We (2 people) have a tight connection to get from Terminal 2B at CDG to Gare du Lyon for a TGV train. Our plan was to take the RER B from CDG2 to Gare du Lyon, with only 1 stop changing trains at Chatelet-les-Halles. I thought this would be faster (and cheaper) than a taxi because there will be no taxi stand line and no traffic to worry about. But there is maintenance on RER B this summer, which I'm trying to understand. I think all the passengers are being put on the RoissyBus which will be much slower. Our travel date is Wednesday, Aug. 2. Has anyone taken this route to confirm the actual situation? Thanks for any help. I haven't been to France for over 10 years, so I've taken the metro before but not very experienced and don't speak French unfortunately.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2555 posts
I do not see any RER B closures affecting your travel on the morning of 2 August. As long as you have the recommended 4 hours between your scheduled CDG arrival and a train departure from Gare du Lyon, you should be fine.
Posted by
Florida (previously California)
3731 posts
Like Tocard, I don’t see any work planned for August 2 on the RER B line. Even if there was work planned, they would not route you to the RoissyBus, they would replace the RER B with a bus that would stop at Gare du Nord. Just use CityMapper on the day of your trip and follow the route suggested. There are plenty of ways to get to Gare de Lyon. Let’s say the RER B is not running and they bus you from CDG to Gare du Nord, then you would take RER D two stops to Gare de Lyon. I don’t know what you mean by a tight connection but if you have set 4 hours for the CDG to Gare de Lyon connection, you will be fine even with routing changes.
Posted by
OP
Florida
9 posts
Thank you both for your reply. I apologize I should have included where I found this information in my initial post. On this weblink: under the heading "Tuesday 20 June - Thursday 07 September", there is a large map at the bottom titled "Fermeture" showing the RoissyBus and all the stations closed. rerb-leblog.fr/travaux/
I do have the recommended 4 hours. Our flight land CDG at 9:55am, and our TGV departure is 14:18 from Gare du Lyon. But you just never know if there will be lines, etc.
Posted by
Oakland, CA
32 posts
I don't see anything about the RoissyBus. The RoissyBus est un service de la RATP that connects Place de l'opéra to CDG. It always runs.
Also when the RER says that they are closed fro 22h45 that means they are closed for the night. They will start running again the next morning at the regular scheduled time. It won't affect you. They may close everyday for a week with some exceptions.
Posted by
Florida (previously California)
3731 posts
The closures start at 10:45 PM. They do not affect you. Plus even if they did, you would be put on a bus to Gare du Nord not the RoissyBus. The last RER B usually runs leaves CDG at around 10:50 PM on weekdays. For that one train, there will be a bus instead. The bus will make all intermediate stops between CDG and Gare du Nord. This will have zero effect on your travel plans. If you do not read French, type the words the Blog you linked to into Google translate and you will see what I mean. Furthermore, they just would not shut down the RER B in the middle of a weekday for planned public works. That would make no sense. Planned public works happen at night and on weekends, etc.
Posted by
Somewhere
66 posts
If you tap 'Camera' option in Google Translate app; you can just aim your phone camera at foreign words (you set to) and it will give you instant translation into another language of your choice. It also has a 'Conversation' option which instantly pronounces the translation in another language. The 'Transcribe' option does not seems to work very well.
Posted by
OP
Florida
9 posts
Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge. I'm relieved that this occurs from 10:45pm, and will not affect me. And yes Google translate is extremely helpful since I don't read French, love the camera feature.