Hi,
We are arriving with luggage on the train from London at 1:30 PM on Sept. 13, 2015. We would like to get rid of our luggage and see a bit of Paris before our 7:45 PM reservation to go up the Eiffel Tower. After the tower visit, we would need to obtain our luggage and get to the Sheraton in terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport. Suggestions on how to get from place to place economically and not have to drag our luggage around to the tower?
Many thanks!
Shirley
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Leave your luggage in the left luggage area at Gare du Nord, then go back to Gare du Nord from the Tour Eiffel, collect your luggage, and take the RER to Charles de Gaulle. The left luggage facilities are below ground in the corner of the station near the Eurostar platforms. The lockers only take coins and the change machines are not very reliable, so you may have to get some lunch at Gare du Nord beforehand to get some change.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
Shirley, here are two essential tools for getting around Paris:
http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/en/homepage
http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_21879/visiting-paris/
The airports website will help you navigate the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport.
The guide to the city's rapid transit - Metro subway, RER commuter trains, buses and streetcars -- can map out step-by-step your route from one place to another.
If you learn to use them for making your plans, they will continue to be very useful when you are in Paris itself.
As with everything else on the Internet, you will get better results with precise spelling. The big train station is Gare du Nord, often these days abbreviated to Paris Nord.
Posted by
Paris
10198 posts
Shirley -- Yes, the RERB for CDG airport and surrounds leaves from Gare du Nord. That's why keeping your luggage there is such a good idea. It's your arrival AND departure point.
Posted by
OP
Matthews, NC, USA
130 posts
Thank you so much to all of you for your help! I did notice after I posted that I spelled Gare wrong! Thanks
Posted by
Green Bay
21152 posts
The luggage lockers close at 11:15 pm. Correct me if I am wrong someone, but my experience with luggage lockers at French train stations is they must pass through an X-ray scanner first. Thus the X-ray staff is not there between 11:15 pm and 6:15 am the next day so access is locked between those hours. The last RER to CDG is at 15 past midnight, so you should be fine once you have your bags. Thus do not dawdle too long after your Tower visit. The Metro between Gare du Nord and the Eiffel Tower will require you to change trains at least once, so take a gander at the map.
Posted by
OP
Matthews, NC, USA
130 posts
Yes, I was just exploring the situation with the lockers closing between 11 and midnight. We'd love to hang around and take a double-decker bus trip to see Paris at night, but it wouldn't finish till 11:30 PM, not at the train station. This is problematic! Thinking about taking the time on arrival from London to take the RER directly to the Sheraton in the afternoon and then going into Paris and not have a luggage-mandated return time. Of course, the RER appears to stop travel early too... maybe a cab? Suspect that will be expensive though... what do you think?
Posted by
Green Bay
21152 posts
If you want to see Paris at night, take the 42 bus from the Eiffel Tower to Gare du Nord. That will give you a nice little tour of central Paris. They run every 20 minutes after 9 pm, slightly more frequent before then.
http://www.ratp.fr/informer/pdf/orienter/f_horaire.php?nompdf=42&loc=bus_paris
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10623 posts
Your time is so limited that it would be a pity to waste it going out to the airport and back into the city. You'll lose two hours. Why not take a hop-on-hop-off bus and/or a Seine River boat ride after leaving the luggage at Gare du Nord. It's not nighttime but it is still a tour of Paris.