Once you reach the ticket office for "RATP" (Paris urban transport
network
/ RER/ Metro) buy ticket/s for central Paris on the "R.E.R." (the
express regional network) . Ask for Paris zone urbaine, pronounced Paree,
zone yure baine.
Click this link for a photo-tour of the
journey from CDG Terminal 2 to Cental Paris
See
tips and further
information below.
Useful
info: the Paris CDG train-station is served by direct TGV
high-speed trains
linking directly with most French cities: Lille, Lyon, Marseille,
Besançon, Dijon, Tours etc.... Check times! This is far
easier than taking the RER into Paris, then carting your luggage
through to a mainline train terminus.
Orly
Airport
Take the "Orlyval" light transit shuttles. These take you directly in
8 minutes to the RER (express suburban train) station at Antony. Here
you
connect to RER line B for a direct and rapid train journey into central
Paris. You can also take the Orlybus shuttle direct from the airport,
the
bus route terminates at Denfert
Rochereau metro station in the southern part
of central Paris
General Paris transport tips:
TIP - passengers
arriving at Charles de Gaulle:
do not take the slow trains that stop at all or most stations into
central Paris. Check on the departure board over the platform. Slow
trains are slow, and fill up at all the stations in the northern
suburbs - among the less desirable of Paris suburban areas.
So wait for a fast train (one out of two for much of the
day); you may wait ten minutes longer, but you'll reach Gare du Nord
only about 2 minutes behind the slower train. Fast trains are often
non-stop to Gare du Nord, others have one or two intermediate stops
only. Once into central Paris, fast trains stop at all stations. You
will probably need to change once in central paris; your ticket will
take you through to any central destination.
On your way in to Paris, note the futuristic "Stade de
France" (French national football stadium) on your right as you pass
St. Denis.
TIP - If you
arrive by
air in Paris for a day trip, buy the 1 day "Paris visite" visitor pass
for zones 1-5, which includes the airports. that way you also have
unlimited
hop-on hop-off public transport during your day in Paris
TIP - Changing
trains at "Chatelet"
metro hub. Chatelet is the biggest interconnection station on the Paris
metro system: three main RER routes cross here, notably B (for
the airports) and A (serving the Gare de Lyon and Disneyland). If you
are
changing from a southbound "B" train to a south/east bound "A" train,
(for
instance, coming from Charles de Gaulle airport and heading for Gare de
Lyon or Disneyland, a common combination), just cross the platform. The
same goes if you are taking these routes in the opposite direction (for
example coming from Gare de Lyon and heading for Charles de Gaulle
airport).
Nothing could be simpler!
For other changes, follow the indicator boards, having noted
which RER or metro routes you want.
TIP - Your ticket.
Always keep your ticket until your journey is finished,
even if it is just a single journey ticket. If you use the RER in the
central urban area of Paris (which you can do, of course), you will
need to put your ticket through the machine both to get onto the
platforms and again to get out of the RER area.
Click here for Paris tourist
attractions guide
: Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, and
much more
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In
an emergency in Paris:
24
hr chemist / pharmacies:
a) 84, av des Champs-Elysées 75008, tel
0145
62 02 41
b) 6, place Clichy 75009, tel
0148 74 65 18 .
English-speaking
pharmacies:
British Pharmacy
62, Avenue des Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris
0143
59 22 52
British-American pharmacy,
1 rue Auber, 75009
0142 65 88 29
English-language
crisis line;
SOS-Help
Daily 3 pm - 11pm
01 46 21 46 46
Ambulance:
Call/phone: 15
Hospitals:
Hertford British Hospital:
3, rue Barbès, 92300 Levallois-Perret
Tel 0146 39 22 22
American Hospital of Paris
63, Bd Victor Hugo
92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine
0146
41 25 25 |
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Guided
tours of Paris
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