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Please Help With Travel From CDG to Rouen

Posted by (Cincinnati) on

My husband and I will be arriving at Terminal 1 on Tuesday, May 14 at 6:55 am. On past visits, we have always taken the RER into Paris, but we have always arrived at Terminal 2 where the RER station is located. I am trying to figure out whether we are better off taking a taxi or the RER into Paris.

We are immediately heading to Rouen by train and would like to take the 10:47 am train given that the next train takes twice as long and is twice as expensive. If we take a taxi, I assume we will hit rush hour on a Tuesday morning. However, is that preferable to the time it takes to get from Terminal 1 to the RER and taking that to Saint-Lazare?

I know people recommend leaving 4 hours between arrival and taking a train from Paris, and we would have just under that if we take the 10:47 train. Do you think that is enough time? Should we book a flexible ticket or a ticket where "exchangeable conditions apply"? What is the difference?

Thank you for your help!

Posted by
8558 posts

There is always a risk taking an onward train the day of arrival; sometimes planes are seriously late (we had one 5 hours late once) but with the time you have if it were me, and I could get a very cheap PREMs type train ticket 3 mos or more in advance, I'd take that train. You probably have time and if the unexpected occurs, it is not an expensive ticket and you can buy a walk up ticket. So it depends on how upsetting that would be to you.

You could take the RER to Gare du Nord and walk to the Magenta stop (attacked to the station but a long walk) and take the RER E to Hausmann St. Lazare which is attached to St. Lazare station and another longish walk within the station. This way you don't have to worry about traffic during rush hour. If you arrive on time or a little early and immigration is fairly quick, I'd take a taxi for 50 Euro; taxis have access to bus lanes and are easier on this route; sort of a toss up on whether this route by train or taxi would be faster, but you probably make it either way easily without unusual delays with the flight or passport control or luggage.

Posted by
98 posts

Thank you very much for your help Jane! Any idea how long it will take us to get from Terminal 1 at CDG to the RER if we decide to to that route?

Posted by
7810 posts

I will be going from CDG to Rouen this summer, also, and planning to take the RER/metro. Does anyone know if riding the RER to the Chatelet stop (instead of Gare du Nord) and transferring to metro line 14 to St. Lazare would be less walking overall? I remember some of those RER-to-metro or train stations were very long walks within the stations.

Posted by
7810 posts

Hmm, just looking at the Metro Line 14 info. This is a positive aspect: “Line 14 has escalator and elevator access from street level to platform at all stations, as it was built after disability access legislation came into force.”

This looks to be a lot less walking! There’s even a YouTube video of the connection: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nGddpudvUiM

I’m going to take this route! RER to Chatelet and connect to Metro line 14 for St. Lazare.

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