Gare de Lyon to Lyon

We stayed at the basic Ibis Hotel on the street Rue de Bonnel.
In normal health one can walk there from the train station and on a nice day walk from the hotel to all points of interest in Lyon. The area is not indecent.

I think you are looking for a hotel in Paris not one in Lyon. Apologies if I am incorrect. The area near Gare de Lyon is decent — not within walking distance of sights and some spots have that train station grit common near train stations worldwide. I’ve stayed there but would not just for the convenience of getting to the train one morning. That being said, and without knowing your budget, the Mercure and two Ibis properties are fine. I’ll look through my notes for a locally owned hotel that I went to on the back side of the station and post that if I find it.

The neighborhood around Gare de Lyon is fine, and the one line on the metro will whisk you to the center in minutes.

You can check out the Ibis or the Novotel there, or there is an M Hotel and I think a Holiday Inn — the latter two in tall towers with great views back towards the center.

I've stayed at the Ibis on avenue Ledru-Rollin and it was perfectly fine. Compared to other neighborhoods around train stations, the neighborhood is totally fine and IMO has a lot less of the undesirable stuff that sometimes clusters around train stations.

Though for a two-night stay, personally I'd prioritize staying in a "better" area (not "better" in terms of safety, "better" in terms of accessibility to sights and neighborhoods I like) over proximity to the railway station. Of course it is up to you!

Last summer we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Gare de Lyon which was great. You walk out the front of the station, and you are looking right at the hotel. Also, when leaving the hotel you walk about 1/2 a block and enter the Metro station without having to cross a street. We used Marriott points so we had 7 nights free...don't know if cost is an issue for you. We found the area safe and VERY convenient. Starbucks right next door. Also, we did the Candlelit Evenings at Vaux le Vicomte, and the shuttle bus taking you back to Paris at midnight drops you 1/2 a block from the hotel.

Unless you have a very early morning train, I'd prefer the hotel to be more central. But as said, compared to the neighborhoods around some of the other Paris train stations, the area around Gare de Lyon is OK - just farther from sights.

I also stayed at an Ibis for a couple nights before catching a train to Lyon. There are at least two Ibis in the immediate neighborhood. I went to the wrong one first. Both are a short walk to the station. The raised (old train track) garden Viaduc des Arts is right there. Jardin des Plants is right across the bridge so you're not too far from the center.

Andrew - good point.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I see the problem. Better to be central so I can see and do more, rather than focus on how close I am to leave Paris for Lyon.

I am seeing a price of 90 euros for a one way train to Lyon main train station. Seems expensive. The other option of 42 euros goes from Paris to Lyon airport, but then I'll have to take another train to the center. Any ideas for getting a better price? I don't want to fly.

What is your travel date? If it's soon, the cheaper tickets may be all sold out.

I am seeing a price of 90 euros for a one way train to Lyon main train station. Seems expensive.

Really? That's surprising. It seems very reasonable to me. I'm curious what your expectation is.

You could take the 5-hour train from Gare de Bercy. That's around 66€ and I think there are two per day. That ticket price will not increase but I think as others have noted, you may be too late for the lower priced TGV tickets. If you went to SNCF's website, that's it -- I know of no secret source of lower priced train tickets for French trains. Flying probably will not be cheaper anyway. If you do not want to fly and want to spend less than the train fare and do not want the added step of taking the shuttle from the airport to Lyon Part-Dieu, you might want to look into ride sharing. My college-age nephew has used Blablacar.com for rides within France. BlaBlaCar is a French online carpooling marketplace that connects drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost.

I don’t know where you’re getting your price for rail tickets but on the official Oui.SNCF website, I plugged in a travel date of March 20th and came up with tickets available starting at €45.
On one of my Rick Steves tours we stayed one Metro stop away from Gare de Lyon at the Hotel Castex near Bastille. It’s a great area with lots of restaurants and clubs. Metro Line 1 will take you to most of the sights you might want to visit in the short time you have.

Sorry, I should have me mentioned the date.

Arriving in Paris on the 23rd March, and spending two nights. Then leaving for Lyon on the 25th, which is a Wednesday.

I was looking, and maybe not properly, for times and prices.

I am seeing quite a few options for March 25 at 45€ — a few in the 60s or higher (one at 97€!!) on specific trains. I book on the Trainline app.

The Gare de Lyon area is perfectly fine for a short stay, but if you find something in the Marais (not too far from St Paul metro station), you'll be about 15 minutes away from the station by walk+metro. And it will be more enjoyable

I like using the Oui.SNCF website (here in English). I also like Trainline's interface, but they now charge (minor) booking fees for bookings made outside Europe, so I tend to avoid it these days, at least for French trains where I find the Oui.SNCF website easy to use. (You may end up having to use Trainline because sometimes Oui.SNCF is finicky with foreign credit cards, but it's worth a try.)

I agree that I'm seeing an number of €45 trains on March 25 -- not the first one that day (the 07:52-09:56) which is at €97, but the 09:56, 11:00, 11:52 and 12:59 departures are all currently at €45.

As a side note, as who lives in the US Northeast and is reasonably familiar with train travel in this part of the country, I will say (and this is my opinion only!) that I think French trains are generally excellent value.

As the crow flies, Paris to Lyon is about 400 km/250 mi. For an American comparison, New York to Washington is a bit shorter (about 325 km/200 mi). The cheapest tickets on that route are about the same price as Paris-Lyon, at $54 (about €41), but those are for the Northeast Regional trains that take almost 4 hours. The "fast" Acela trains take about 3 hours but start at $130+!

Compare Paris to Lyon, which comes in at about 2 hours, so a shorter trip for a longer distance -- if we in the US Northeast had a train that did New York to Washington in <2 hours for $50 I would be a very happy man!

Thank you both. I was not on the right website. Now I see the prices and time you all mentioned.

Glad I asked, because I would have had a long and frustrating journey to Lyon airport and have to backtrack.

I’ve never booked train travel. Someone else always had to help me with that. Now I know how to do it :-)

Merci beaucoup!

Ginger — for more info on trains in France check out the France page on the excellent all-train website The Man in Seat 61.. I am pretty sure he even gives some info about the set up of rail stations such as Gare de Lyon. It is a wonderful resource.

Ginger, I found this remodeled/renamed hotel while looking for ourselves for a two-night transitional stay before moving on: https://www.hotel-locomo-paris-gare-de-lyon.com/. You have to carry your suitcase up a half flight to get to the elevator.

Otherwise, the Ibis rue Ledru Rollin is nice because it has a large green space behind it, making rear-facing rooms clear and quieter.

Thanks everyone. Good resource Kim. Thanks Bets. I did look at that first hotel you mentioned. Since it's an almost 3 months stay, I am definitely using more than a backpack!