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Train to Paris


Coco
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We have some american guests staying in a couple of weeks.  They want to visit Paris on their way back from Normandy to Bonn but don't want to take the car into Paris.  Can anyone recommend a good place from which to catch a train into Paris for the day, along the A13,A28,A29 corridor, within say an hour to an hour and a half north/east of Caen, with parking.  Very specific I know, but that's what I've been asked for!
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Lison is the only stop between Cherbourg and Caen en route to Paris on the TGV. It is a one horse stop with one bar and damn all else, car will be safe as houses there. About 20 minutes drive from ST Lô. One cannot go direct from ST Lô to Paris; you have to go via Lison or Caen. Thus Lison is the best bet. I hrs drive from Caen.
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Thanks Battypuss, that's where we would go from to Paris but they want somewhere en route back to Germany and about an hour or more EAST of Caen, otherwise they've still got to drive all the way back to Germany from here - they would rather be a couple of hours closer to home at the end of their day in Paris.
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What about Eurodisney? May sound daft, but when we went, parking was free and very secure. Our kids went into the park, me and the wife went into Paris on the local RER overground train. Comes in at gare de L'Est.

Direct, or nearly direct connection to motorway, and the right side of Paris so that when they set off after a full day sightseeing, they don't have to negotiate Paris or the environs.

Alcazar 

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[quote]We have some american guests staying in a couple of weeks. They want to visit Paris on their way back from Normandy to Bonn but don't want to take the car into Paris. Can anyone recommend a good pla...[/quote]

If they are going to Bonn and want to miss out Paris, how about Amiens. That way they would avoid driving through/round Paris completely.

C

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We are near Rouen but were shocked at how expensive it was for a family of 4 to travel by train into Paris, as well as taking about 2 hours (it's quicker to drive).

Now we always recommend to our guests to drive to Cergy Le Haut, which is just off the motorway, has plenty of parking, and is at the end of the RER so they can get into the heart of Paris within about 30 minutes, and on a cheap metro day-pass.

Not sure how convenient it is to get to Cergy Le Haut from Caen, but you could check if there are any other RER terminii a bit further south, presumably they all have good parking...

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Just thought of something else - they could drive to Charles De Gaulle airport, which is well signposted, and I'm sure there must be a train or airport bus into Paris from there? And at the end of the day, they will be on the right side of Paris to continue their onward trip to Bonn (I think).
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We really would not recommend CDG!  Your guests will still be driving round the "spaghetti junction x 2 at least" two weeks after they hoped to be home. The airport roads are horrendous. The bus goes from the terminals and can take an hour and a half to get into the centre.  The RER train is alright as far as it goes, takes about half an hour and is full of East European mendicants and buskers asking for money.

We went in to Paris from Cergy Pontoise, a few years ago but no problem with parking. This is a terminus of the RER but we don't know whether by now it is like the RER from CDG.

Regards

 

hereford

 

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We had a similar problem four years ago when we were moving furniture from UK to France. We had free tickets for the Moulin Rouge and so we thought we could drop in on the way to our new house. I didn't want to drive the Ford Transit into Paris so decided to leave it on the outskirts and use the local trains.

The plan was to travel from Le Havre to Paris on the A13 but leave the autoroute at St.Germain-en-Laye. I found a public car park in the centre of the town, paid a very reasonable fee, and caught the nearby RER train (line A) into the city. We returned the next day and continued without any problem. There were many places St.Germain, slightly further (1/2 mile) from the station, where free parking was possible on the roadside.

Your visitors would find this solution very easy provided they are either willing to pay for parking or risk leaving their car on the road. I would do exactly the same again.

Regards, Alistair

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