French Train Travel Advice

Check the possible itineraries on Ile de France Mobilité.

https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en

Look for “Magny-les-Hameaux” and not “Manny-les-Hameaux” which does not exist.

Long distance SNCF train tickets do not include RER ticket

Thanks. I fixed the auto-corrected spelling of the wedding site. I have it right in my other notes.

There is a train direct to Strasbourg at 9:01 am, but that is iffy if you could make that one. It all depends on how quickly you can deboard and how long it takes to get through immigration. If you cannot make that one, the next one is at 12:26 pm, so you will have to decide if you want to go to the trouble to go into Paris Gare de l'Est to try and catch an earlier train, or just hang out at the airport.

No way you can make a 9 am train. Immigration can easily take 2 hours from landing to curb -- closer to an hour is more usual -- but immigration and then getting to the train by 9 -- close to impossible.

The rule of thumb is 3 hours for a train from CDG and 4 for a train in the city. This gives a little cushion for late planes. There is always a little risk of onward travel on the day of a long haul flight. For example, spring a year ago our plane was 2 hours late from Chicago into Paris. We were glad our onward trip to Montpellier ws booked for the next morning. I'd just book the 12 train and plan to read a good book.

In April we arrived at CDG on Delta @ 8:00AM. We made the 11:09 direct train CDG to Strasbourg easily. I don't know if this is possible in August but I would give it a try. BTW we arrived about 15 minutes early. Brad

There is no 11:09 train on Sundays in August as far as I can see. That 12:26 is your best bet.
If you're feeling lucky, you could attempt the 10:52 at Gare de l'Est but that's a bit tight, I would want an extra 30 min to be sure to make it, and the next train out of Gare de l'Est is even later than 12:26.

Hi Lisa, for your return trip, you will need to purchase a Strasbourg —Paris ticket from SNCF Connect (or Trainline if you prefer, either one is fine).

To get to the station at Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse, you should go from Gare de l’Est to the RER B (you can either walk from Gare de l’Est to the Gare du Nord to catch the RER B, or take Metro line 4 from Gare de l’Est one stop to Gare du Nord.). You will need to go to one of the Ile de France/ RER train ticket machines upon your arrival to buy a special RER ticket to your destination.

At Gare du Nord, you would take the RER B (suburban train) to Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse (luckily it’s the end of the line, so it’s easy to know which train to take, the correct ones will be labeled/advertised as going to St-Remy-les-Chevreuse). This will take around 50 minutes if the train is running on time. Notice !! Be sure to keep the ticket you bought at Gare de l’Est, as you will also need it to exit the station at St-Remy!

Another option would be to take the train from Strasbourg back to CDG airport (instead of Paris proper) and take the RER B directly from there. It would be a longer ride, but would keep you from having to switch from Gare de l’Est to Gare du Nord.

For a little help on how you buy the RER ticket at a machine, please see this video from Les Frenchies (they are focused more on local Paris tickets, but the same machines will sell you the ticket you want. Pay attention to what they show you about which machine to use. Keep in mind you can not use a Navigo Easy to buy the ticket you want to St-Remy-les-Chevreuse).

https://youtu.be/_aHzrKnutAU?si=xpPHgQKtsCAgkYBE

At 2:30 of the video, he shows how to understand which machines are the right ones for buying your tickets.

At 4:14 of the video, she shows you how to buy a single ticket within Paris. Pause the video at 4:20 - you can see that she chooses a t+ ticket, but you want to choose « Tickets Paris Region” - on the net screen, you will type in Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse . . . . Also try typing St-Remy, I don’t know which it is.

The machine will issue you a paper ticket like she gets (video at 4:52) and you put it in the turnstile like she shows. But please note !! On the RER, you must also put your ticket in the machine when you EXIT the system — so keep your ticket so you can get out of the station at St-Remy-les-Chevreuse!

Consider getting the SNCF app for your phone. We found it very useful to keep track of schedules, stations etc.

Thanks all! This is all very helpful information.

If you haven't already booked your tickets then consider fly/rail on one ticket which you can do on Delta's partner Air France. They say "We guarantee to transfer you to the next available train or flight in case of a missed connection due to the delay of the previous trip segment (train or plane)." See https://wwws.airfrance.fr/en/information/prepare/voyages-combines-avion-train

But if you already have the plane tix then if this was me I'd wait and buy the train tickets at Gare de l'Est. The way I look at flying these days is that it's likely to get you there on the scheduled day but can be anywhere from on-time to several hours late. It costs more to buy a train ticket day-of-travel but I'd look at that as just part of the cost of the trip. Since you're arriving early on a Sunday the roads won't be busy; I'd take a taxi to Gare de l'Est which is a flat rate (see https://paris-airport-cdg.com/transportation/paris-taxis/) Then either use the machine or the app on your phone to buy tickets for the next train.

I like to avoid taking long-distance trains the day I arrive in Europe. If this was my trip I'd arrive Saturday and spend the day in Paris. If the plane is delayed several hours no problem, I just need to make a train for which I purchased deep discount tickets for Sunday morning.

We landed at CDG a few weeks ago around 5:30am and had our bags by 6:15am. We changed our 8:30am train to a 7:00am on the SNCF app. That's always an option (will need to pay a fare difference perhaps). YMMV