Train from Chamonix Mont Blanc to Paris Gare de Lyon

You are reading it accurately. Taking the train from Chamonix involves making
multiple changes due to change in gauge of the track, which does complicate
things a bit, especially if you have lots of luggage.

Another option is to take a bus to either Geneva Airport or Geneva downtown
bus station and then catch the train to Paris from there. The bus is nonstop and
not expensive, so a option to consider. If you take a bus to airport, you will need
to change trains in Geneva train station, but access from bus to airport train station
is easy. If you take a bus to downtown, it is a 3-4 block walk from bus station to
train station.

The advantage of the route from trainline is that the change in smaller stations is
not likely to be very complicated; either across the platform or one over at the worst,

Flixbus, Alpybus, and BlaBlaBus all run from Chamonix to either airport or downtown
Geneva. There is a nonstop train Geneva-Paris every 2 hours.

Go from Chamonix to the Geneva airport/train station and then take the train to Paris. We used some sort of shuttle van service back in 2018.

We’ve not had problems booking trains on SNCF. No extra fees. There may be some, or an up charge, on Trainline.

Judy,

I'd also suggest taking one of the Shuttle services from Chamonix to Geneva, and then connecting with a TGV, as that will be faster than using the train out of Chamonix.

There's a direct departure from Geneva main station at 10:29, arriving Gare de Lyon at 13:42 (time 3H:13M). Many of the other departures have one change.

Bon Vogage!

I would not take a shuttle service to Geneva and the train from there. This will not be faster, and will quite probably be more expensive. Just book Chamonix - Paris with SNCF.

The later departure is all rail with 2 changes if you don't mind arriving at Gare de Lyon at 8 pm.

Ken,
Do you mean Geneva itself and not the Geneva airport?

As noted, a shuttle service to Geneva is likely to be much more expensive, if you book it
as a private shuttle. If you book it as a shared shuttle, they will try to fill it to capacity, and
you will pay quite a bit less. Probably $40-$50 a person. Or, as I noted, you take the bus,
it will cost you around $20 per person if you buy the ticket now.

If you want to take a shuttle, use findtransfers.com as a way to get quotes from multiple
companies in the Savoie region, who would be a PITA to otherwise contact individually.

The Chamonix-Paris "all-SNCF" route is ~$130-$150 depending on the specific departure.
The Geneva-Paris nonstop train is around ~$70-$75, plus the $20 bus fare. This is the
cheapest option, along with not being an overly strenuous connection setup.

Geneva Airport and Geneva Cornavin are 6 miles apart and a 7 minute train ride between
the two. There are much fewer tracks in the airport station and so much easier to find your
train, but as noted, you will need to change trains at Cornavin for Paris. If you take the bus
to downtown Geneva, you have a moderate walk to the train station. A shuttle can drop
you off right at Cornavin. So I guess it depends on how good you are with walking and
navigating in the city using the bus vs the easier but more $ shuttle or all-SNCF options.

It looks like all the trains go to Gare de Lyon, and you'll have to eventually make your way
to CDG from there.

Shoeflyer,
I have booked a transfer with Mountaindropoffs to the Geneva airport on the morning of 9/29 just before 9am. It’s a shared ride. Are you saying the TGV train to Paris has to go from the Cornavin station in Geneva itself? Do I need to buy the ticket in advance? Also, the end point in Paris is Gare de Lyon station, correct?

JudyB -

Yes, the trains from Geneva Airport to Paris all have a change of trains in downtown
Geneva Cornavin. The connection time is 17 minutes, and what you will want to do
is make sure you have the # for your train to Paris handy so you can check the monitors
and find out what track it departs from. Or, ask someone. You should have plenty of time.

If you use thetrainline.com, note the qualifier on the right side of the page that says
"This train departs from Genève, which is 2.27 miles away from Genève Aéroport.
We show you this to give you more choice". I'm not sure why they do that, it has
probably caused some people to miss their trains.

sncf-connect.com shows the departures from GVA as 10:05 and 12:05, arriving Gare
De Lyon at 1:42 and 3:42, respectively.

Would I buy the ticket ahead of time? Probably yes, the price will only go up as the
date approaches. You can already see that the 10:05 departure out of the airport is
98.60 euros, and the 12:05 departure is 73.60 euros. It's not quite clear if the shuttle
time you note is leaving Cham or arriving GVA. If you leave Cham 9:00am and arrive
GVA 10:30-11:00, that should be just fine to get your bearings, pick up a snack for the
train at the Migros store in the train station, and head to Paris. If you arrive GVA at
9am, you'll be on the more expensive train, which may suit your schedule better,
but it is more $.

I have to add a warning here.

Do not, I repeat, do not buy a ticket Geneve Aeroport to Paris on www.sncf-connect.com.
This connection includes a Swiss domestic train, and SNCF for some reason cannot produce digital tickets for those trains. So you will end up with a ticket that you need to pick up at an SNCF station. You would have to go to the Chamonix station and see if they could print it out for you.

In stead book just Geneve Cornavin to Paris. Buy the ticket Airport - Cornavin at the airport.

In the end you will arrive in Paris on exactly the same train that you would have arrived on if you had chosen the 8:55 SNCF departure in Chamonix though. So this combination of shuttle to Geneva plus train is not saving you time.

Shoeflyer and WengenK, thanks so much for your detailed responses. This is just the information I’m looking for. Especially WengenK warning me about buying train tickets which would then require me to go to the Chamonix train station. This is the just the mistake I likely would have made!

To add a note to what WengenK said, the ultimate arrival time is of course based on
the train from Geneva to Paris. So the way you get to Paris is what we're talking about
here.

The TGV train/bus combo has a couple of changes. The bus to Geneva/train from Geneva
has one change, as does the shuttle option. The shuttle is a pickup from your hotel and
the other two require getting to the Cham bus or train station. The all-TGV and shuttle/TGV
are more expensive (Flixbus from Cham to Geneva is $22).

So it depends on how comfortable you are lugging bags and how much $ you want to spend.
Trains can be a bit dicey getting bags on and off. Buses are generally easy. The driver would
help on a shuttle.