France Guide for Tourist

France Guide for Tourist

INTERCITY TRANSPORTATION

Flights: Aeroport Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG; 01 48 62 22 80; www.parisair-ports.com), 23km northeast of Paris, services most transatlantic flights. For flight info, call the 24hr. English-speaking information center. Aeroport d’Orly (0RY; English recording01 49 75 15 15), 18km south of Paris, is used by charters and many continental flights. The cheapest and fastest ways to get into the city are by RER or bus.

Trains: There are 6 train stations in Paris. Each part of the Metro system services a different geographic region.

Gare d’Austerlitz: To the Loire Valley, southwestern France (Bordeaux, Pyrenees), Spain, and Portugal. TGV to southwestern France leaves from Gare Montparnasse. To Barcelona (9hr. 1 per day, 97) and Madrid (12-13hr. 4 per day, 102).

Gare de I’Est: To eastern France (Champagne, Alsace, Lorraine, Strasbourg), Luxembourg, parts of Switzerland (Basel, Lucerne, Zurich), southern Germany (Frankfurt, Munich), Austria, Hungary, and Prague. To: Luxembourg (4hr. 10 per day, 50); Munich (9hr. 14 per day, 130); Prague (16hr. daily, 180); Strasbourg (4hr. 13 per day, 39); Vienna (13hr. 5 per day, 180); Zurich (6-7hr. 10 per day, 110).

Gare de Lyon: To southern France (Lyon, Provence, Riviera), parts of Switzerland (Bern, Geneva, Lausanne), Italy, and Greece. To: Florence (13hr. 4 per day, 145); Geneva (4hr. 7 per day, 69); Lyon (2hr. 23 per day, 35); Marseilles (4-5hr. 18 per day, 84); Nice (6hr. 8 per day, 60); Rome (15hr. 4-5 per day, 160).

Gare du Nord: Trains to northern France, Belgium, Britain, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, and northern Germany (Cologne, Hamburg). To: Amsterdam (4-5hr. 6 per day, 87); Brussels (lVihr. 28 per day, 66); Cologne (4hr. 7 per day, 78); London (by the Eurostar Chunnel; 3hr. 12-28 per day, up to 299).

Gare Montparnasse: To Brittany and southwestern France on the TGV. To Rennes (2hr. 30 per day, 46).

Gare St-Lazare: To Normandy. To Caen (2hr. 9 per day, 27) and Rouen (l-2hr. 13 per day, 18).

Buses: Gare Routiere Internationale du Paris-Gallieni, 28 av. du General de Gaulle, just outside Paris in Bagnolet. M: Gallieni. Eurolines (01 43 54 11 99; www.eurolines.fr) sells tickets to most destinations in France and neighboring countries.