CDG Airport to Paris

Follow the signs to the trains. Take the RER to Chatelet-Les-Halles, then transfer to the Line 1 metro in the direction of Chateau de Vincennes. Get off at St. Paul - there is an up-escalator, convenient with luggage.

If you're packing light, do as Chani suggests and take the RER and metro. If you give us the name and/or address of your hotel, we can tell you which metro station is closest.

Hi Linda! Be sure to purchase RS France or Paris Guidebooks which give many options for getting to Paris from the airports. Is this from Charles DeGualle (the main airport)? On your hotel's website, it will tell you the nearest Metro stop, RER regional train stop, and other important transportation info. And often, in the Locatation or Map page, the exact information you need to reach your hotel from the airport. With a map or Arrondissement Map Book purchased here, this exercise is a good opportunity to learn to navigate in Paris, the Airport, and your hotel neighborhood. Bon Voyage!
Bobbie

Linda. So sorry, of course, you said CDG. Bobbie

After an eleven hour flight, we feel it's worth the extra expense to relax a bit and take a cab into Paris, especially if one has luggage. Ours cost about $60 last summer. If you are in a group of two or three, the price difference isn't that great. If you do choose to use a cab, be sure you have the hotel's address printed on a card to show the cabbie--none of ours have ever spoken any English except maybe "hello." Also, be sure you get the cab at the taxi rank and that it says Taxi Parisien - you don't want an unlicensed cab. (If your budget is tight you can always save money some other way, such as picnicking in the parks.)

Since most Americans do not travel light I would suggest hiring a private van or take a taxi. The Chatelet metro is not the easiest to use as this is one large metro station and according to my son who lives in Paris one of the most dangerous for tourists. While staying in Paris I try to avoid changing trains at Chatelet. In oct my wife and I will be doing a 5 day layover in Paris staying at the 3rd district and plan on using a taxi from CDG. If I was traveling alone I would take the RER-metro combo as I can travel light.

Taken together, the Chatelet-Les Halles RER station and the Chatelet metro station can feel like a maze to first-time visitors. People unfamiliar with the system and carrying luggage would do well to avoid it. However, it's easy to get to the Marais by connecting to the metro at Gare du Nord and avoiding Chatelet altogether.

Of course which metro station is best for you depends on where exactly in the Marais you are going. It is best to transfer from the RER to the Metro where you can get the line you need. Chatelet is best if you need line 1. Transfering from one metro line to another with luggage is usually a bad idea - stairs, you know. At CDG I had to go down one flight of stairs at the train station to get to the train platform. At Chatelet, there were escalators to the metro from the RER, but none that I could find to street level (which is where I went to take a taxi to my hotel in the Marais). The next day I found out that the St. Paul metro (only a couple hundred meters from my hotel) had an escalator. If you can manage the stairs down to the train at CDG, you could take it to Gare du Nord, then take a taxi from there (at the taxi rank, as explained) to your hotel and save a lot of euros.