We have a railpass and seat reservations for the tgv from Paris to Nice. I have not validated the pass yet. We bought it while still at home. How early should we be at Gare de Lyon to make sure we get on the train departing at 9:42 a.m.? Also, how long does taxi ride take from Rue Cler area to Gare de Lyon? Thank you for any advice you can give.
Posted by
Adelaide, SA, Australia
977 posts
We gave ourselves at least 45 mins. You won't find out 20 minutes before your train departs which platform it is leaving from. Join the hundreds of other travellers craning their necks looking up at the train information board for your platform number to 'click over'!! You validate your pass at the entrance to the platforms.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
As stated, there's no check-in requirement for domestic trains in Paris, so there's no deadline before the train leaves. But I would give twenty minutes to find the platform and walk down the train (as TGV's are quite long), and more time to allow for delays on the way.
Posted by
Lewiston, Idaho, USA
2091 posts
You'll also need to give yourself time to wait in line to have your pass validated at a window. You'll need to show your passport. You can also validate the day before if you're near any one of the train stations. Since there could be a lot of traffic at that time of day, you might consider taking the metro: If you get on at Ecole Militaire, direction Créteil, change at Concorde. Take Chateau de Vincennes and get off at Gare de Lyon. I realize I'm overly-cautious but I would get there at 09:00...
only because I prefer to wait! If you're staying at a hotel, the staff could advise you on what time you should take a taxi or the metro.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32788 posts
If your pass is not validated before you arrive at Gare de Lyon you need to allow several minutes to get through the somewhat slow moving line to a window to validate it. As said above, you are really better off doing that before you are trying to get to a train, the day before, say. You can't validate the pass at the Composteur (yellow ticket stamper). Note that the station has a blue area and a yellow area, some distance apart. You need to be ready to move towards the train several minutes before departure as you may have a bit of a hike. I'm not sure I would risk the traffic in a taxi at the end of the morning rush hour (unless its the weekend?).
Posted by
OP
Nevada
39 posts
Thank you for your responses. We are taking a taxi from our hotel at 8:00, our hotel guy said in rush hour it will take 30 minutes, so I figure that gives us plenty of time. We don't want to use the Metro due to stairs, transfers and heavy bags. My 15 year old daughter does not want to do this.