2 major airports
Airport – Charles de Gaulle (Roissy)
Is located about 30 kilometers north-east of Paris.
It consists of 3 terminals
How to reach Paris or go to Charles de Gaulle
RER B and TGV stop Charles de Gaulle Airport
Bus: 350, 351, 19, N143 and N140. Roissybus
SuperShuttle is a shared shuttle service
Airport – Orly
Located 14 kilometers southeast of Paris
It consists of 2 terminals
How to reach Paris or go to Orly?
RER C and Shuttle Go C price 6 euros
Tram T7,
RER B from Antony take the Orlyval price 12 euros
Bus:
Orlybus price 9 euros one way
the 183 and 91 buses of the RATP
SuperShuttle is a shared shuttle service
Beauvais Airport
Located 90 km north of Paris, reachable in 1h15 with shuttles (round trip 29 euros).
The flights are from South and Eastern Europe
SuperShuttle is a shared shuttle service
Public transport
The city is extremely well served by public transport: the metro is the easiest and fastest way to get around the city. The bus and the tramway, you will enjoy the magnificent views that offer Paris and especially you will avoid multiple connections and their corridors. You can also choose to be picked up directly from the station or airport by taxis that crisscross the city, usually near the metro stations; or even rent a car. Other alternative means of transportation such as cycling have become extremely popular throughout the city, which has focused on the development of bike paths to encourage clean transport.
Metro and bus tickets are available at any station, counter / distributor – sold individually or in the log book. There are also “pass” formulas for the day or several days that will facilitate your trips to Paris and Ile de France.
The Metro
80% of foreign tourists who discover Paris use it. Serving 300 stations (16 lines) it is the fastest and most economical way to cross Paris. In Paris every 500 meters, you have access to a metro entrance. It is as well underground as it all depends on the line you take.
the 16 lines have a different color, a specific number and two opposite directions. To go in the right direction, take the direction of the last stop station (or terminus) of the subway in the sense that you want to travel. You will find maps of the metro at the entrance, on the platform and in the train. You can ask at the counter for free paper plans.
Some lines are overloaded in the morning between 7:30 and 9:30 and in the evening from 17h for example line 13, 9 and 14.
Do not put the ticket in contact with magnetic objects: it could be demagnetized and no longer operate at the doors.
Keep your metro ticket until the end of your journey: for some stations, the validated metro ticket is required to leave, and also for ticket checks (80 euros the fine)
Download the app from the RATP Playstore Appstore. Plan your route before you leave, because there are connection issues
You can not take the RER with a metro ticket.
All fares and route calculations are available on the RATP website www.ratp.fr
Stopping the sale of Métro tickets
From October 14, 2021, the sale of ticket books for the Paris metro will be gradually stopped. By March 2022, only individual tickets will be available at ticket offices.
The withdrawal of the sale of paper books of 10 tickets will take place in 3 stages:
- On October 14, 2021, it will no longer be possible to buy booklets from ticket vending machines in around 100 stations in the RATP network in Paris and the Ile-de-France region.
- In January 2022, the sale of tickets from vending machines will be discontinued in 176 other stations.
- Finally, in March 2022, paper ticket books will no longer be available either in vending machines or at ticket offices.
Instead, substitutes will be used, namely the Navigo Easy and Liberté+ cards.
The Navigo Liberté+ card is intended for people who do not need a long-distance ticket. The cost per trip is lower than that of a single paper ticket, at €1.49 (instead of €2). In addition, with Navigo Liberté+, you can use Parisian public transport (except for the RER network and suburban trains outside Paris) for an hour and a half for the price of a single trip.
You will need the data you enter on your classic Navigo card. You will not need to top up your card, as the amount corresponding to the number of journeys made will be debited from your bank account the following month.
The Navigo Easy card is intended for occasional users of public transport. It costs €2 and can be reloaded at a ticket machine, at a ticket counter or via a smartphone, for example. The cost of a subscription downloaded onto a Navigo Easy card is €14.90 instead of €16.90.
The single paper T+ ticket will remain on sale after March 2022, along with a ticket for travel in the capital’s suburbs. The stock of paper tickets can be used even after they are withdrawn from sale.
