Two questions about Gare du Nord
1) Traveling from the First Arrondissement to Gare du Nord on a Fri afternoon in August, 3 people + luggage. Which would be the quickest/least hassle: Metro, Uber, Taxi?
2) Taking the Chunnel to England: How far ahead of the departure time should we arrive at the station?
1). Taxi or Uber definitely
2). Took the Eurostar (aka Chunnel) last May and we got there about an hour ahead and was glad we did because the line to get through security was long. So give it at least an hour for sure.
Q1) With that many people, plus luggage, probably a taxi. Me, on my own, I'm mean and would take the métro.
Q2) You MUST arrive at least 30 minutes before departure. If you don't go through the ticket barriers at least 30 minutes in advance, they may refuse to let you through. This is because after the ticket barriers you have to go through passport control (twice, exit France and enter UK), and have your bag x-rayed, before you are allowed to join the train.
The entrance is slightly confusing, you have to go upstairs to find the Eurostar ticket turnstiles. It is signposted, just not where you are expecting it to be.
P.S. You don't take the "Chunnel", you take a Eurostar train from Paris to London. The Chunnel is an out-of-date abbreviation for the Channel Tunnel. And a Tunnel can't move!
Thanks Claudette and Chris,
Chris-thanks for correcting my lingo! Claudette- just to clarify, you think that a taxi would be faster given the hellish Paris traffic?
N.ham
I would take the metro unless you cannot gracefully manage your luggage on stairs and are not pickpocket savvy. Traffic in central Paris can be nightmarishly slow; we have experienced sitting stuck in traffic when changing stations.
Be at the check in for the Eurostar at least an hour ahead; you have to do Schengen exit and UK immigration and security and the lines can be very long. Be sure you fill out the immigration card before entering the line or you will be sent back to the start to do it. Personally I would aim for no later than 75 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure.
Thanks Janet
Nancy, I really do not want to lug my suitcase and duffle bag thru the metro turnstiles , stairs, etc. I did it once and never will again. If you can take 1 metro to Gare du Nord from your location then maybe but if you have to change trains? No way for me! Give yourself plenty of time to get to there, like maybe an hour? Also an Uber is better so you don't have to walk to the taxi stand. There's lots of places to souvenir shop there if you're early. We bought baguette sandwiches and ate them on the train so we weren't starving when we got to London.
Thanks for that clarification, Claudette.
You can get an estimate of the fare and the time it takes to get to Gare du Nord by using this website:
www.taxifarefinder.com
Uber will only let you off at the station if you have used their app.
It's a five to ten minute ride to Gate du Nord from the 1st. Take a taxi.
"Uber will only let you off at the station if you have used their app."
Question: is there another way to use Uber besides through their app?
Nope. You have to pay in advance.
We just took the Eurostar from London to Paris and were there 2.5 hours before. People who showed up one hour before were turned away. I would plan on 2 hours for sure. There is a lot of security. We took the subway from Gare du Nord to our appartement and it worked really well
Sharon. Thanks so much!
At St Pancras they don't let you in until 1 hour before departure. If you try to put your ticket in before then the turnstile refuses to open and it says "seek assistance". I am not sure how hard they enforce the minimum 30 minutes, I have never been that close in recent years!
Assuming they have the same 1 hour max time at Gare du Nord, then there is not much point in being there earlier, all you can do is sit and wait for the turnstile to open.
I question Sharon's statement "People who showed up one hour before were turned away.", I think you mean "People who showed up more than one hour before were turned away"
At Gare du Nord the sequence is: (1) Ticket turnstile, (2) French/Schengen exit control, (3) UK entrance control, (4) bag X-ray.
They have limited space at Gare du Nord, every time I go there are long queues for (2) and (3), with people in the wrong queue (EU/non-EU) because they can't see the signs from the back. A scrum.
There is also a lack of seating. They don't let you board the train until ~15 minutes before departure and there is not enough seats in the waiting area for a full train load of 902 people.
