Paris : transportation
How to get to Paris from outside France
By air
There are flights between London and about any country around the globe, usually at better price than to/from any other European destination, apart from Paris which is on a pair. London has 5 airports:
Charles de Gaulle Airport (Roissy) is Europe's busiest airport by traffic movement and 2nd busiest by international passenger traffic, with over 50 million passengers per year. It deals with most of the long-distance flights. The airport has a train station connecting it to central Paris by RER (express metro), to Lille by TGV, and to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne by Thalys
Orly Airport is France's second largest airport after the above, and Europe's 10th busiest airport. It is connected to the RER network serving central Paris as well as the suburbs. It deals mostly with domestic flights inside Europe.
Discount Airlines from/to Europe
There are several discount airlines offering cheap flights from major European cities to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Easyjet has flights to 20 European destinations from Charles de Gaulle or Orly Airport. Countries included are England, Northern Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece.
Ryanair has flights to 10 European destinations from Beauvais Airport. Ryan Air is offer unbeatble prices, even offering free flights to their home base of Shannon in Ireland. Tickets of routes from Beauvais start from 13 €. The inconvenient is that flights can be cancelled if the minimum quota of passengers is not reached.
By rail
If you are coming from London, the easiest way to get to Paris is the Eurostar bullet-train. The journey takes about 2h45min between London Waterloo station and Paris North Station. Coming from or Brussels, the Thalys only takes 1h15min to reach Paris.
By bus
National Express and Eurolines both have coaches to hundreds of European cities.
How to get to Paris from inside France
By bus
Eurolines has coaches (buses) througout France.
By train
Paris is the main hub for travelling around Northern France and has good connections to Belgium as well. There are 7 major terminal train stations in Paris, each of which serving a different region :
Gare d'Austerlitz => has trains to/from Central France, Toulouse, the Pyrenees and Barcelona.
Gare de Bercy => has trains to/from Burgundy and Italy.
Gare de l'Est => has trains to/from Eastern France, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland (Basel, Zurich).
Gare de Lyon => has trains to/from the Languedoc-Roussillon, the South-East of France, Switzerland (Geneva) and Italy.
Gare Montparnasse => has trains to/from Granville (Normandy), the South-West of France and Spain (Madrid).
Garde du Nord => has trains to/from Lille, London, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdan, Liege, and Cologne.
Gare Saint Lazarre has trains to/from Cherbourg (Normandy), as well as the western and south-western suburbs of Paris.
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How to get around Paris
Paris Metro & RER
One of the easiest way to travel inside Paris is using the Metro of Paris, and the faster RER ("express regional network"). The Metro was inaugurated in 1900, making it the second oldest on the continent. It is also Europe's most extensive (297 stations on 221.6 km) and busiest metro network, with over 4.5 million passengers per day (50% more than London). Click here for a map of the Metro network.
Bus & other public transports
An alternative to the Metro is the bus, and in some areas the tramway, all managed by the RATP, like the metro.
Bicycle
Since July 2007, the government of Paris has installed hundreds of bicycle stations around the city, providing thousands of bicycles with automated rental 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The system is easy; buy a daily, weekly or yearly subscription card with your credit card, then rent a bike and return it to any Velib station whenever you want. Stations are distant of about 300 meters from each others.
A one-day card cost 1 &euro, while a yearly card is 29 €. The first 30 minutes are free, 1 € for the second half-hour, 2 € for the third half-hour, and 4 € for any additional half-hour. More information on the website of Velib.
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