Video how to buy Metro tickets
The Paris train stations
Austerlitz station
The Austerlitz station is located on the Seine (left bank) in the 13th arrondissement.
The Austerlitz station was originally the head-end station of the Paris-Orléans network.
A first wharf was built at the current location of the station and put into service in 1840 on the occasion of the opening of the line Paris-Juvisy, extended until Orleans in 1843. A first enlargement took place in 1846.
The station was enlarged, even rebuilt, from 1862 to 1870.
In 1900, the company of Paris-Orleans (PO) extended its line towards the center of the capital and the station of Orsay became the new head of line.
The Austerlitz station remained for a long time the main head of the lines of links to the south-west of France, but the commissioning in 1990 of the TGV Atlantique, served by the Montparnasse station, considerably weakened its main line activity. Its traffic is only about 25 million passengers a year, half of that of the Montparnasse station. It is also an underground station of the RER C.
Gare de Bercy (Paris – Bercy – Burgundy – Pays d’Auvergne)
The Bercy station specializes in the “auto-trains” service, which takes care of passenger vehicles (cars, motorcycles, scooters …) and transports them to another train station. After a major renovation, in July 2002, it became the seventh major Parisian train station, hosting the eight daily night trains from or from Italy.
The French links are to Avallon via Laroche Migennes, Sens, and Auxerre. International connections are to Italy (night trains): Rome via Milan, Parma and Florence; Venice via Milan; Turin via Milan.
Given the saturation of the Gare de Lyon, this station also receives night trains from the south-east network, as well as regional trains (to Clermont-Fd and Nevers).
It is located in the district of Bercy (12th arrondissement). Access by metro by Line 6 or Line 14 station Bercy.
East Railway Station
The Gare de l’Est is located in Paris (10th arrondissement). It is close to the Gare du Nord.
Its facade closes the perspective of the north-south axis pierced by Baron Haussmann, and mainly constituted by the Boulevard de Strasbourg.
With around 34 million passengers a year, this is Paris’ fifth train station. Its activity, weakened since the creation of the RER E, increased with the commissioning of the TGV Est.
At the top of the West pediment, a statue of the sculptor Philippe-Joseph-Henri Lemaire represents the city of Strasbourg, while the eastern pediment is adorned with a statue of Verdun, a work of the sculptor Varenne. It is the largest station in Paris.
Lyon station
The Gare de Lyon is located in Paris (12th arrondissement).
It is at the same time a station of main lines ensuring the service of a big quarter South East of France, and a station of suburban lines realizing the service of the South East of the Parisian agglomeration.
The Gare de Lyon is also the head of the TGV South-East, Rhône-Alpes and Mediterranean. It is the third station of Paris by its traffic, about 100 million travelers a year. It offers travelers connections with two lines of RER (A and D) and two metro lines (1 and 14). This station stands out for its belfry, a 67-meter-high square tower with 4-sided clock faces measuring 6.5 m in diameter with hour and minute hands measuring 2.8 m and 4 m respectively.
North Station
The Gare du Nord is located in Paris (10th arrondissement). It is in correspondence with several urban transport lines (metro 2, 4 and 5 and RER B, D and E). With 260 million passengers a year, it is the SNCF station with the highest passenger traffic; and probably the third station in the world for passenger traffic. Eurostar train (Great Britain) Thalys (Belgium, Netherlands)
Montparnasse Station
Gare Montparnasse
station located in the southern part of Paris between the 14th and 15th arrondissements. Head of the TGV Atlantique line, it is the fourth station of Paris by its traffic, about 50 million travelers per year.
The peculiarity of this station is that it includes three “stations” opened to the travelers with a hall of not-lost and sales counters and intelligence:
The main station (Océane gate) accessible from Raoul Dautry square and Avenue du Maine, facing the Montparnasse tower, which gives access to the north of the main quays; connected directly to the metro. The Pasteur station, which gives access to the south of the main quays; accessible by a drop-off lane for cars and taxis. The Vaugirard station, located south of Pasteur Avenue, accessible by a treadmill on the extreme right of the docks, which serves only a few lines – especially to Granville.