Arriving at Gare Du Nord

Zero time as you will do Immigration in London before you board. You go thru a security scanner in London, then UK exit passport control and then France entry immigration. All very easy but give yourselves time at St Pancras.

At Gare du Nord you just walk to the forward end of the train with the masses that are getting off as well and pass thru the barrier and you are on your own. This can take 5-10 minutes depending on how far back your car is located.

IF you are taking a taxi to your Air BnB, be sure to go to the official taxi rank. You'll turn to the right when you get off the train. Do not go with anyone who asks you if you need a taxi as they may take you to the unofficial, unlicensed taxis. Go stand in line.

If your train is on time you would probably be generous by telling them you'd be there at 2.

What kind of travel pass are you getting?

Be aware if you are taking a taxi, you'll have to wait in the queue with a lot of other passengers who just disembarked. They can only pull up and load 3 or 4 taxis at once. It took us 45 minutes to get a taxi once we left the train.

We purchased this for transportation. Paris Visit (Pass Transport) 5 days (zone 1 to 3). We are only planning on visiting a few museums and didn't want to feel like we had to run from one attraction to the next to get our monies worth out of the Paris pass. We mostly are planning on enjoying exploring the city.

We are taking the metro to our airbnb. We will only have the 2 carry on bags for luggage so we should be alright.

If you have not bought it already, there are better priced ways to travel on the Metro than the Visite. What day of the week are you arriving?
Edit - Seems you arriving on a Saturday, so a Navigo Decoucerte would not work. Did you you consider just buying 10-packs of Metro tickets (a carnet)?

To be more specific, you are required to arrive at St. Pancras something like one hour before departure, to cover time for immigration formalities. Do Not Ignore This Rule.

I have had the experience of (successfully) buying tickets from a carnet (that is, improperly ripped apart carnet) from a tout in the massive scrum of the Gare Du Nort Metro station. There are long lines at very few vending machines, as new travelers try and fail to buy their Metro tickets. So touts circulate through the crowd, providing a necessary service. Of course you have to worry, are the tickets valid? Ours were.

“improperly ripped apart carnet”

A carnet is just 10 single tickets. They aren’t ripped apart from anything. If you buy them in the mêtro at the ticket window, or from a machine, you just get 10 single, unattached to anything, tickets.

We are taking the metro to our airbnb.

Good to hear. I wish we had. I suggest downloading the Paris Metro App. It was a big help navigating the Metro. We had no problems traveling around the city. The app gives you a route, including transfers to other lines, as well as estimated travel time.

Before you are allowed to board the Eurostar in London for Paris, you go through Border Control in St Pancras. That's why you should be there ca one hour prior to your dep time.

When you arrive at Gare du Nord, there is no check of any sort.

There are long lines at very few vending machines, as new travelers try and fail to buy their Metro tickets. So touts circulate through the crowd, providing a necessary service. Of course you have to worry, are the tickets valid? Ours were.

There are scores of tickets kiosks at Gare du Nord, many more than the few you saw near the Eurostar arrival platform.

NEVER purchase tickets from a source other than the kiosk or sales window. The scam is to sell you child tickets for the price of adult tickets. Child tickets will open the turnstiles but if you are stoppped by controlers, expect a 50€ fine on the spot.

You can reserve a car directly from the SNCF (Eurostar). The driver will meet you on the quai. The service is called Mon Chauffeur. No need to wait and the driver will take you directly to your destination address.

Susan, I’ve been buying Carnets since 1987. Carnet tickets are not intended to be separated and sold individually to unrelated travelers, by entrepreneurial touts. It may even be illegal. My point is that there is a non-zero risk in making the purchase I made in the jammed-solid Metro station at Gare du Nord. In NYC today, this corresponds roughly to “buying a swipe” on a metro-card.

I thought it was important to mention this possibility in a thread about arriving at Gare du Nord.

On the last two trips I did buy a carnet or two from machines at Gare Magenta, can't remember if the credit card was used. The machine spits them out as 10 individual tickets. They are in numerical order. This was at night, which is good when hardly anyone is around waiting to use machine. There are 4(?) of them there anyway. I don't use the Metro ticket machines at Nord, but walk over to Magenta to use those machines.

Does anyone know if this is still available? One of the trains I was riding into Paris sold the Carnet of metro tickets in the beverage car. It saved time avoiding the long lines at the kiosks at the station.

tim there is no such thing as improperly separated carnet tickets; a carnet is just 10 individual tickets. They may be used legally by 10 people once or one person 10 rides or anything in between. There is no illegal use possible except for adults using children's tickets which are half price. No one needs help with the machines. They are in English, are clear about what is being bought and will take a US credit card or cash. Some machines only take Euro coins and others coins or bills but they all take CC. Anyone trying to help is trying to steal your money or your credit card and their help is likely to result in obtaining the wrong tickets (kids tickets, the use of which will result in a 50 E fine if you are caught). We were ticket checked on the metro yesterday -- it does happen.