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Gare Montparnasse to Gare Saint-Lazare

My husband and I will be transferring between the two stations on a Monday late September. Using bonjour raptand the man in seat 61, I believe I’ve found that Metro Line 13 passes through Gare Montparnasse on the minus one level. I found the entrance for the Metro on a station map. Here’s the quandary.

Does it actually do this? Asking because I’ve found other info that conflicts. I would find it more difficult to believe that we would have to leave the station and walk to another stop rather than being able to do the transfer within the station, much as a like transfer we did from Eurostar to whichever station we departed from for southern France (Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon?).

I can’t purchase our tickets yet, but want to be able to give us enough time for the transfer plus some fudge time to make it comfortable.

Posted by
731 posts

Thank you. Getting to Montparnasse Bienvenue was one of the alternate stations. The other is Gaithe. Do you know if it is accessible using the underground process? It is supposedly only a 7 minute walk as opposed to 13 for Bienvenue.

Posted by
3996 posts

Gaîté is not connected to Gare Montparnasse. You will have to walk outside (above ground). I know someone who gets off the train there instead of Montparnasse Bienvenue to go to Gare Montparnasse so it's been done.

Posted by
731 posts

Thank you. We will look for the Bienvenue unless we get information that something else is easier. Much appreciated.

Posted by
2710 posts

There are two métro stations at Montparnasse: Gare Montparnasse (which is below the station) and Montparnasse Bienvenüe (just to the north below blvd du Montparnasse). Métro lines 6 and 13 use Gare Montparnasse. Montparnasse Bienvenüe is served by lines 4 and 12. The two stations are connected by a long underground tunnel.

Both métro lines 12 and 13 go to Gare St Lazare. If you arrive at the train station, taking métro 13 will be much easier and avoids the long underground walk to Montparnasse Bienvenüe and métro 12.

Posted by
731 posts

@Tocard-much appreciated. This transfer is becoming much more understandable.

Posted by
7307 posts

There is really no reason to use Gaité: the Montparnasse métro station is very clearly signposted from the train concourse, and line 13 isn't that far of a walk. There are different pathways/escalators which all lead to the metro entrance. You do not physically go outdoors.

The metro entrance can be a bit of a scrum, especially if you need to buy tickets: if your train to Paris is a TGV Inoui, they normally sell metro tickets at the bar on the train and it is extremely helpful.

Posted by
731 posts

Thank you Balso. We will make note of buying tickets for the transfer on the train. Coming from Bordeaux so I believe it will be a Inoui.

As a side note: seat61, not the man in seat 61, although it is a guy!

Posted by
2 posts

Can someone please tell me how long it will take us to follow these directions and transfer from Gare de Monteparnasse to St. Lazare station to head north to Lisieux? We have exactly one hour between trains to make this transfer.

Posted by
21195 posts

@ ak7shea: Start a new thread rather than tagging on to this rather old thread.

Posted by
2 posts

Another question about the train from Vannes to Gare de Montparnasse: our reservation is for 12:28 pm leaving Vannes, arriving 3:06 at Montparnasse. My Outlook calendar filled in Leave Vannes at 6:28am and arrive Montparnasse at 9:06am....you can imagine my panic when I thought I had mistakenly made a reservation for 6:28 AM! I figured out it did the time change to EST(my local time zone) But now the same program Outlook shows "Departure: Vannes, platform , 10:28am (local time)
Arrival: Paris Montparnasse, platform , 1:06pm (local time)" Is Vannes 2 hours behind Paris time zone? Do I show up in Vannes at 10am for that train or 12:00pm Vannes time for that 12:28 train? sorry it's very confusing to me.